n a baby, you see. (Gilman p 731)It is the yellow wallpaper in her prison that led to the narrators demise. Descriptions of the yellow wallpaper become more and more prominent as the story moves along. John agrees to repaper the room but suddenly decides against it fearing that next it would be the heavy bedstead, and then the barred windows, and then that gate at the head of the stairs, and so on. (Gilman p 728) Johns domineering and oppressive role over his wife is evident here. He becomes the jailor of his wifes prison by keeping the windows barred and keeping a gate at the top of the stairs. Because she is alone and bored her attention to the wallpaper becomes more and more prevalent. I lie here on this great immovable bed-it is nailed down, I believe- and follow that pattern about by the hour. It is as good as gymnastics, I assure you. (Gilman p 730) She begins to see a woman stooping down and creeping about behind that pattern (Gilman p 731). The narrator fears this woman behind the wallpaper yet needs to study it, examine it, and catch it creeping about. Eventually she even becomes possessive over it. The woman behind the wallpaper is all the time trying to climb through. But nobody could climb through that patternit strangles so; I think that is why it has so many heads. (Gilman p 734) Johns wife begins to see herself as the woman behind the wallpaper and the wallpaper seem to signify Johns oppression. Towards the end, the narrator has ripped the wallpaper off the walls and locks herself in her room. Her husband discovers her, parading around the perimeter of the room, creeping just like the woman behind the wallpaper. Jane the possible name of the narrator, although never confirmed, though now mad, has achieved her independence. John finds the narrator in a mad state, reduplicating herself ad infinitum in the yellow papered walls, and out at last, despite him. (Charlotte Perkins Gilmans The Yellow Wallpaper: ...
