vironment in which Gilman is confined causes her to convince herself that there is an actual woman inside the wallpaper, fighting to free herself. These delusions and fantasies further prove that she is in a type of mental hospital.Gilman also resembles an insane patient in the way that she constantly creates delusions and hallucinates. She describes in her writing the way in which items seem to come alive. For example, her main focus is the ragged wallpaper that partially covers the walls surrounding her. Very determined that there is a figure in the paper, she spends night and day trying to discern the patterns in the paper. As she states at one point This paper looks to me as if it knew what a vicious influence it had! There is a recurrent spot where the pattern lolls like a broken neck and two bulbous eyes stare at you upside down (Gilman 472). Gilmans belief that there is actually something living in the paper also supports that she has a significantly serious mental illness.The manner in which Gilmans husband and sister-in-law treat her also suggest that she is an insane patient. She is constantly called by demeaning names. For example, John, her husband, says, "What is it little girl? Dont go walking about like that-youll get cold (Gilman 475). She is treated as if she is a small child with no thoughts or beliefs of her own-much like patients in an insanity hospital. The height of Gilmans mentally ill status is displayed in the last portion of the story. Gilman has grown so obsessed with the belief that the woman in the wallpaper is going to escape, that she locks herself in the room in order to catch her: Ive got a rope up her that even Jennie did not find. If that woman does get out, and tries to get away, I can tie her (Gilman 480). Gilman then proceeds to lie down on the floor of the room and crawl along the floor. As Dr. Richard J. Goldberg discusses in his book, hallucinations of this type are typical of patie...
