n one confined space: a room upstairs, which has been chosen for her by her husband. The reader discovers throughout the story that she is actually locked in this room by her husband and his sister, Jennie. She is encouraged by them to sleep and take things easy in order to heal herself. In this way, Gilmans husband and sister-in-law resemble the setting of an insane asylum. A typical description of an insane asylum comes from author Phillippe Pinel: In lunatic hospitals, as in despotic governments, it is no doubt possible to maintain, by unlimited confinement and barbarous treatment, the appearance of order and loyalty (Pinel 90). However, Gilman again seems to live the life of a person confined in an insane asylum. The room itself resembles such a place, as it has bars covering the windows and one bed bolted to the floor (Gilman 471). She is locked in this place alone with nothing to do but lie on the bed and create images in the yellow wallpaper that grotesquely decorates the walls. This solitaire environment 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 suppor...
