as been torn off in patches.Confined to this room day after day, the narrator begins to study the wallpaper: ". . . I determine for the thousandth time that I will follow that pointless pattern to some sort of conclusion." "That pointless pattern" refers to the rigid pattern of complete subjugation to men that women of Gilman's day were expected to follow. A woman of that era was the "property" of her father until she married. She then became the chattel of her husband with no legal rights and no authority to determine what was best for her.The narrator begins to see things in the pattern of the wallpaper: "There is a recurrent spot where the pattern lolls like a broken neck and two bulbous eyes stare at you upside down." This is indicative of the fate of those foolhardy women who strayed from the path society had dictated to them. A woman who attempted to break loose from that pattern was subject to social ostracism. If not already married, she destroyed any hope she may have had of marriage, family and living within the norms of society. If already married, she risked physical punishment, the loss of her family, or was even considered mad. In either case, it is unlikely she could ever hope to be considered respectable again.On moonlit nights, the narrator sees bars appear on the wallpaper which are, in actuality, simply shadows from the bars in the window. She also begins to see the form of a woman behind those bars. The woman is trying to "escape" by shaking the bars and, initially, this frightens the narrator. She fears the kind of woman who dare to attempt escape from the bars of society and the reprecussions that would follow for that woman. Most of all, she is terrified of the rebellious thoughts in her own mind that could, if not contained, cause her to become that woman, inevitably suffering the same dreadful repercussions and destroying her life.As time goes on, the narrator's mind slips deeper into mental illness. She becomes...
