
“The Yellow Wallpaper” was written in 1890 by Charlotte Perkins Gilman. The time period in which this short story was written was in a time period in which mental health was not socially acceptable, and it was not treated as it should be. Charlotte Perkins Gilman is widely known throughout the woman’s movement, and “The Yellow Wallpaper” is her most            well-known work. “The Yellow Wallpaper” is a work that emphasizes a woman’s mental and nervous breakdown through vivid imagery and scenarios. Charlotte Perkins Gilman uses diction and negative phrases and scenarios in “The Yellow Wallpaper” to exemplify the seriousness of her mental illness; in which you would have to have further knowledge on mental illnesses to completely understand the points that Charlotte Gilman is attempting to make in her work. 

The structure of this short story is random and chaotic. Some paragraphs may be only a sentence; while others may vary from two, three, or even four sentences. The structure is strange to the eye, and also to the reader in general. Some statements are punctual and sharp to the tongue. Some sentences are smooth and flow very easily to the ear. 

The diction in “The Yellow Wallpaper” is extraordinary. Charlotte often times refers to what her husband feels something is, and then later mentions exactly how she feels about the same object mentioned. This can be shown when Charlotte Perkins Gilman opens up the piece talking about this ancestral hall that her and her husband would be inhabiting for a while. She refers to this place as a “colonial mansion” (line 3) and then continues to state that she would “…say a haunted house…” (line 3) on the exact same line. 

Charlotte Perkins Gilman introduces “The Yellow Wallpaper” and the things that are ongoing in her relationship and uses a very specific and very positive language to reference negative happenings in her own marriage. She states that “John laughs at [her], of course, but one expects that in marriage” on line 7. She states that “John is practical in the extreme,” too. That statement has a negative connotation due to the fact that she uses the singular word “extreme.” The word extreme can be used to signify an overbearingness to a situation, and that is what her husband does when dealing with her.

She introduces the fact that her husband does not believe that she is sick in the beginning of the work also. By stating this, there is an obvious connection with a negative sense of being in their relationship. She even mentions that her own brother is a physician, like her husband, and he also believes that nothing is wrong with her, even though she knows that something is apparently wrong with her. 

The ways that Charlotte Perkins Gilman chooses to narrate this passage is random and the main character finds herself speaking on various topics. The whole passage is the woman speaking to herself. There is little to no dialogue of anyone else due to her nature of being and the fact that she is closed in this room alone. 

No matter how far her ideas and her mind wanders, she always finds a way to relate whatever she is mentioning back to this wallpaper. It is the only thing she can truly focus on. The fact that the woman always focuses and becomes very passionate about little details, like the wallpaper, gives the reader this sense of her being insane. She even mentions how the room is not perfect and how the “floor is scratched and gouged and splintered.” She even says how the room “looks as if it has been through the wars.” So, she realizes that the room is not ideal, but, still she has this sense of obsession with the wallpaper that nobody understands but herself. Nobody believes this sickness that she has; not her husband, or even her brother. 

Due to researching the history of mental illnesses among this time period, I can familiarize myself to the lack of knowledge that is persistent in “The Yellow Wallpaper.” In Escaping The Jaundiced Eye: Foucauldian Panopticism In Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s “The Yellow Wallpaper,” it is stated that in the time period where Charlotte Perkins Gilman centralized the setting of this short story, that mental illness was often times ‘fixed’ with neglect and more than necessary, people would use “dehumanizing imprisonment” as their tactic for helping these mentally ill people. 

The fact that mentally ill people were dehumanized and frowned upon, was not beneficial to their individual cases whatsoever. Mental illnesses are diseases of the mind, where individuals are not exactly given the opportunity to think rationally. The people who do contain this sort of disability of the mind, cannot help the fact that they have this certain disease, and the only way to be mutually beneficial to these victims, as well as their loved ones, is to accept and to help them in ways that they deserve. Instead of being dehumanized, these victims should be helped, and not trapped in a room and neglected.

By researching further knowledge about mental illnesses, you, as a reader can come across information that you may or may not have already been familiarized with. Researching mental illnesses in this time period is beneficial to the message that Charlotte Perkins Gilman is trying to spread through this short story. Research shows the neglect and dehumanizing practices that were common in the time period. It shows exactly how frowned upon the state of being mentally ill is and how the cases affected the woman of this story, but also many other women of this time period also.

Charlotte Perkins Gilman uses her diction and negative tones to impact the total message of this short story. By researching and understanding the seriousness of the situation and how mental illnesses were contained in this time period, helps the reader understand and empathize with the woman in the story; especially in her state of neglect and dehumanizing imprisonment. As a reader, researching the cultural state of the situation that is occurring, can be beneficial to understanding the passage as a whole. Research can improve the understanding and help exemplify the little pieces of knowledge that the author is trying to pass to the reader.
