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The Yellow Wall-Paper

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Written by Mrs. Charlotte Perkin Gilman, The Yellow Wall-Paper is a daring piece of literature written by a woman who was well before her time in the field of women’s rights. Mrs. Gilman was a female activist who envisioned the possibilities of women working outside of the home. Using her writing as an outlet, Mrs. Gilman managed her own depression and expressed her strong feminist beliefs. The Yellow Wall-Paper captivates the mind with a creative image of a fragile woman while simultaneously incorporating aspects of feminist beliefs. Using a clear, intelligent, and artistic style Mrs. Gilman was able to practice self-expression in an era that was far from accepting. According Clara Park’s book review, The Living of Charlotte Perkin; Mrs. …show more content…

Throughout the story the narrator begins to form an odd infatuation with the yellow wallpaper that decorates the room she lives in. A first, the fixation is innocent, then eventually metaphors into an unhealthy obsession with what she believes is a reflection of her own feelings and situation. Just after the narrator resolves that no one but she can figure out the wallpaper, she states “Life is very much more exciting now than it used to be” (Gilman, 441). This captures one of the exceptional qualities of The Yellow Wall-Paper: Mrs. Gilman’s imagination and creative writing ability. At this point in the story, the narrator has become completely consumed by the wallpaper, spending all day and night thinking about it. Life has become more interesting by reason of her new fixation. Soon, the narrator begins to observe a creeping woman who appears to be imprisoned behind the wallpaper and decides that she will free her. Just as she had torn off the last piece of wallpaper the two women become one and the narrator admits; “I don’t like to look out of the window even – there are countless of those creeping women, and they creep so fast. I wonder if they all come out of the wall-paper as I did” (Gilman, 444)? The woman behind the patterned wallpaper was an image of herself – she had been the one stooping and creeping. Additionally, she knows that there are several other women in similar situations as hers, several that she is fearful to glance at. The question she asks in this quote is gripping, complex, and underlines the purpose of Mrs. Gilman’s story: Must all of them struggle the way I did? Were they trapped within homes that were actually prisons? Need they all turn their lives upside down to be free? The narrator is unable to answer these questions and leaves them up for other women, and readers to contemplate. As if she is seizing the opportunity to ask another

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