Often times if one goes insane, there are changes that happen gradually to signal this. This can be accomplished through a number of ways. In Charlotte Gilman’s “The Yellow Wallpaper” the boundary between madness and sanity is explored by using the girl’s vision of the room, her actions, and the interactions that happen with other people. As the girl descends into madness, her vision of the room changes and is one of the main signifiers of her insanity. In the beginning of the story she describes the room as a “big, airy room” (305) and that it was a “nursery first, and then playroom and gymnasium” (305). The first observations that are seen about the room are logical, sane thoughts. It was already stated that she does have a nervous condition
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Her relationship with John begins as her accepting his prescription for her ailment and being grateful for his care. This goes against her own belief that “congenial work, with excitement and change” (304) would be the best. This shows that she is trusting in John and his opinion as a physician. As she becomes worse, her relationship with John degrades and she will get “unreasonably angry” (304) at him occasionally. Her anger coincides with his restriction of her life and the inability to have any freedom. Once her madness comes to the point of having a strange relationship with the wallpaper and the woman inside, the reader can see her hiding the contents of the wall from John and Jennie and she says that “nobody shall find out [the patterns] but myself!” (312). This even progresses to her locking John out in order for her to pull all of the wallpaper off for her to gain her freedom from the wall. After he gains access to the room, he sees how she pulled all of the wallpaper off and his crawling around the room. This causes him to faint “right across my path by the wall, so that I had to creep over him every time!” (316) Her madness had progressed to the point to where she continued to crawl over his body after he fainted. Her madness had driven her relationships with all other people to the point of
Her relationship with John begins as her accepting his prescription for her ailment and being grateful for his care. This goes against her own belief that “congenial work, with excitement and change” (304) would be the best. This shows that she is trusting in John and his opinion as a physician. As she becomes worse, her relationship with John degrades and she will get “unreasonably angry” (304) at him occasionally. Her anger coincides with his restriction of her life and the inability to have any freedom. Once her madness comes to the point of having a strange relationship with the wallpaper and the woman inside, the reader can see her hiding the contents of the wall from John and Jennie and she says that “nobody shall find out [the patterns] but myself!” (312). This even progresses to her locking John out in order for her to pull all of the wallpaper off for her to gain her freedom from the wall. After he gains access to the room, he sees how she pulled all of the wallpaper off and his crawling around the room. This causes him to faint “right across my path by the wall, so that I had to creep over him every time!” (316) Her madness had progressed to the point to where she continued to crawl over his body after he fainted. Her madness had driven her relationships with all other people to the point of