The Yellow Wallpaper Literary Analysis

Everyone’s a little bit crazy in this world--the problems arise when some of us are crazier than others, and aren’t taken seriously. This is one of the key issues in Gilman’s story, “The Yellow Wallpaper”--a classic short story that has stood the test of time. Personally, I believe that a classic is a story that is still being read to this date and readers are able to relate to it, due to the issues it reflects and the rich style of language and writing. “The Yellow Wallpaper” is clearly a classic text because of the way that Gilman illustrates the treatment of depression in a patriarchal society through descriptive first person narration, allowing many readers--past, present, and future--to personally identify with her character.

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In “The Yellow Wallpaper” Gilman creates a setting where I personally can interpret John as a typical villain, restraining his wife from all her creative work, which could help in her recovery. In this story, the first person narration encourages the reader to fully trust the narrator’s point of view. This comes in handy as the plot becomes more complicated, especially when she begins to drown in her depression and lose her grasp over reality. In one moment, the narrator cries, “The only thing I can think of that it is like is the color of the paper (9)!” Here, from my point of view, the yellow wallpaper begins to consume the narrator and she begins to develop an unhealthy obsession with it. As the story progresses, every action of the narrator is related to the yellow wallpaper--this should make the reader question if there could be omissions in the narrator’s version of events. This again can be relatable to the readers, since it is quite easy for us to become obsessed with something, even though it is something we extremely despise like the