The Yellow Wallpaper

2 Pages 623 Words

The Yellow Wall Paper

In the short story “The Yellow Wall Paper”, by Charlotte Perkins, Jane and her husband move into a rental house for the summer. The room in which Jane stays has ugly yellow colored wallpaper. During the story Jane goes from being “sick”, to really becoming insane. Her insanity is shown through the images she sees in the wallpaper and her behavior toward them.
At the beginning of the short story Jane is told that she is sick, and that she should not do any work or take part in any stressful activity. She is taking phosphates and tonics under her husband’s advice. Jane enjoys her writing, but is told not to continue. Throughout the story she continues to write, hiding the writings from her husband and only working when he is away. Her husband considers her condition to be temporary nervous depression, which is to be treated with lots of rest. She is told that she should not leave the room, which in actuality, only makes her true condition worse.
As the story progresses Jane’s actions and thought patterns become stranger and stranger. Her hatred for the yellow wallpaper continues to grow and her husband still sees no point in removing in a three month rental. The longer she is enclosed in the yellow room the worse her condition becomes. Jane starts to see shapes of discoloration in the paper, and soon begins to see eyes staring back at her through the yellow covering. In her writings she comments on a smell that is believed to be coming from the walls, she decides that it must be the wallpaper. When the sun is just right she can see a formless sort of figure sulking behind the horrible walls.
Jane notices that the walls change color, but no one else is able to see this. By now, halfway through the story, Jane has decided that the figure she keeps seeing has a form to it not unlike that of a woman. She also begins to fear John as her mental condition becomes worse.
With one week l...