"The Yellow Wallpaper": a Search for Meaning in Everyday Signs

A sign is defined by the American Heritage Dictionary as "something that suggests the presence or existence of a fact, condition, or quality." Signs play an important part in individual's lives even if they do not pay it any attention. At times, an individual can become so obsessed with certain things or objects to a point where it becomes a sign for them. Author Charlotte Perkins Gilman incorporated many signs in her short story, "The Yellow Wallpaper" and the main character becomes obsessed with her surroundings. In the story, the narrator of the story has taken a vacation to the country with her physician husband. She is suffering from an illness and forced by her husband to simply rest for the time that they are on vacation. The narrator is confined to a room that is most notable for its hideous wallpaper. Her urge to interpret and analyze her surroundings to find meaning leads to her ultimate victory.

Upon entering the room, the narrator comments, "I don't like our room one bit" (367). The windows are barred, there are rings in the wall, the wallpaper is torn in certain spots, the furniture is bolted to the floor, and the floor itself is splintered and scratched. The narrator mistakenly identifies the signs she sees in the bedroom as belonging to a former nursery, playroom, or gymnasium. She believes the "windows are barred for little children" (367), the "great, heavy" bed is nailed down to the floor so that the children would not have hurt themselves. She also believes that the gate at the top of the stairs serves the same purpose-- the previous owners of the home did not want the children to injure themselves by falling down the stairs. A closer reading of the different objects, however, reveals a room that once housed mental patients. The barred windows and gated stairs were to stop the patients from escaping; the torn wallpaper was a result of patient's fits of madness - after which they would be chained to the rings in the wall. These surroundings serve as a sign of the narrator's imprisonment. While she is not literally chained to the wall, she is confined to the room by her husband.

The narrator's husband, John, is a cause of her increasing madness. While she claims that "he loves [her] very dearly" (371), John treats his wife as a child rather than an adult in need of medical attention.