Response Paper on "The Yellow Wallpaper"

The Yellow Wallpaper is a story of a woman's psychological breakdown, which is shown through an imaginative conversation with wallpaper. The relationship between the female narrator and the wallpaper reveals the inner condition of the narrator and also symbolically shows how women are oppressed in the society. The story can be considered as a feminist text as it reflects a woman's struggle against the patriarchal power structure.

Much of the story is centered on description of the yellow wallpaper and the woman's interaction with it. Although the story seems to be about a woman who is suffering from mental problem but if we study the story closely we will find that the story is actually a cry for freedom from the bindings of the patriarchal society. Reading the story it could easily be said that the story is trying to portray how women are oppressed in a male dominating society.

The story took place in an estate, which is isolated from the town. The estate is surrounded with protective hedges and the main gate is always kept locked. The narrator thinks that the protective hedges and the locked gate have isolated the mansion from the whole world. In other words she has been isolated from everything.

Initially the mansion where the narrator stays looks beautiful to her but later the house seems to look like a prison to her. We find the narrator to complain her husband that she is sick, but her husband who is a physician suggest that she is suffering temporary nervous depression and suggest that she should take complete rest. The narrator is especially asked not to use her imaginative power in writing as she has a habit of maintaining a diary. The husband did not tried to understand that through writing she achieves mental relief. We can observe in the story when the women tries to tell her husband how she feels the husband stops her and tell that she should not think much all she need is rest. Like this the husband prevents the wife from expressing her inner