
There’s an observation that the closer a reader looks into a piece of literature, the more attached and interesting the plot is. Just like viewing movies, the more times a story is read, more hidden details become apparent. This observation remains true, especially after a close reading of “The Yellow Wallpaper” by Charlotte Perkins Gilman. The author builds her main character, the narrator, to represent the way that women were property of men during that historical time period. Through her creativity, Gilman uses a woman trapped in the wallpaper to symbolize the limited freedom of the narrator. 

“The Yellow Wallpaper” takes place in a big, garden house, many miles from town. The narrator resides there because her husband decided that it would be best for her recovery, since she’s dealing with some sort of mental illness. The narrator is not a fan of her room in the house, because it’s at the very top and it’s worn down and not home like. She especially dislikes the yellow patterned wallpaper that is hanging up all throughout the room. However, the description Gilman gives of the wallpaper directly correlates with the narrator. The narrator says that the “paint and paper look as if a boys’ school had used it. It is stripped off—the paper—in great patches all around the head of my bed, about as far as I can reach, and in a great place on the other side of the room low down” (301). From this description, the wallpaper seems very used and tired, which is one way to describe the narrator. She suffers from a mental illness, but the treatment she’s receiving is ultimately beating her up and making her weaker; her husband makes her “take pains to control myself—before him, at least, and that makes me very tired” (301). Just like a boys’ school would put stress on the walls, John does so with his wife. The wall is also described as “pronounced enough to constantly irritate,” which from a different point of view is the way John views his wife (303). The narrator is passionate about how much she dislikes the yellow wallpaper; however, she and the wallpaper are very comparable. 

The narrator continues to dislike the wallpaper throughout the story; however, it becomes more than just wallpaper. She starts believing that there may be something hiding behind it, like a woman. At one point the narrator states, “There are things in that paper that nobody knows but me, or ever will…and it is like a woman stooping down and creeping about behind that pattern,” which increases her dislike of the wallpaper (305). She starts becoming more and more paranoid about the wallpaper and her personal discovery. The figure behind the wall intrigues her because she thinks that it “seemed to shake the pattern, just as if she wanted to get out” (306). The narrator is subconsciously relating herself to the woman stuck behind the wall. She hasn’t realized it yet, but the figure of the woman is stuck behind the wallpaper, similar to how she’s physically a woman but her thoughts are trapped because of her oppressive husband. 

Later in the story, after much speculation, the narrator finally decides on the idea that there is a woman behind the wallpaper. She starts trying to help the woman escape as much as she can. As “soon as it was moonlight and that poor thing began to crawl and shake the pattern, I got up and ran to help her,” she continues to rescue her by pulling and shaking and “before morning we had peeled off yards of that paper” (310). At this point, the narrator is extremely eager to get that woman out of the wallpaper, but she then thinks of ways to trap her again. Her ideas are coming from the way she’s been taught to think by her husband. The woman says that she sometimes gets angry at John, but John says that if she “feel so, I shall neglect proper self-control; so I take pains to control myself – before him, at least, and that makes me tired” (300). Since John is a “physician of high standing” he believes that she is sick and requires her to take medication. Due to her medication and illness, her initial thought is to pull that woman out of the wallpaper and set her free, but then she thinks about trapping her, the way John would want her to think. However, she continues to pull her out, and she continues to pull herself out. This is the turning point of the whole story, because she realizes that she’s the one she’s been helping all along. As soon as that woman steps out of the wall, her mind is set free and she starts referring to herself rather than the woman. The narrator has fully transformed to the woman in the wallpaper. She looks at the wallpaper and wonders if the rest of the women would all come out of the wallpaper just as she has. The woman/narrator quickly becomes worried again and “supposes I shall have to get back behind the pattern when it comes night, and that is hard” (311). Now as one person, they’re afraid of what John might think but strong enough together to actually set themselves free. John walks into the room and the two women simultaneously say, “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” (312)! The narrator finally understands what has been going on. She realizes that she was stuck in the wall. 

Although there definitely isn’t a woman stuck inside the wallpaper and the narrator might not physically escape, there is an epiphany of sorts. She is finally able to understand how trapped she is. She is trapped mentally, through her thoughts, because she isn’t allowed to express herself through writing or opinions. Additionally, she is trapped physically in the house that her husband has put a three-month lease on in hopes that she will become sane again. Throughout the story, the narrator goes from disliking the wallpaper to symbolically coming out of the wallpaper. The wallpaper represents the house that she is trapped in and dull life she is living, yet it is the one thing she is allowed to express her opinion on. Thankfully, the two women in this story are able to escape, but they aren’t the only two put in this type of situation. The rest may not be as lucky and may not be pulled out from behind that gross, yellow wallpaper.  