The Color Yellow

Throughout Gilman's The Yellow Wallpaper, the narrator becomes progressively more obsessed with the wallpaper over the course of the 3 months she spends in the room. She focuses on the color in the first entry, describing it as "repellent, almost revolting;  smoldering unclean yellow...lurid orange in some places, a sickly sulphur tint in others," (1531). This negative description gives the reader a feeling that the color is drab, dull, and insufferable which is ironic because the color yellow is typically associated with happiness, light, and possibly clarity.

As the narrator writes more entires, the reader learns more about the her life as well as her developing issues with the wallpaper. Now it is not only the color that vexes her, but also the pattern because "it slaps you in the face, knocks you down, and tramples upon you. It is like a bad dream," (1536). At this point, the reader begins to realize that the narrator may have some more psychological issues than just bad nerves. The narrator begins seeing images such as a lady behind bars who creeps around, and faces with bulging eyes. Through the multiple descriptions of the wallpaper, the reader witnesses the deterioration of the narrator's mind. What seems like a normal, slightly anxious woman in the first entry, turns into a woman trying desperately to escape both her physical and mental situation. In order to do this, she gives in to her hallucinations of the trapped woman within the wallpaper and tries to free her by tearing it off the wall. It then becomes apparent that the lady trapped within the yellow wallpaper is symbolic of how the narrator feels. When the horrendous yellow wallpaper is shredded and torn off the walls, the narrator feels free, just like the woman trapped within them.