Analysis of The Yellow Wallpaper

Johnson in his short story, The Yellow Wallpaper, the central theme is Gothic Allegory. The book according to Greg, has themes of rage and regression that total to Gothic Allegory. The story is a desperately influencing self-liberation in women.

Greg’s story also has themes similar to the Gothic themes which include irrational fear, forbidden desires, and ideas of rebellion and confinement. The short story also indicates Gothic staples which are the distraught heroine, the forbidden mansion, and male antagonism. It also demonstrates the gradual inclination of the narrator into the Gothic world by psychic chaos characterization and imaginary freedom. There are issues of masculine order, and routine domestic setup follow up that are brought to light between the narrator and the stories of her husband.

Johnson describes the narrator’s breakdown as not the last event her previous conscientious and sane life but rather as a way of acquiring her identity (Greg 522). Through confusion, terror, and creativity, the narrator gets the information from the wallpaper where she finds her true identity . According to Johnson, writing makes the narrator feel alive and aware of herself as she expresses herself, therefore, getting freedom (Greg 523). According to Johnson, (Greg 523) the narrator first recognizes a trapped figure behind bars in the wallpaper and reflect it to herself saying it is provoking, strange and formless. She watches an image of herself in the moonlight which is bright at night and says that this is the perfect time to reflect on herself as she is away from her husband ’s world.

            The writer makes a connection of the narrator when she is creeping and crawling to her returning to infancy stages. The way women were treated was as if they were helpless children and this is an example of figurative daylight world of oppression and conformity (Greg 526). It also simplifies her madness state and also a state of new mind(Greg 527). She now acts like a child, satisfying her own urges to fill her curiosities.