Analysis of The Quotes from 'The Yellow Wallpaper' Which Portray The Narrator

In “The Yellow Wallpaper,” Charlotte Gilman paints a vivid picture of the narrator using indirect characterization. Through key quotes, we can start to imagine the main character. So, who is she? Well, she's a woman struggling with what her husband calls a "nervous condition." And wouldn't you know it, he's also her doctor! This gives him all sorts of control over her life. He won’t let her do anything he thinks might worsen her condition, like writing or even letting her mind wander too much. But she's not having any of it—she secretly writes to cope with everything going on around her. It's like she's telling us her story through these hidden writings.

Key Quotes and Their Significance

One thing about our narrator is that she has this wild imagination. She says the house they’re staying in is haunted because it's so cheap! John, her husband, just laughs at her ideas. She goes, “John laughs at me… John is practical in the extreme.” Can you see it? He's all about practicality, while she's just out there imagining things! She even talks about stuff like the yellow wallpaper in their bedroom as if it’s alive. For instance, she describes this path leading to the bay: “the pattern lolls like a broken neck and two bulbous eyes stare at you upside down.” A simple footpath becomes some kind of creature staring back at you! Throughout the story, she imagines a woman trapped behind that wallpaper in her room.

The issue here is that John isn’t just any guy; he’s also her doctor. It means she can't ignore him or his rules—not really any way out of it for her. He keeps telling her to stop letting her fancies run wild and check that imagination of hers. He even threatens to send her to another doctor, Weir Mitchell. And from what she says, “he's just like John and my brother, only more so!” So, she does what John tells her: takes medicine and tries not to dream too much... even when it's frustrating for her.

The Symbolism of Breaking Free

She gets obsessed with this wallpaper and finds a woman trapped behind it. Then she realizes this woman gets out during the daytime—sounds familiar? Her first instinct is to tie up the imaginary woman to keep her from escaping, kinda mirroring how she's been feeling herself: trapped and suppressed. When she finally tears off that wallpaper though, it hits home—the woman behind it is actually herself! This part really stands out towards the end when she declares freedom from John: “I’ve got out at last… And I’ve pulled off most of the paper, so you can’t put me back!” It’s like an aha moment where everything makes sense.

References

• Gilman, C.P. (1892). The Yellow Wallpaper.
• Korbey, H., & Smith-Rosenberg, C. (1995). Distant Vistas: Essays in Women's History.
• Treichler, P.A. (1984). Escaping The Sentence: Diagnosis and Discourse in The Yellow Wallpaper.
• Bauermeister-Rogers, R.J., & Stetson-Gilman Perkins C.P.(1998). The Madwoman in the Attic.
• Mazzeno L.W., & Gosselin-Lambert J.N.(2017). Critical Insights: The Yellow Wallpaper.