The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Gilman

The narrator's main focus in the story is the nursery wallpaper of a rental house. She believes the house is haunted from the start, but considering her hysterical tendencies the information is doubtful. Due to her mental illness, she spends her time doing little to nothing with the exception of writing secretly. She writes in small increments, often very repetitive. She begins by discussing her progress, or lack thereof then focuses on the wallpaper. The narrator's physician husband believes that in order to settle his wife's nervousness she must have fresh air, plenty of sleep, and little activity or interaction. No smarter move than confining a mentally ill person to a room with nothing to do but think. Ironically, she does not sleep much, instead, she spends hours awake looking at the old nursery wallpaper which John refused to remove. At the beginning of the story, she describes the wallpaper as an "artistic sin". She traced the paths of the patterns until she became irritated at the disorganization. As the story progresses she becomes fond of the wallpaper and begins to believe it is its own being. She envisions a woman in the pattern and becomes obsessive over finding the woman first. She ‘sees’ the woman inside and outside of the wallpaper. The narrator manipulates John and her caregiver Jennie to give her more time in the nursery alone. With little time to understand the wallpaper before someone else may find the lady in the wall first, she eventually rips it down. Most likely from confinement and the lack of sleep, it is easy to assume the woman has gone insane. To my understanding, the woman inside of the wall was a metaphor for the narrator's confinement. The maze of the patterned wallpaper resembles the disorganization of her own mind.  The narrator is trying to get to the woman behind the wall which she may subconsciously believe is her true, healthy self.

    I quickly took note of the way the narrator’s husband treated her and how that may have affected her health. He controls her by giving her medications and limiting her activity. The author mentions a prescription schedule for every hour of the day which seems a bit excessive. With nothing to do but stare at the wallpaper, why wouldn’t she go crazy?