Communication is a vital part of a human’s life in which we are connected to one another in numerous forms. Humans are social creatures that both desire and have the need for expressing personal thoughts and ideas in some way or another. The main forms of communication brought to mind are typically speaking, reading, and writing, all of which are dependent on one another. When one of these forms of delivery is taken away, we are forced to overcompensate with the alternatives. However, in Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s “The Yellow Wallpaper,” we see the troublesome consequences of having almost all forms of communication taken away. As a woman in the late 19th century undergoing the Rest Cure treatment, the narrator is stripped of her ability to make decisions for herself and to communicate as she wishes and needs. In “The Yellow Wallpaper,” the narrator uses the wallpaper in the room to symbolize women’s limited and unrespected voice at the time, revealing that the ability to communicate one’s thoughts, feelings, and opinions is vital to putting women on an equal level with men and that the lack of this is the reason for the narrator’s and other women’s drive to madness.  

Experiencing the Rest Cure in the late 19th century, the narrator is treated for her nervousness by being forced into a mental and physical state of seclusion with essentially all forms of communication taken away. Though she lacks the ability to express her feelings and thoughts in most all forms, she seems to have the most difficult time with the limitation on writing. It seems to be one of her greatest passions and a way for her to safely express her thoughts and feelings in a place free of judgment from her husband or others of seemingly higher importance. Her emotions and the beginning of her drive to madness are shown through her limitation to writing as she shares, “I did write for a while in spite of them; but it does exhaust me a good deal - having to be so sly about it, or else meet with heavy opposition" (Gilman, 300). Stripped away of her ability to communicate, she is forced to bottle up every emotion and thought, stuffing her mind with an overflowing amount of stress and anxiety that do not help her condition. Silas Weir Mitchell’s rest cure is based on the idea that “when they are bidden to stay in bed a month, and neither to read, write nor sew, and to have one nurse—who is not a relative—then rest becomes for some women a rather bitter medicine” (Pearce). Being forced against one’s will to lie alone with nothing to do, it is no wonder she takes such great interest in studying and analyzing the wallpaper in the room she is confined in. The narrator uses the wallpaper as a way to interpret and discover her feelings on her own state of being and her emotions on her lack of communication with the outside world. 

The narrator spends most of her hours examining the wallpaper in her room and analyzing her emotions by relating it to the patterns and appearance of the paper. She uses her descriptions of the wallpaper to reflect how she feels her voice and those of women in her time are being unheard and oppressed. As Karen Ford points out in her journal “‘The Yellow Wallpaper’ and Women’s Discourse,” the descriptions of the prominent male character, John, are elaborated on with great detail and positive words emphasizing his supposed superiority to his wife. This feeling of being inferior to her husband and women to men in general are reflected as she describes, "On a pattern like this, by daylight, there is a lack of sequence, a defiance of law, that is a constant irritant to a normal mind" (Gilman, 306). The voice of women in this time period is seen as unimportant, irrelevant, and even a bother, as the narrator expresses in this description of the wallpaper. People during this time, men in particular, do not understand or simply even try to understand what women have to say but rather look at their voice and expression of thoughts and feelings as less than their own voices. The complex and twisted patterns of the wallpaper suggest that “the wallpaper represents women's discourse to the extent that the wallpaper is impossible to define” (Ford, 311). Women like the narrator are forced to keep to themselves their true opinions and ideas knowing they are likely to be unheard and dismissed. It is clear that the narrator feels alone in her thoughts, as she is trapped in this room and forms a relationship with the wallpaper when she states, "There are things in that paper that nobody knows but me, or ever will" (Gilman, 305). Being forced to bottle up one’s emotions for an indefinite amount of time is bound to drive one into madness. Solitude is not a natural state for humans to be in for an extended period of time, as humans were created to interact with one another and to exchange beliefs and opinions. This explains why women, during this time period specifically, feel so oppressed and voiceless, as they are dismissed regardless of how valuable their information may actually be. Without being able to communicate and express themselves without judgment or dismissal vocally, verbally, or visually, women are bound to feel inferior to men. 

Interaction with other people is something that seems very normal and routine for both men and women of the 21st century. However, interaction for women in the 19th century, especially those undergoing the rest cure, is essentially forbidden, which shows how easily women were driven to madness. Without a way to voice one’s internal emotions, a basic human necessity is stripped away leaving one with an emptiness that can easily be filled with over thought ideas and reflections. During this time period, women seem to be overpowered by men and thought of as less important because of their hampered voice and the freedom of men to express freely their thoughts and opinions. The inability to do the same ultimately puts women on an inferior level to men, which is why communication is crucial to the social standing of women. 
