When first reading the story, the narrator appears to be of normal sanity. Although she is somewhat irritated at the insistence by her husband and her brother, who is also a respected physician, that she remain on the rest cure and refrain from working (590). The only thing she openly objects to is the nursery John has chosen as their sleeping quarters. She senses that there is something not right with the room and the hideous yellow paper on the walls. I believe that even before she saw the women in the paper, the yellow paper began to call to her, to reach the in

has not been touched, and I determine for the thousandth time that I will

In the end, the narrator finally loses her awareness of reality. The last day that she and John are to be in the house, she becomes more determined than ever to free the women hiding behind the wallpaper. Locking herself in the room and throwing the key out of the window, she begins to tear away at all of the paper she can possibly reach. As she is pulling the paper off the walls, she wonders if the women escaped from the paper as she did (599). When at last, she does allow her husband into the room, he wonders what she is doing, and she explains, “I’ve gotten out at last…and I’ve pulled off most of the paper, so you can’t put me back” (600). In this statement, she shows that she believes she has freed herself from the horrid wallpaper and the confines that her husband placed upon her.

I start, we’ll say, at the bottom, down in the corner over there where it

I also believe that the way in which her husband cares for her, assists in driving her over the edge. He treats her in many respects, as a child, incapable of caring for herself. She is given little say in the house they stay in for the summer, and even less input on the room they sleep in. In many ways, she seems almost fearful of telling him her opinions and thoughts. This is evident in the very beginning of the story when Gilman writes, “If a phy

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