Introduction

Written by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, The Yellow Wallpaper introduces longing, isolation and deprivation. Gilman combines several aspects of narration to enhance this short story. Moreover, Gilman’s structural prose defines the narrator’s changing perspectives through dynamic uses of various sentence structure lengths, diction, and intricate details of the human psyche. Gilman introduces several time and space analogies to give meaning to an otherwise analytically frustrating story. She consistently refers to daylight, sunlight and the moon phases. Gilman’s The Yellow Wallpaper depicts narration and point of view through literary techniques (i.e. diction), suggesting the slow progression into insanity and the growing frustration accompanying it. Gilman writes this story using several breaks to signify the times the narrator has entered. Gilman illustrates the interval between The Yellow Wallpaper’s beginning and ends through time and space separations. Gilman’s narrator is dominated by her husband, John, and becomes obsessed with her creativity. Thematically intertwined with a point of view, this story’s premise becomes the wallpaper’s liveliness and its relation to the narrator, the aspect of individual alienation and the progression into insanity, reinforcing Gilman’s creative knowledge of individuality and equality.

Gilman’s narrator is an intriguing character because her prime concern is to continue her creative mind; however, she remains confined to a house designed to serve as a miniature mental institution. In light of loneliness, the narrator sticks with the yellow wallpaper. Gilman’s short story features yellow wallpaper. For instance, the wallpaper establishes its meaning stages when the narrator first states, “When you follow the lame uncertain curves for a short distance they suddenly commit suicide—plunge off at outrageous angles, destroy themselves in unheard of contradictions” (668). Through its presence, the wallpaper becomes an allegory for all things foul. The wallpaper becomes this unearthly presence for the narrator and later transforms into a symbolic icon as the plot progresses. The narrator states: This wallpaper has a sub-pattern in a different shade, a particularly irritating one, for one can only see it in certain lights, and not then. Nevertheless, in places where it is not faded and where the sun is just so bright, I can see a strange, provoking, formless figure that seems to skulk about behind that silly and conspicuous front design (670).

Elucidating The Yellow Wallpaper

The figurative elucidation of the wallpaper resides in the “…provoking, formless sort of figure” (670), for the wallpaper is not merely an inanimate metaphor with foul properties but also its character hiding behind “unheard of contradictions” (688). It becomes a symbol as the story progresses in the sense that it is a foul, intriguing and provoking object. Comparatively, the wallpaper stages severely alter the narrator’s point of view. The last change to yellow wallpaper is metonymic associations. The narrator states, “At night in any kind of light, in twilight, candlelight, lamplight, and worst of all, in moonlight, it becomes bars! There is a pattern on the outside, and the woman behind it is as plain as can be” (674). The wallpaper becomes metonymic because the association between the narrator and the woman behind the enclosed wallpaper is depicted through “outrageous angles” (668). Therefore, the association between the narrator’s state and the woman behind the wallpaper expresses the term “bars” (674). The narrator sees the wallpaper and her window. Gilman illustrates the wallpaper’s effect of metonymy on the narrator’s point of view and her concern regarding equality.

Gilman conveys the notion of individual alienation and its effect on the human psyche. Historically, when this was written in 1892, there was a severe gender discrepancy, as shown in Gilman’s The Yellow Wallpaper. Setting aside historical details, the narrator’s husband, John states in an authoritative tone, “‘There is nothing so dangerous, so fascinating, to a temperament like yours. It is a false and foolish fancy. Can you not trust me as a physician when I tell you so?” (673). John’s quote signifies that historical times were unsettling for women and reinforces the personal estrangement the narrator feels from John’s oppressive presence. Similarly, the metonymic association of the yellow wallpaper mentioned earlier coincides directly with the psychological alteration of the narrator’s point of view and the reinforcement of individual alienation. Individual alienation is caused by the room’s similarities to a correctional facility containing barred windows and fixed beds.

Furthermore, individual alienation is further emphasized by the narrator’s loss of identity as a mother figure and wife to Jennie, John’s housewife. Jennie übernimms the narrator’s feminine attributes. Gilman establishes metaphorical representations of dominance and oppression through daylight when the narrator reveals, “It is the same woman, I know, for she creeps always, and most women do not creep by daylight” (675), which refers to mythological aspects of daylight being daylight time for men and the moon as a time for women. The narrator describes her daily routine when she states, “I do not sleep much at night, for it is so interesting to watch developments; but I sleep a lot in the daytime” (674), defining the degrees of oppression women historically. In addition, John oppresses the narrator’s creative mind, further developing her alienated character. Gilman’s attempt to construct metaphorical representations regarding masculine and feminine qualities is evident when the narrator says, “Now why should that man have fainted?” (678), in which Gilman’s emphasis is directly placed on masculine and feminine gender equality.

The Yellow Wallpaper Content

Gilman’s prose and diction are ideally suited to the narrator’s changing moods and behaviours in The Yellow Wallpaper. Gilman’s short story uses different sentence lengths to portray the mind of a frantic individual scribbling endlessly on paper. At the start of the story, there is long elegant prose signifying the narrator’s control; for instance, when the narrator says, “It is very seldom that mere ordinary people like John and myself secure ancestral halls for the summer” (667) as compared to the developing tension and stress inhabiting the narrator when she says, “I cry at nothing and cry most of the time” (671). In contrast to the choppy sentences that follow later in the plot, it reminds me of the maniacal details about the yellow wallpaper lines that appear earlier in the story. Moreover, Gilman’s short story exposes the yellow wallpaper as a captivating timer counting down the narrator’s inevitable descent into madness. According to Gilman’s initial comparison, the wallpaper can be considered a metaphor, a symbol, and a metonym.

Additionally, we see the essence of the yellow wallpaper and the yellow person behind bars in the distance between daylight and moonlight. The narrator’s concern marks Gilman’s attempt to construct paranoia for the woman behind the wallpaper; hence, the point of view is gravely altered near the end of the story. The narrator’s point of view is gravely changed during her final uprising against her husband, John, as she finally takes a step into individuality; however, she does so in the process of acquiring insanity. A short story, Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s The Yellow Wallpaper, establishes an exciting first-person narrative style that emphasizes the narrator’s single-point perspective. Moreover, the complexity of this narration emphasizes a recurrence of meaningful metaphors such as daylight, moonlight, and the moon’s phases. Furthermore, an essential analogy is the presence of the yellow wallpaper as it enacts traits similar to a metaphor, symbol and metonym. Comparatively, these figures of speech define the narrator’s emotional state and psyche, profoundly altering her perception.

Conclusion

Gilman’s The Yellow Wallpaper is concerned with individual alienation. This is due to the imbalance of gender roles and the domineering effect of John’s presence resulting in the narrator’s helplessness. In addition, the yellow wallpaper and symbolic sentence prose represent the symbolic interpretations of various aspects of insanity progression. Moreover, evidence suggests that the point of view and its progression into madness coincide with the changing tones of lines and diction. In conclusion, symbolically referring to aspects of the human psyche with an inanimate object, such as yellow wallpaper, leads to deconstructing the narrator’s point of view. This leads to one that is free at the end yet suffers an emotional collapse and remains insane.