This inner conflict finally emerges at the end of the story. She is stuck in a loop, where she can increasingly no longer recognize herself. This containment leads the main character to lose her identity. In this way, Gilman shows that there is nothing worse than trapping a mind in a cage of inactivity. John believes that she needs to control it. It is not her imagination that drives her mad, but the constant muzzling of her self-expression.

However, she understands the benefits she receives from writing, so her journal is her salvation.īy the end of the story, the reader understands the irony of this treatment. The worst part of this so-called “ rest cure” is that the narrator is restrained from any mental activity. However, we know that it is not enough of a victory in a battle against depression. It even seems as though she is getting better at some point. She is unable to share her worries with anyone and has to pretend that everything is alright. However, this has the reverse effect, although the physical limitations hurt her less than the emotional ones. In the story, John, the husband, puts restrictions on the narrator’s freedom to make her feel better. British director Katie Mitchell reinterprets Gilman’s story as a study of post-natal depression, creating a live film work which speaks to our times.Freedom and identity is probably the most important The Yellow Wallpaper’s theme. Rediscovered in the 1970s by the women’s movement, the text is now seen as a masterpiece of feminist literature.

What begins as an attempt to give her peace and calm soon becomes a nightmare of delusion and unrest. Written in 1892 by the American author Charlotte Perkins Gilman, »The Yellow Wallpaper« depicts the fate of a woman who does not meet the expectations which society imposes on her in her role as wife and mother. The woman convinces herself that there is a figure trapped in the pattern: a figure she must set about freeing. As she becomes increasingly fascinated by them, her health continues to decline. Soon, the woman begins to see images in the wallpaper. But the room itself is strange: the windows are barred and the wallpaper is a sickly shade of yellow. Installed in the attic room, with its natural daylight and fresh air, the woman sets about recovering her strength. She is suffering from post-natal depression, and has been persuaded to relocate to a remote villa for the good of her health. A new mother travels from Berlin to the countryside with her baby, her husband and her nanny.

The yellow wallpaper wallpaper