Trapped Behind the Patterns: A Journey Through Madness in The Yellow Wallpaper

“The Yellow Wallpaper” by Charlotte Perkins Gilman is a short story that explores a woman’s point of view on mental health after birth while becoming obsessed with a wallpaper pattern in her room as she undergoes a treatment for her “nervous condition.”

The story was written as a series of journal entries of the narrator and it is about mental state of this unnamed narrator, a young woman put into a room by the husband in a rented mansion for the summer. Her husband’s name is John and he is a doctor. The narrator get prescribed with the "rest cure" to treat her postpartum depression also known as "nervous depression" in the 19th century Britain. Jennie, John’s sister, serves as a housekeeper and caretaker, supporting his approach and further isolating the narrator. The treatment enforces the patient, the mother, to isolation, absulote rest and forbids all kind of creative engagement with anybody. Writing, painting, houseworks and engaging with the baby is forbidden so there is a complete isolation.

The couple moves to the rented mansion and the narrator put in to a former nursery at the top floor of the house. This room is full with closed windows, a fixed bed, and yellow wallpaper with interesting patterns. The narrator describes the wallpaper as disturbing and silly. Later on her thoughts about the wallpaper turns into obsessive behaviours.

Although the treatment forbids her to perform any creative activity, the narrator secretly writes in her journal to process her feelings, trying to in this forbidden act of self-expression. She feels imprisoned in her room but also in her marriage because of the societal norms of the 19th century. John’s controlling and dismissive attitude makes her feel worse, and doing nothing all day harms her mind. Soon the narrator begins to hallucinate and see a women that trapped inside the wallpaper.

As the story progresses, the narrator's isolation deepens along with her obsession with the wallpaper. The trapped woman symbolises her own struggle for freedom. The hallucinations gets worse and finally leads her to ripped away the wallpaper to save her in a symbolic act of rebellion against opression and isolation.

Story continiue with the narrator’s psychological collapse. She locks herself in the room and rips the remaining wallpaper and thinks she finally "freed" the woman that trapped in it. John eventually enters the room and saw a disturbing scene, his wife was completely lost. The narrator, overwhelmed by her delusions and crawls along the wallpaper. She says "I’ve got out at last… in spite of you and Jane!"

Gilman’s story is inspired from her life. She also suffered from the post partum depression after her first daughter was born. Through the narrator’s descent into madness, the tale highlights the devastating consequences of denying women autonomy over their lives, thoughts, and creative expression.

Gilman’s “The Yellow Wallpaper” critiques how women’s mental health was misunderstood and controlled in the 19th century, especially through treatments like the “rest cure” that silenced them. The wallpaper represents the narrator’s feeling of being trapped and her fight to break free from societal and marital oppression. Through the narrator’s descent into madness, the story shows how isolation and lack of freedom can harm a person, emphasizing the importance of allowing women autonomy and creative expression.