The Narrator In The Yellow Wallpaper Essay, Research Paper

Charlotte Perkins Gilman s short story, The Yellow Wallpaper is from her own personal experiences of having to face the overwhelming fact of a male dominated society. Written in 1892, the narrator suffers from depression and is treated with isolation. Because of this, the narrator of this story is dominated by her husband s commanding restraints, as she naturally attempts to seek freedom. While confined in her room she begins to believe that there is a woman in the yellow wallpaper. Through a series of images, the narrator begins to see that the woman in the wallpaper and herself are one in the same.

When the narrator determines that the image is in fact a woman struggling to become free, she immediately relates herself with the woman. In the story, she mentions that she often sees the woman creeping outside.

“I see her in that long shaded lane, creeping up and down. I see her in those dark grape arbors, creeping all around the garden…. I don’t blame her a bit. It must be very humiliating to be caught creeping by daylight! I always lock the door when I creep by daylight. I can’t do it at night, for I know John would suspect something at once (667).”

This shows the narrator seeing herself in the woman, and when she sees the woman creeping outside, she sees herself. She sees the woman s paranoia of being caught, the same paranoia the narrator deals with everyday with her husband. She continues to pursue this obsessive project of getting the woman out. The narrator wants the woman to be free of the paper because, she herself seeks the same freedom. However, at the same time the narrator also wants the woman to be free of the paper, but does not want to let her go.

“I don’t want to go out, and I don’t want to have anybody come in, till John comes I don’t like to look out of the windows even–there are so many those creeping women, and they creep so fast. I wonder if they all come out of that wall-paper as I did? I suppose I shall have to get back behind the pattern when it comes night, and that is so hard! (668)”

She verbally admits that she was from the wallpaper. Through the solitude, she has found herself. This realization leads to a confidence, which allows the narrator to shift the power on her husband by locking him out of the room. She has formed a bond with the woman in the wallpaper, which has lead to a comfort with herself. It is this shift in power that not only forces John to become powerless, but relinquish authority to the narrator. She not only fought the

struggle of male dominance of a society but also of herself. She had been a product of a society that puts woman in the lowest segment, but she triumphs over her husband as well as herself in freeing her soul.