The Yellow Wallpaper

It is interesting to note the language deterioration and shortening of her entries through the piece.  As her mental state decreases and the wallpaper seemingly consumes her mental state, she becomes less articulate and more repetitive.  She makes constant reference to these bars that she sees in the wallpaper, up until the point she begins to rip it off.  These bars are representative of her oppression, and unable to physical free herself from the social and physical bonds that her friends and husband have put her in, she moves to destroy her figurative cell.  The woman she sees in the wallpaper is merely a representation of herself.  As her mental state quickly plummets and the effects of isolation and oppression consume her mind, she becomes more lost in her thoughts and the woman behind the bars in the wallpaper becomes more prominent.  When she at last attempts to remove the wallpaper and frees the woman within, she truly becomes the person behind the wallpaper.  She no longer describes it as a separate entity, but it is purely a part of herself.  Also noteworthy is the dreaded yellow of the paper.  Yellow is a color that can be interpreted in a couple ways, either as happiness and friendship, or sickness.  It is quite clear when she states the sickly nature and dreaded tone of the yellow paper that this represents her sickness.  The yellow is fully engulfing the woman in the wallpaper, and thus, she is fully engulfed by her sickness/mental state.  As John brushes off any sort of psychological concerns of hers, the yellow is described more vividly.  She hates the color of the wall just as she hates her condition, up until the point it consumes her and she suddenly decides that she loves it and wishes to free the woman trapped within.