Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s story "The Yellow Wallpaper" is an account of a mentally disturbed woman, Jane, and her husband’s attempts to help her get well by convincing her that continual seclusion and constant bed rest is the only way to cure her psychological condition. The woman is then confined to a room in which she slowly begins to go insane. However, the story itself presents an interesting look at one woman's struggle to deal with both physical and mental confinement. This overall theme is that confinement and restrictive societal roles can cause insanity.
The Yellow Wallpaper begins with the narrator's description of the physically confining elements surrounding her. The story is cast in an isolated hereditary estate, set back from the road and located three miles from town. The property boasts protective hedges that surround the garden, walls that surround the estate, and locked gates which guarantee seclusion. Even the connecting garden represents confinement, with box-bordered paths and grape-covered arbors. This isolation motif continues within the mansion itself. Although she preferred the downstairs room, the narrator finds herself confined to the dungeon-like nursery on the second floor, appropriately equipped wit

"The Yellow Wallpaper" presents readers with a very interesting and unique look at how a man could have dominated a woman in the time frame in which the story was set. The story epitomizes how women were disregarded at times and treated like frail children at others. This story clearly illustrates that confinement and restrictive societal roles can lead to insanity. Ultimately, Jane realized that she held control over her own life. It was her responsibility to stand up for what she believed in and free herself from her insanity.

The wallpaper itself, which is intended to portray the characteristics of the ideal woman, is the narrator's source of madness. First, she just dislikes the wallpaper in general. But soon she begins to utterly hate it and its implications in her mind. This can be seen in the fact that her husband believes that she is recovering, when in actuality she is getting worse.

She untangles its chaotic pattern and locates the figure of a woman struggling to break free from the bars in the pattern. Over time, as her insanity deepens, she identifies completely with this woman and believes she, too, is trapped within the wallpaper. As this breakdown is nearing, she starts tearing the wallpaper off of the wall and locks her husband out. After retrieving the key from the front path, he comes back and opens the door, he sees her ripping the rest of the paper off the wall and faints. This is when John realizes that his wife has reached the point of hysteria and is insane. But, the narrator sees it differently. She declares that she is now free by saying "I've got out at last,..in spite of you and Jane. And I've pulled off most of the paper, so you can't put me back” (588)! The theme that restrictive societal cause insanity is clearly represented by this clim