"The Yellow Wallpaper"

Wow! That is a story! It can be a little hard to follow but that is one of the qualities that make this story so great. There are so many different little messages hidden within the text that if the little details aren’t getting enough attention, “The Yellow Wallpaper” could seem like a completely different story.

One part of the story that was really intriguing was when the narrator said, “I don’t blame her a bit. It must be very humiliating to be caught creeping by daylight. I always lock the door when I creep by daylight” (Gilman, 376).

When I first read this part of the story, I just thought that the narrator was talking about the woman trapped inside the wallpaper and then referring to herself. I was still thinking that these were considered two different “people” that both shared a common quality: being trapped. I realize that the woman inside the wall was not real, but my thoughts were that the narrator had created this person and was making it more real as the story went along so that they would always be connected together. I guess that is still partly true, because I’ve learned that they are the same person! Or at least the narrator has gone crazy enough so this other personality is now her own.

“I’ve got out at last, in spite of you and Jane. And I’ve pulled off most of the paper so you can’t put me back!” (Gilman, 378). This is the climax of the story. She really did completely lose it. The other personality has taken over! The whole story was leading up to this point. She went from being “sick” (Gilman, 367) to all out crazy. But I think a good question to ask is was it really her own fault or her culture’s fault for the person that the narrator becomes?

Works Cited
Gilman, Charlotte. "The Yellow Wallpaper." Literature, reading, reacting, writing. Thomson Wadsworth. compact sixth edition. Boston: Michael Rosenberg, 2007. 366-378.