Five-page analysis of short story--The Yellow Wall-Paper - Essay Example

As she passed time in near isolation, she became determined to free the “creeping woman” whom she saw in the paper. Although Jane aspired to be a dutiful and obedient wife, she also felt that if she does not develop a sense of autonomy, she would be eternally unhappy. As the male authority figures around her (her husband and brother) saw mental stimulation and her creative work as her enemy and the cause of her problems, the author wanted to point out that suppressing Jane’s creative intelligence and maintaining a dual identity is the root of her nervous depression.

A strong narrative in support of this was when Jane frees the symbolic persona within the yellow wallpaper by tearing it down. It was an expression of her liberation from a suppressed creative character. It was apparent early in the story that Jane did not believe in John’s prescription, but she was powerless to protest: “I sometimes fancy that in my condition if I had less opposition and more society and stimulus… but John says the very worst thing I can do is to think about my condition.” (249). She also intoned sarcasm as she tried to sound agreeable with John’s counsel by saying “He is very careful and loving, and hardly lets me stir without special direction” (250).

For most part, however, we are led to believe that it was her husband whom Jane blames for her illness. “John is a physician and… perhaps that is the reason I do not get well faster…You see he does not believe I am sick! But what can one do?” (249) In pretending to agree with John, she did in effect lie to her husband and to herself – an event that created a schism in her personality. The upshot was that she became her own enemy and in doing so, two characters developed within. The first was the exterior, public Jane; the sweet, obedient, and loving wife, who cared for her husband and a Jane who should be