The Yellow Wallpaper

"The Yellow Wallpaper" by Charlotte Perkins Gilman was a very interesting read due to the psychological nature of the short story and its very strong emphasis on the social aspects of the 19th century. What caught my attention initially is the fact that the narrator and her husband, John, are parents; and it is not just a child, but a baby! "It is fortunate Mary is so good with the baby" (Gilman 3). So you're probably thinking what does this have to do with the mind and all of the likes, well, I believe the narrator is not only suffering from the inability to express herself, but also from Postpartum Depression. For a middle or upper class woman, the best and greatest thing she could do was be a mother and raise the children. There was nothing greater they could hope to achieve. It is easy to assume that the narrator was already in a state of depression before her confinement and is at a higher risk of having the condition. "I can stand it so much easier than a baby, you see" (Gilman 8). There is a sense of hopelessness throughout the entire short story due to the fact that she is confined to "it" - the room - and is unable to break free or even help herself in such a patriarchal society and it only adds to her depression. However, in a strange way, the narrator would rather face the possibility of her own deteriorating sanity than deal with the expectations of her role in life: to be a mother. To be a mother meant submissiveness and domesticity. In one aspect by being confined to the room, the narrator narrowly escaped her fate in society as a mother but instead was sentenced to a life without interaction.