The Yellow Wallpaper 5

Trapped Without and Within “The Yellow Wallpaper”, by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, tells the story of a woman trapped in her own life. Set in the 1800’s, a time when women and men’s roles were strictly defined by society, the woman reveals her true to desire to break free from the confines of her marriage and her life. All the while, she experiences an extreme sense of guilt and shame for her negative view of …

…down so rapidly into insanity. The reader watches helplessly as she represses herself, putting more and more onto the wallpaper until she becomes what she sees in it. The woman goes mad, all because she gave into the idea that her husband knows what is best for her even though she really did not think so at first. Gilman reveals the ironic tragedy that repressing one’s true self results in the loss of self.