"The Yellow Wallpaper"

My initial reaction after reading this story was one of dissatisfaction. I did not particularly enjoy reading it even after class discussion. However, I did get a better understanding of the story after class discussion. It this story we basically watch, through her own hand, a woman go insane. What is driving her to be this way is the yellow wallpaper that lines the walls of the room she's in. She goes from hatting the paper, "I'm really getting quite fond of the big room, all but the horrid paper" (Gilman 369), to growing to be a part of the paper, "I'm getting really fond of the room spite of the wallpaper. Perhaps because of the wallpaper" (Gilman 371). The main character despite the wallpaper in the beginning of the story becomes quite fond and protective of the wallpaper. There is even a passage that reads: " I caught Jennie with her hand on it once....she turned around as if she had been caught stealing, and looked quite angry --- asked me why I should frighten her so!!" (Gilman 374). She, in her mind, had become a part of the wallpaper and the wallpaper a part of her. She didn't want anyone else to know if it or to be a part of it. She also claims of a person who is trying to come out of the paper and is trapped behind it, or is it her who she is referring to?? "I always lock the door when I creep by daylight I can't do it at night, for I know John would suspect something at once" (Gilman 376). I believe that she is in fact the person behind that wallpaper and she, being herself, is out during the day, and her other personality comes out at night....

Jason Brown