Charlotte Perkins Gilman's,

is best for her. There is even a time where she has to stop writing because her husband is coming. “There comes John, and I must put this away, - he hates to have me write a word.” For example, when he suggests that her nervous condition can be cured with excessive quantities of rest, she accepts this and agrees to separate herself from others until she is well again. For instance, at one point in the story the woman states, "Personally, I disagree with their [John and her brother] ideas. Personally, I believe that congenial work, with excitement and change, would do me good. But what is one to do?" The last sentence displays the woman’s constant inability to stick up for herself when she has ideas that differ from those of the influential males in her life. He treats her like a child and just like a child she is kept in this room. Inside the room are “rings and things” that reminds her of a child’s gymnasium. There is also a gate and at the top of the stairs and bars on the windows. These add on to her seclusion. When she tells her husband that the room she is being restricted to is probably not the best choice, considering the many other rooms in the estate, he is quick to dismiss her fears and plead with her to act “sanely”.      The writing plays an important part in this story. It is how the reader finds out the narrator’s thoughts, and it is what is believed to have made her sick in the first place. John’s sister, Jennie, is the maid. The narrator states,” I verily believe she thinks it is the writing which made me sick.” It is obvious that everyone seems to think that she has this nervous condition because of stress from everyday work, including writing. Later, the reader finds out that she has a baby. Now it is clear that she may be suffering from postpartum depression and not a nervous condition. She has some form of depression. “ I cry at nothing, and cry most of the time.”  It is clear that seclusion will not help, but only worsen her situation. She continues to write in secret revealing more insanity little by little.       As the yellow wallpaper begins to play deeper into the story line, the narrator’s eccentricities begin to show through. As she continues to be trapped in her own little corner of the house, she increasingly begins to focus her attention on the room’s physical details, including the patterns and details of the unforgettable yellow wallpaper. She becomes obsessed with it almost.” I’m really getting fond of the room in spite of the wallpaper. Perhaps because of the wallpaper.” This is where supernatural ideas come into play. As she writes about things, the reader starts to believe that she really is going crazy. Is it the wallpaper, or is their really some supernatural being? One has to rely on her to write more details and let the reader know what is really happening. Because she is considered as crazy, she is an unreliable character. One automatically does not believe her story about the supernatural world within her own. The beginning of the story sets up the supernatural essence when she writes, “ A colonial mansion, a hereditary estate, I would say a haunted house, and reach the height of romantic felicity – but that would be asking too much of fate!” Later, John’s wife begins to see things behind the decorations on the walls. She comes to a point where she thinks that everyone else is trying to figure out what is behind the wallpaper also. “But I know she [Jennie] was studying that pattern, and I am determined that nobody shall find it out but myself … And John is so queer now, that I don’t want to irritate him. I wish he would take another room! Besides, I don’t want anybody to get that woman out at night but myself.” She examines the wallpaper by night and sleeps by day. “There are things in that paper that nobody knows but me, or ever will.” Her obsession does not stop there. “ Behind that outside pattern the dim shapes get clearer every day.” Each night she continues to examine the wallpaper while John sleeps. “I didn’t realize for a long time what the thing was that showed behind, that dim sub-pattern, but now I am quite sure it is a woman.”  She realizes that the figure she sees behind the wallpaper is a woman who is trapped within the walls and is trying to free herself. The narrator also makes the assumption that the woman escapes from the walls during the day and creeps around the estate, as she has seen her numerous times hiding from approaching carriages and having a very sly way about her. “ I think that woman gets out in the daytime! And I’ll tell you why – privately – I’ve seen her!” The woman determines that being caught creeping around, especially in the daylight, must be very embarrassing. This is the reason the figure from behind the wallpaper must hide when other people approach.     As the narrator becomes more deranged, she finally locks herself in her room with the yellow wallpaper and begins to rip it off of the walls, trying desperately to free the woman who is trapped behind it. In essence, the woman behind the paper is the narrator’s sanity. The narrator acts as if everything will be fine if she can just free the woman from behind the wallpaper. When most of the paper is finally ripped off of the walls, the narrator has finally released the woman, and it is indeed herself. When her husband confronts her after making his way into the room, his wife replies, "I’ve got out at last, in spite of you and Jane. And I’ve pulled off most of the paper so you can’t put me back!" The reader may be thinking who is Jane? The Jane character is certainly herself, as well as the woman behind the wallpaper, since they are one in the same. The last set of events is very important to the overall plot. Finally, Jane has triumphed over her husband and has freed herself emotionally, if not physically, from the mental stresses of the room. She wrote the entire story and it was her way of expressing herself and her story of insanity.     "The Yellow Wallpaper" presents readers with story of a woman’s insanity. It tells how women were disregarded at times and treated like frail children at others. Ultimately, Jane realized that she held control over her own life. It was her responsibility to relieve her stress and tell her story. This is a story of seclusion and escape. "The Yellow Wallpaper," being highly autobiographical for Charlotte Perkins Gilman, was written shortly after her own nervous breakdown. The story is part reality for her and part fiction focusing on the treatment that Dr. S. Weir Mitchell enforced upon her which was rest, seclusion, and absolutely no writing, which is what she loved the most. Her story is a stepping-stone in helping to understand depression, liberating women, and expression.