The Setting Of The Yellow Wallpaper

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Traditionally the setting of a story operates in the background to enhance and support the plot and characteristics of a story. In Charlotte Perkin Gilman’s, “The Yellow Wallpaper”, the setting starts out in this traditional manner but as the story progresses the plot and main character literally become intertwined with elements of the setting. Early in the story the narrator describes her summer residence where she is seeking a respite, as “the most beautiful place!” (Gilman 479). She gives a panoramic view of her surroundings describing the garden as “delicious” and the room she is staying in as “It is a big, airy room, the whole floor nearly with windows that look all ways with air and sunshine galore” (Gilman, 479). The view from the windows However, the narrator mentions a couple of elements that are initially glossed over. First, she is not happy with the situation. She is confined to this space because she needs to relax in order to recover from a ‘nervous depression’. There are bars on the windows – the narrator assumes this was for the safety of the children - as she believes this used to be a nursery. Next, the one element she is sure she is not comfortable with is the faded yellow wallpaper. Initially, it is just a mention but, the longer she is in this room the more her obsession with this wallpaper manifests itself. The narrator talks about her relationship with her husband, her sister-in-law and her child. But, the conversation always turns back to the wallpaper. Eventually she is talking about the wallpaper and the other elements may pop-up but her focus is on the Actually, it is several women. Then everywhere she looks she seems to see these women ‘creeping’ around. Everything that was once beautiful in the setting is now described through the prism of the wallpaper and it is no longer beautiful. It is creepy and haunting as we see the narrators touch with reality spiral out of control, until it gets to the point where she has to destroy the pattern by ripping it off the wall. In the end the narrator locks herself in the room as she attempts to destroy the wallpaper. The final scene is when her husband breaks into the room and the narrator is ‘creeping’ under the shreds of wallpaper and her husband

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