The Yellow Wallpaper A major theme in The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman is that solitary confinement and exclusion from the public results in insanity. The use ofimagery and setting helps illustrate this theme throughout the story. The unnamed protagonist in this story suffers from a nervous disorder which isenhanced by her feeling of being trapped within a room. The setting of the vast colonial mansion and particularly the nursery room with barred windows provides an image ofloneliness and seclusion experienced by the protagonist. Another significant setting isthe mansion connected by a shaded lane (66) to the beautiful bay and private wharf. Itis possible that in her mind, she sees a path which leads to the curing of her illness wherehappiness and good health awaits at the end. The reason the lane is shaded is becauseshe is uncertain whether or not this path can be traveled.Upon moving into the mansion, she immediately becomes obsessed with thenursery room wallpaper with sprawling, flamboyant patterns committing every artisticsin (64). Her days and nights are so uneventful that she finds relief in writing a journalwhich becomes more tiresome as her sickness progresses. In every few paragraphs in herjournal, she analyzes the wallpaper. Through the imagery she evokes from the wallpaper,it can be seen that she is really analyzing herself and her illness subconsciously. Forexample, she begins to see a strange, provoking, formless sort of figure that seems toskulk about behind that silly and conspicuous front design (67). She describes herillness (as seen in the wallpaper) as not arranged on any laws of radiation, or alternation,or repetition, or symmetry, or anything else that I ever heard of (68). In other words, shecannot make any sense of what is causing her illness. A pivotal moment in the story is when the woman protagonist is concerned onlywith the yellow wallpaper in her journal. In lieu of her obses...
