"The Yellow Wallpaper" by Charlotte Perkins is a very complex short story that keeps the reader intrigued and engaged. According to Gilman, "women in the 19th century were consider second-class citizens," (Gilman 153). Second class citizens had to stay in their homes and denied most of their rights. The narrator is a prime example of this so called second class citizen. She is basically denied her right to do the hobbies that she loves to do because she needed to "rest". Jane is watched by her husband like an hawk. He is also her physician and constantly does not take her seriously. He continuously laughs at her and the narrator states, "he has no patience," (Gilman 153). John belittles her just as any other citizen would belittle a woman in the 19th century. The narrator is a very confusing woman who starts just fine, but later in the story, insanity takes over her body. She shows great fear and portrays a sarcastic, angry, and desperate character. Jane does not know what her name exactly is because she lost sight of the world. In order to find herself again she must lose track of her surroundings just to be able to see herself in a better manner. In order to illustrate this identity problem, in this essay I will argue how the wallpaper becomes the key to her identity.

She comes into connection with the wallpaper in one of the rooms in her mansion. The wallpaper symbolizes an undefined text, an undefined person, represents her family and life, and it is similar to a puzzle that appears unpleasant at first. The narrator states, "the paint and paper looks as if it was used in a boys school, it is stripped off in great patches all around the head of the bed...worse paper in my life," (Gilman 155). This can be characterized as her thoughts of how she wants life to be and how she wants to be treated. The wallpaper is a key symbol in the story. It resembles the narrator in how she cannot find herself. As she tears the wallpaper, it reveals a certain piece to the puzzle. As the paper remains unpleasant and unclear she too remains unsolved which forces her to get more and more separated by day from her family and friends. She begins to see these women just like her creeping up on her. The reader would infer that those women were just her missing identities, "I wonder if they all come out of that wallpaper as I did?", (Gilman 165). Frustrated with herself, Jane becomes desperate enough to do something crazy, like jump out of a window. She does not see the point of living if she doesn't know who she is. 

Not being able to jump out the window, she then tears all of the wallpaper off, and she finally sees the person she truly is. She then states, "no one can put me back inside the walls now," (Gilman 164). Ending the uncertainty of her identity stating that no one can put her back in the walls is saying that she will not lose her identity anymore. She is growing up along with societies view on women and believes that she is a stronger person now. She is becoming an improved person and knows who exactly she should be. After revealing the mystery of the wallpaper woman, Jane understands who she can truly be and refuses to be mistreated.

The image she sees hiding behind the wallpaper is the missing identity she has been trying to find this whole time. "The wallpaper has a kind of sub-pattern in a different shade, a particularly irritating one, for you can only see it in certain lights, and not clearly then," (Gilman 157), says the narrator. The pattern can be sort of an the obstacles Jane has to go through and the changing of the pattern may compare to the growth she creates. Jane looks at this pattern and she says it was faded. This could compare to the fact that she believes no one sees her for what she truly is or treats her as important as she should be treated. No one really sees her. Apparently, she is still in hiding. The other people can see her but not so clearly.

Unequal marriage implied that Jane was not as important as she thought she was because her husband treated her badly. All she wants is freedom to cure her illness she does not like the fact that her husband makes fun of her saying she really is not sick. She is just sick of the fact that no one not even herself knows who she is. Imagine how she feels without support in her quest for identification. John tells her to stop writing and this may be a factor that forces her to go crazy and tear off the wallpaper. Jane grows weary at the situation and she has had enough. Disobeying her husband's orders, she reveals the mystery woman behind the image. 

The Yellow Wallpaper is a very interesting story there are many lessons to learn from in this particular text. The wallpaper takes over the narrator's imagination, which causes her to lose control of her body. This connects with the imagery of the woman hiding behind the picture. It does this because she hides how she truly feels about the wallpaper. Jane knows her husband will grow angry with her if she reveals the secret wallpaper. She states that she sees the woman shaking the bars in the middle of the night she is trying to get out when no one is around to see her. Jane is trying too secretly help this mystery woman because she feels she is identical to her and her situation. It was a very secretive story itself I felt like I was exactly like the woman trying to solve this puzzle. It was a very hard story to understand, but close reading it has actually helped me to fully compare the narrator to a second class citizen in America.
