Analysis of The Narrator’s Mental State in The Yellow Wallpaper

In Charlotte’s Gillman’s “The Yellow Wallpaper,” the readers follow the mental development of the unnamed narrator who deals with postpartum depression during the oppression of women in society in the late 19th century. Recently giving birth, the narrator’s husband and physician, John, quickly rushes to submit her into the treatment known as the “rest cure”. This treatment was complex and not entirely popular since postpartum depression at the time was part of mental illnesses that were not given proper diagnosis or attention towards. The narrator is secluded in a bedroom and prohibited from any form of physical activity that soon becomes detrimental to her health. She develops a strange infatuation with the room’s wallpaper as it becomes the only distraction she has and soon leads her into an obsession. The growing obsession of the wallpaper displays to the readers the growing effects of the illness and her mental state. There are elements throughout the development of her illness that Gillman uses to reflect the narrator’s true feelings of the oppression and treatment of women during the time. Throughout the short story, the narrator shifts from a seemingly sane woman to a woman whose mental health deteriorates into paranoia and is finally driven into insanity due to her postpartum depression.

The narrator’s ability to still reason with her husband while also having doubts about her illness displays that she remains sane and in control of her mind. At the beginning of the short story, the narrator is presented as a normal societal woman who lives a middle-class lifestyle. During those times, women in society were often seen only to fit the role of a perfect wife and mother whose job was to take care of the household as well as attend to her children and husbands’ needs. Her illness was a direct opposition to these norms and therefore her husband decided to move the family away from the town before the community would see them as peculiar. The narrator is seemingly questionable and does not take seriously the reality of her illness as she displayed signs of “temporary nervous depression--a slight hysterical tendency” (Gillman 209). Her nervousness and difficulty to care for her baby were the first symptoms of her illness that would only complicate itself with time. The narrator submissively follows her husband’s requests to not think about her conditions as it is the “very worst” she can do to her mind. Unknowingly the treatment they had placed her in of confinement was depleting her of simple pleasures, which was dangerous for her growing depression. Even as she listens to her husband and remains in the room, she feels lonely and decides to write in secret, furthering the readers’ knowledge into the progression of her illness. Her writings are an account of her feelings about the reality of her health which she thought the treatment was over exaggerated and even jokes at it because she feels fine but feels that they are treating her as a child. A few days go by as she is confined to the room upstairs with a peculiar sensation that she feels almost mysterious. She mentions to her husband how she misses being outdoors even within the house as she begs, “then let us go downstairs--there are so many pretty rooms there”. He refuses to listen to her and affirms that she is in fact getting better due to her treatment however, she does not feel the same as she has become weary of the room she is confined to.

The narrator begins to suffer more symptoms of postpartum depression as she falls into the paranoid delusion that the patterns on the wallpaper are moving and showing her unclear images in which she has been fully captivated. One of the effects of a complex case of postpartum depression is experiencing delusions which are false interpretations that an individual can believe is true and negatively affects their sense of reality. After a while of being confined into the room with the yellow wallpaper, the narrator continues to be extremely fascinated by the strange patterns and color. Her descriptions begin to switch as she furthers in her illness, firstly describing it to be confusing to the eye and yellow color that was repellent (Gillman 210). The wallpaper becomes her only distraction and therefore slowly obsessed over it, describing its flamboyant features as she watches it closely until she notices she feels a menacing sensation that the wallpaper gives her. Captivated by the wallpaper she mentions that it seems to know what it is to be a victim within the wallpaper. She continues to write and even sleeps before she watches the wallpaper being shaken by a figure inside of it. The woman who she sees and is supposedly trapped in the wallpaper is first described to be an unclear outline of a woman and is later described as a plain woman who is only seen by the narrator as she creeps around in the wallpaper behind bars (Gillman 214). The narrator’s delusional mindset is evidence of her dangerously increasing depression which is furthering her from differentiating what exists and what she has fictionalized in her paranoid mind.

Towards the end of the short story, the individuals who care for the narrator and the house are reluctant to admit the level of insanity that the illness has affected her. They realize that she truly has become unhinged and fixated on the wallpaper that they refuse to remove it in fear of how she could react. However, they do not realize that the narrator has become too advanced into her illness that she refuses to sleep only to keep watch of the creeping woman in the wallpaper. The inability to sleep is another growing symptom that will affect her mindset as she will begin to have less rational thoughts. Her insanity drives her to think the woman creeps around during the day and is fixated on letting the woman escape from her incarceration behind the wallpaper. The narrator is paranoid of the people around her and even hides her own thoughts from the diary that she has kept, displaying that she is no longer having rational thoughts or is in control of her mind. Believing that she can let the woman behind the wallpaper escape, she tears the wallpapers and begins to see other fast creeping women watching her. The narrator also believes that she was the woman trapped in the wallpaper as she writes “I wonder if they all come out of the wall-paper as I did?” (Gillman 220). When the narrator believes she finally has escaped out of the wallpaper she crawls around the room creeping in excitement not knowing her rational self is gone and her illness effects have taken control over her mind.

Charlotte Gillman’s short story provided an insight into the hidden emotions of a woman living in the late 19th century. The narrator’s postpartum depression allowed readers to follow along and see how the illness slowly affected her mindset and blinded her from reality. The readers first see her a glance at her relationship and feelings towards John as she follows his instructions but also has doubts in the back of her mind about the seriousness of her illness. The narrator’s rational thoughts are proof that she is not having dangerous symptoms of her illness and therefore still has control of her mindset and the reality she lives in. However, as she is secluded in the room her behaviors begin to change and her curiosity towards the yellow wallpaper only grows day by day. Her descriptions of the wallpaper change from a noticeable ugly pattern to a threatening yet captivating feeling with delusions that the patterns have movement within them. These delusions further the illness symptoms that her paranoia has begun to take control of her mind. With the symptoms increasing with time, her family notices her strange behavior but fail to become aware that the treatment they have placed her under has developed into a dangerous illness they have no knowledge of fixing. Her insanity can be reflected through a non-existent woman she sees trapped within the walls of her bedroom. Her insanity drives her to believe that the woman is actually herself and she helps her escape by tearing apart the wallpaper in a strange manner. Gillman provides this account of a woman suffering in a trapped situation where her illness takes control of her mind and reveals hidden feelings of the oppression of women during that time period.