The Yellow Wall-Paper

Anyone can go crazy, it can happen at any time and to anybody. In The Yellow Wall-Paper we are introduced to an unknown narrator and her husband John. They are currently living in a colonial mansion because, according to the narrator’s husband, she needed a place to recover from her illness. As the story goes on she begins to notice something strange about the room she and her husband share. She attempts to tell her husband but he doesn’t listen to her. Although they don’t go into detail about her illness, the symptoms are fatigue and depression. Because her husband does not let her do anything she becomes obsessed with finding out the mystery of the wall-paper. By the end of the story the narrator figures out the significance and the meaning of the wall-paper. The narrator also uses pathos to get the audience to agree with her.
The narrator expresses her views towards her husband without actually saying anything bad about him. By just describing his behavior and views she can get people to feel sorry for her. It is obvious that she is used to the way he treats her and that she doesn’t think anything is wrong with it. “Still I will proudly declare that there is something queer about it. Else, why should id be let so cheaply? And why have stood so long untenanted? John laughs at me, of course, but one expects that in marriage.” (Gilman.) As you can see the narrator obviously is mistaken about how a marriage is supposed to work. She makes John seem self-centered and a fan of putting others down if he doesn’t agree with what they are saying. He obviously brought her to the mansion because he wanted a break and not to help her get better. “You see he does not believe I am sick!” (Gilman.)
The wall-paper is mentioned endlessly throughout the story. However, it has a deeper meaning to it. As the story goes on the true meaning of the wall-paper gets clearer and clearer. The complicated patterns represents her chaotic mind appears as a stooping, creeping woman. When the moon shines upon the wall-paper, it gives it a different affect than it does when the sunlight shines on it. As with the narrator the wall-paper becomes livelier at night. By the end of the story the narrator is pulling off the wall-paper and frees the woman from her binds. In doing so the narrator also seems to have also escaped from her bonds.
In conclusion, you see a transformation happening to the narrator. In the beginning of the story she is held in some sort of bond by her husband and sister. Though she breaks free of it by the end all because of the wall-paper.