The Importance of the Wallpaper in The Yellow Wallpaper, by Charlotte Perkins Gilman

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Recommended: Social construction of female identity

The “Webster’s Dictionary” defines “Self-Expression” as "expression of one’s own personality or emotion." Self-expression is the way in which a person can express his or her thought processes through communication, writing, artwork and so on. Moreover, we must be able to express our emotions to others to assure emotional wellness. There are times when a person’s outer self-expression doesn't match his or her real feelings. Sometimes we pretend to say, feel things that seem acceptable to others just so others will accept us, we hide our true selves, we say things that we don't mean, thinking that it is what others want to hear and it can become frustrating because trying to hold back our true feelings, and it can lead to serious emotional breakdown, depression and even mental disorder. In "The Yellow Wallpaper", a story by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, the conflict focus on the protagonist's impotence to maintain her common sense in a society that does not identify her as an individual, and how the lack of communication and the freedom to express herself drove her to insanity.

“The Yellow Wallpaper” by Charlotte Perkins Gilman was written in the late 1800's, when women’s role in society was limited and had no primary effect on society than bearing children and be a house wife. It was hard for women to express themselves in a world controlled by males. In “The Yellow Wallpaper” The protagonist is a wife and new mom who is suffering from a post-partum depression, her interest is to be a good wife, a good mother and get well soon from her sickness. However, her husband John, which is physician does not believe that she’s sick, but instead have a temporary nervous depression and wants her to rest and get better. She is forbidden to work ...

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...g, communication to her husband and be well for her child. However, she had no voice and even though she wouldn’t agree with her husband’s opinion she felt like she was nobody to complain and when she tries to discuss the pain she’s going through the husband wouldn’t listen which forced her to keep her true emotions and feelings inside. The lack of activity causes the protagonist started to feel anxious, and needed something to occupy her time. As she stays in the house, she started to notice more things about the yellow wallpaper in her room and how hideous it looks. The wallpaper soon begins to be her only preoccupation. As she begins to feel imprisoned she reflects her feelings onto the wallpaper.

Works Cited

Kennedy, X. J., and Dana Gioia. "The Yellow Wallpaper." Backpack Literature: An Introduction to Fiction, Poetry, Drama, and Writing. 2011. Print.

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