The Woman in the Walls
The physician John’s wife in “The Yellow Wallpaper” is a very intriguing character. Her postpartum depression and the way that she loses her mind slowly, then all at once catches the attention of a reader and makes them question many things throughout the story. As the woman starts losing her ties to the outer world, she begins to question the reality of her own life. She starts getting comfortable in her life in the room, she starts seeing things in the wallpaper, and finally she starts imagining herself being in the wallpaper. This woman is no doubt crazy, but was it her inferiority, her husband locking her in the multi-purpose room with bars on the windows and rings in the wall, or the pain of not seeing her baby after its birth that drove her mad?
The narrator of the story is said to have a slight hysterical …show more content…
As she is describing the wallpaper she states “I never saw a worse paper in my life. One of those sprawling flamboyant patterns committing every artistic sin (p. 305).” But what about the wallpaper started her obsession? It could have been the pattern, the color, or even the woman that she sees in the wallpaper. The wallpaper starts making her see strange things. Soon, she sees a woman with numerous heads in the wallpaper and a pattern moving under the moonlight. The obscene obsession with the wallpaper is a large factor in her downward spiral.
In addition to both of those reasons, she also had a baby before she got sick and still has not seen it. This could have an effect on her mental state as well. Many things can go wrong during labor, and maybe she had trouble pushing the baby out and that is why she is seeing things others cannot in the wallpaper. But also, not seeing her child after it has been born may be driving her crazy as well. A “mother’s intuition” is enough to make any mother act out and it could have brought on this time of wild
The physician John’s wife in “The Yellow Wallpaper” is a very intriguing character. Her postpartum depression and the way that she loses her mind slowly, then all at once catches the attention of a reader and makes them question many things throughout the story. As the woman starts losing her ties to the outer world, she begins to question the reality of her own life. She starts getting comfortable in her life in the room, she starts seeing things in the wallpaper, and finally she starts imagining herself being in the wallpaper. This woman is no doubt crazy, but was it her inferiority, her husband locking her in the multi-purpose room with bars on the windows and rings in the wall, or the pain of not seeing her baby after its birth that drove her mad?
The narrator of the story is said to have a slight hysterical …show more content…
As she is describing the wallpaper she states “I never saw a worse paper in my life. One of those sprawling flamboyant patterns committing every artistic sin (p. 305).” But what about the wallpaper started her obsession? It could have been the pattern, the color, or even the woman that she sees in the wallpaper. The wallpaper starts making her see strange things. Soon, she sees a woman with numerous heads in the wallpaper and a pattern moving under the moonlight. The obscene obsession with the wallpaper is a large factor in her downward spiral.
In addition to both of those reasons, she also had a baby before she got sick and still has not seen it. This could have an effect on her mental state as well. Many things can go wrong during labor, and maybe she had trouble pushing the baby out and that is why she is seeing things others cannot in the wallpaper. But also, not seeing her child after it has been born may be driving her crazy as well. A “mother’s intuition” is enough to make any mother act out and it could have brought on this time of wild