Critical Analysis of “The Yellow Wallpaper”
This is a passage from “The Yellow Wallpaper” by Charlotte Perkins Gilman of the climax were the narrator of the story is showing the reader that they do not trust the physician/husband that is taking care of them. The husband is highly concerned with the physical and mental well-being of the narrator (which is his wife). He sometimes seems to be controlling due to his caring nature. The husband’s sister is taking on the domestic duties and tasks that the narrator would usually perform due to her illness such as housekeeping chores, watching the children, cooking dinner, and so forth. The narrator does not trust the husband’s sister because the wife feels on guard whenever she is around due to her questionable actions and untrusting behavior. The setting takes place in the bed room with the yellow wallpaper. The tone is serious, fearful, exciting, and baffled. The wife shows struggle of whether to trust her husband or not as well as the husband’s sister. This all clearly ties into the theme which is control and neglect.
The first sign of the husband controlling the wife is shown when the narrator mentions that “Indeed he started the habit of making me lie down for an hour after each meal” (10). Even though the wife clearly does not agree with lying down after a meal, she abides to her husband’s wishes either way. Due to the husband’s controlling nature, this seems to cause the wife to become fearful of him. She does not go to sleep when her husband commands her to lie down and she seems to be afraid that he will discover her deceit and possibly punish or upset her. The wife is very untrusting of her husband’s sister due to a major interaction with her in the bedroom with the yellow wallpaper. The wife shows a major sign of distrust when she questioned the husband’s sister about her intentions with analyzing the yellow wallpaper. “When I asked her in a quiet, a very quiet voice, with the most restrained manner possible, what she was doing with the paper-she turned around as if she had been caught stealing, and looked quite angry-asked me why I should frighten her so”(10)! This all cultivates into her blaming all of these interactions on the yellow wallpaper.
The yellow wallpaper seems to consume her and she even becomes defensive over the yellow wallpaper during certain times. She is obsessed with finding the mold and tracing it from corner to corner without any distractions or involvements from anyone else. Later on, the wife seems to become somewhat joyous when reflecting upon her life as to where she came from previously and is presently.