The Yellow Wallpaper

             I thoroughly enjoyed reading the Yellow Wallpaper because of the illustrious descriptions that Charlotte Perkins Gilman uses to liven the wallpaper, and also the varied interpretations the reader can infer from the wallpaper, the room, the relationship between the narrator and her husband, and the overall themes of the text. I find it quite fascinating that by understanding the time period of which the text was written, and learning more about the author, the entire story reveals deeper layers of meaning and importance.         

I found myself very intrigued with the yellow wallpaper, its symbolic meanings and its morphing appearance. By and large, the wallpaper was symbolic to the state of the narrator, in her mind and also in her relationship with John. At first sight, Gilman uses discomforting words such as dull, irritate, provoke, sickly sulphur, repellant, and revolting, that all create an unsettling feeling within the reader, but more importantly mirror the narrator’s state of mind in her depression. The relationship between the narrator and John, as a colleague mentioned, “is borderline abusive” and dominated by his own desires. He neglects her needs and wishes, such as not wanting to sleep in the nursery upstairs, and imposes his own demands on her. He treats her like a child, as though she is impotent, and even though she expresses her state of illness, being a doctor he finds her foolish. She sees a women behind the wallpaper, herself, who is shaking the bars by night trying to escape the nasty encasement. It overall mirrors the entrapment that the narrator suffers from being in a dominated relationship.