The Yellow Wallpaper: Representation of Feeling and Thoughts

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THE YELLOW WALLPAPER
How can an image represent feeling and thoughts? The Yellow Wallpaper is written by
the well-known social worker, Charlotte Perkins Gilman who has constantly fought for women
and helped them come out of their ordinary lives that only revolved around domestic work
(Golden). For years, images and pictures have been used to manifest human emotions and
feelings. In a similar concern, the essay aims to discuss the way an image is a clear
representation that enables the audiences to call up a mental recreation of physical sensation
experienced through sight. The way an image has played the most vital role in the story is the
main discussion of the essay.
The imagery in literature creates exciting possibilities for the readers. Using imagery
draws the reader in the story and help to bring the reader in the setting where the story takes
place (Klingner, Vaughn and Boardman). Also, using imagery can enable readers to understand
the circumstances faced by the character of the story. The story, ‘the yellow wallpaper’ is an
example where the writer, Charlotte Perkins Gilman is able to show the way an image can play a
crucial role in a story. The narrator of the story often mentions about the wallpaper and with each
time, it gives more details about the wallpaper (Arrizabalaga et al). The vivid description of the
wallpaper allows the readers to get themselves into the narrator’s psychological state. Through
the details, the narrator’s constantly growing mental illness. The imagery that is present in the

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wallpaper when narrated by the narrator, shows the way her mental illness or her insanity is
associated with the desire for independence.
The story yellow wallpaper is about a couple, who have recently shifted to a resting place
for summer. However, the wife or the narrator suffers from mental illness. The husband is the
physician of the narrator who believes the mental illness as ‘temporary nervous depression’. He
asks her to rest as much as possible letting her take one of the room. The narrator feels
uncomfortable in the room however decides to obey since it is decided by her husband. She also
agrees with her husband when he chooses the larger and airier room on the top floor while she
wanted the smaller and prettier room on the ground floor (Castro et al.). It can be said that the
narrator agrees with almost all the decision made by her husband. Her husband was also her
physician which made him take all the decisions regarding her mental health as well. According
to her husband, the narrator was only suffering from a slight hysterical tendency, therefore fails
to understand his wife and performs the wrong treatment. Even though the husband was very
loving, he hardly paid any attention to her wishes and desires. Since the narrator was suffering
from mental illness, John would only see her as a patient, he wanted to help her however failed
to see the struggle that the narrator was going through within her. He becomes assured that his
treatment was appropriate and successful when the narrator’s mental breakdown takes a
complete form. She ends up creeping around the room and fails to recognise her husband.
The image in the story that creates the primary interest is the wallpaper of the room
where the narrator feels vaguely uncomfortable. She was forbidden by her husband to engage in
the works that were liked by her, and slowly she becomes obsessed with the wallpaper (Batista
and Lesky). She begins to trace the wallpaper and becomes convinced that there is a woman
trapped under the wallpaper. She feels the need to free the women under the wallpaper.