The Yellow Wallpaper tells the story of a young woman’s mental breakdown from a first-person perspective. The narrative style makes the audience sympathize with the character. It also makes to relieve the horror as she is slipping into madness.
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The Yellow Wallpaper is a short story written in 1892 by Charlotte Perkins Gilman. It is a masterpiece of American feminist literature. The story is about women’s physical and mental health, methods of treatment, and gender roles. The main character is a young woman who suffers from depression and neurosis. Her husband brought her to a countryside mansion to get her treatment.
The story is narrated in the first person. The main character tells it in a secret journal that she keeps. She remains captured in a room forced to refrain from all healthy activities. Jane is an unreliable narrator with a mental illness. It is progressing while we read the story, and she tries to hide it. The writing style is similar to a stream of consciousness. The narrator reflects her continuous thoughts, emotions, and feelings.
The narrative style makes the audience sympathize with the character and the horror she is living through. She feels imprisoned and becomes obsessed with the wallpaper on the walls of her room. The narrative becomes more emotional. She feels trapped inside her troubled mind. As she slips into madness, the writing becomes less rational and coherent. It is an example of a human’s gradual mental breakdown.