The major theme in The Yellow Wallpaper is the deteriorating mind of a woman. The narrator, who is never named but referred to as “the woman”, descends into madness after spending time confined to her bedroom with nothing to do and too weak from not eating. The wallpaper she views, which she begins to see figures and movement in, serves as a representation of her thoughts as she slowly loses touch with reality.
The narrator’s husband, who is also never named, treats her as if she has no real illness and only gives her a tonic to make her sleep at night instead of allowing her to interact with others or exercise, contributing to the insane view of the world that his wife possesses. The woman’s sister-in-law, “Nelly”, plays a much more supportive role throughout The Yellow Wallpaper by encouraging the woman to eat and reminding her that the wallpaper is just a trick of light and shadow, which helps keep some hope alive for both Nelly and the reader that sanity will return before The Yellow Wallpaper reaches its conclusion.
In The Yellow Wallpaper, the major theme is the deteriorating mind of a woman. The narrator, who is never named but referred to as “the woman”, descends into madness after spending time confined to her bedroom with nothing to do and too weak from not eating. The wallpaper she views, which she begins to see figures and movement in, serves as a representation of her thoughts as she slowly loses touch with reality.
The narrator’s husband, who is also never named, treats her as if she has no real illness and only gives her a tonic to make her sleep at night instead of allowing her to interact with others or exercise, contributing to the insane view of the world that his wife possesses. The woman’s sister-in-law, “Nelly”, plays a much more supportive role throughout The Yellow Wallpaper by encouraging the woman to eat and reminding her that the wallpaper is just a trick of light and shadow, which helps keep some hope alive for both Nelly and the reader that sanity will return before The Yellow Wallpaper reaches its conclusion.
In The Yellow Wallpaper , Charlotte Perkins Gilman uses the description of the deteriorating mind of a woman as seen through her experience in bedridden isolation to open up discussion about what it means to be female. The narrator’s views are distorted because she has no real stimulus other than an old yellow wall paper with which to interact – this only activates her imagination until she begins hallucinating.
The protagonist’s paranoia stems from her lack of freedom, but her husband treats her illness as something that can be cured with rest and tonics, rather than allowing her to interact with others or exercise. The protagonist’s sister-in-law takes a more supportive role, encouraging the protagonist to eat and reminding her that the wallpaper is just a trick of light and shadow. The constant struggle between sanity and madness serves as an exploration of what it means to be female, especially during this time period when women were not expected to work outside the home.
The major theme in The Yellow Wallpaper is that of mental health and the liberation from oppression. The story depicts a woman’s descent into insanity and her struggle to escape. The story can be read as a feminist work: it exposes men’s lack of understanding for women. The protagonist is trapped in a traditional marriage, living under strict rules set by society; she is only allowed to be herself inside the four walls of her room (which becomes for her an oasis of freedom).
The reader may question whether or not this autonomy even exists, since the protagonist keeps on seeing something strange creeping up behind the wallpaper of her room, always out-of-reach. The inclusion of such motifs strengthen Gilman’s main argument: that oppressive forces surround everyone, and that women in particular need to be free in order to live (and not die) sane. The end is open, suggesting that the protagonist has indeed died or escaped; the conclusion of The Yellow Wallpaper remains ambiguous due to its unfinished nature.
The protagonist’s mental health is revealed through her literal voice, which the reader gets to hear throughout the story. The major theme underlying The Yellow Wallpaper is mental health—or, more specifically, how women are oppressed by social forces. The narrator begins by describing how she feels caged in by her husband’s house rules, including “never writing more than a page at once” and avoiding any topic that would allow for imagination (like books about adventures), with no privacy allowed either (“they might shut me up in a dark closet” 4).
The window is described as being barred, much like the protagonist’s mental state. The description of her clothing – “I didn’t dare walk or sit down or look around… I couldn’t open a book without having John softly steal up behind me to see what I was reading” (2) – further shows how confined she feels. The room itself becomes an oasis for the narrator, where she feels liberated from these social burdens and restrictions. The yellow wallpaper also represents this sense of containment.
It begins with mystery (“there’s something behind it”) but then develops into menace (“it seemed actually to be creeping down on me”). The protagonist comes to fear that there might be someone behind it: either a man or a woman, who’s going to hurt her. The narrator goes from feeling peaceful (“If I only dared throw the thing down”) to being terrified by it: “I began to get angry… The more I studied the more annoyed I grew” (3). The wallpaper is a metaphor for oppression and restriction.
The protagonist struggles against it, trying to tear it off but failing because of its resistance. She becomes overwhelmed by this oppressive power that constrains her – leading us to wonder if there even exists any actual freedom at all. There are other metaphors in The Yellow Wallpaper , such as the relationship between men and women. The protagonist feels oppressed not only by society but also by her husband, with his patriarchal rules about how she should behave (an example is the “rest cure”): “He said people would think I was crazy”.
The protagonist feels like her opinion doesn’t matter. The reader may ask if there even exists any space for individuality, or whether it’s always about what society thinks of you and whether you fulfill their expectations. The Yellow Wallpaper shows how women are oppressed by social forces, particularly patriarchal power structures. The story also explores mental health through the protagonist’s literal voice; it describes how she struggles against oppression not only from society but also from her husband with his restrictive rules about behavior.
