The Yellow Wallpaper: How Images Represent Feelings and Thoughts

This essay provides an in-depth analysis of Charlotte Perkins Gilman's 'The Yellow Wallpaper,' focusing on how imagery is used to represent the narrator's feelings, thoughts, and psychological state. The essay explores the symbolism of the wallpaper itself, connecting it to the narrator's mental illness, the societal constraints placed upon women during the Victorian era, and the narrator's growing sense of confinement and desire for independence. The analysis examines how the narrator's obsession with the wallpaper reflects her feelings of being trapped and repressed, and how the imagery serves as a powerful tool to convey her emotional and mental turmoil. The essay also discusses the husband's role and his misdiagnosis of the narrator's condition, highlighting the impact of his actions on her mental health and the significance of the wallpaper as a representation of her inner world. The essay further delves into the use of imagery in literature to create compelling narratives and enhance readers' understanding of the characters' circumstances and the story's setting, making the wallpaper a central element in the story's exploration of mental illness and female oppression.

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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.

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The reason the narrator begins to believe that there are women who are trapped under the
wallpaper is due to her feelings of being trapped. The narrator was restricted from the things that
she wanted. She was only following what her husband thought suitable for her. She was only
allowed to share the yellow wallpaper. The wallpaper was the representation of the narrator’s
sense. The wallpaper develops its symbolism through the entire story. In the beginning, it seems
unpleasant that is ripped, unclean and soiled. However, it represented the narrator’s repression
and her submission to the seduction of raised by the yellow wallpaper. The narrator feels trapped
under the wallpaper and feels the same for the woman in the wallpaper. Therefore, she feels the
urge to free the woman since she is helpless to free herself. She could not help herself since
during the Victorian era women’s lives only revolved around the domestic works (Stanko). The
typical life of women would be getting minimum education, getting married, having babies and
maintaining the house (Qasim et al). Therefore, the life of the narrator was only a trap in prison
with a monotonous pattern of life. This made her connect with the woman trapped under the
wallpaper and lose her mental health. The image is the representation of the narrator herself, who
is not given the freedom to do what she wants. She is under the treatment of her husband who
fails to understand her. She wanted to write and even write while she was even forbidden.
However, due to the fact that her intellect restrained from reading and writing, she settles upon
the wallpaper as the source of her intellectual stimulus. There is also the possibility of the
wallpaper responding or stimulating in return in a way that is much similar to hallucinatory. It
was through the imagery tool that the story becomes interesting and meaningful.
As discussed above, the use of imagery in literature creates interesting possibilities for
readers. Through the story ‘The yellow wallpaper’, it can be perceived that imagery tool may
play in literature. The imagery tool helps in making the setting of the narrator more

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comprehensive. Also, helps in understanding the precise situation that a narrator holds in the
story.

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Works cited:
Arrizabalaga, Iker, et al. "Determination of the pigments present in a wallpaper of the middle
nineteenth century: the combination of mid-diffuse reflectance and far infrared
spectroscopies." Spectrochimica Acta Part A: Molecular and Biomolecular
Spectroscopy 124 (2014): 308-314.
Batista, Anamarija, and Carina Lesky. "Sidewalk stories: Janet Cardiff’s audio-visual
excursions." Word & Image 31.4 (2015): 515-523.
Castro, Kepa, et al. "Finnish wallpaper pigments in the 18th–19th century: presence of KFe3
(CrO4) 2 (OH) 6 and odd pigment mixtures." Spectrochimica Acta Part A: Molecular
and Biomolecular Spectroscopy 106 (2013): 104-109.
Golden, Catherine J. Charlotte Perkins Gilman's The yellow wall-paper: a sourcebook and
critical edition. Routledge, 2013.
Klingner, Janette K., Sharon Vaughn, and Alison Boardman. Teaching reading comprehension
to students with learning difficulties, 2/E. Guilford Publications, 2015.
Qasim, Naheed, et al. "Women's Liberation: The Effects of Patriarchal Oppression on Women's
Mind." International Journal of Asian Social Science 5.7 (2015): 382-393.
Stanko, Elizabeth. Intimate Intrusions (Routledge Revivals): Women's Experience of Male
Violence. Routledge, 2013.