The Yellow Wallpaper Essay

“The Yellow Wallpaper” is the type of short story that intrigues the reader and isn’t exactly what it seems like at first glance. It is full of hidden meanings and leaves the road open to many different interpretations. But one thing every reader will probably agree on is that the mental health of the narrator of the story seems to be deteriorating towards the end of the short story. The author uses this to show exactly how she is being restricted by her husband and many other men in her life. Times were different back then, and unfortunately women weren’t treated as fairly as men were. They were considered weak, fragile things that needed to be cared for by a man. Therefore, society imposed certain limitations on women. In this story, the narrator starts off as one of those women who were controlled by their husband. But as her depression begins to get worse and worse, it actually becomes clear that she needs to leave this stifling atmosphere. Although she doesn’t say it outright, she is tired of these limitations and is dreaming of her eventual escape. But she does not plan it as her own escape; rather, she makes up a figure on the disgusting, ugly, depressing, yellow wallpaper that had been bothering her since day one. She realizes it is a woman and knows that she needs to help her. She gets the woman out, freeing herself in the process. Her husband is in shock that she has actually freed herself. He never expected this.  
Charlotte Perkins Gilman had actually suffered from a severe depression herself after giving birth to her only child. She had been put on “rest cure,” much like the woman in this story. The narrator is also suffering from post-partum depression as we can see when she states, “It is fortunate Mary is so good with the baby. Such a dear baby! And yet I cannot be with him, it makes me so nervous.” (Gilman 292) Although we now know that it is post-partum depression she is suffering from, back then they assumed it was just a nervous condition that...