the yellow wallpaper
...bling together. Her mind too, becomes confused and she exhausts herself "trying to distinguish the order" (101). It’s as though the woman’s thoughts are a puzzle which she can not seem to solve. As the story progresses, the woman starts to see new objects in the pattern which she describes as a "sub-pattern" and a "provoking formless sort of figure...behind that front design" (100). This particular discovery symbolizes underlying or subconscious thoughts the woman is having and is not yet aware of. At this point, the wallpaper has developed into a human form because of Gilman’s use of personification, and as the woman continues to slip from reality she forms a closer connection with the wallpaper: “There are things in the wallpaper that nobody knows about but me, or ever will” (101). The wallpaper becomes a very personal part of the woman and the “formless figure” conveyed earlier transforms into a lady living behind the pattern. The women starts to connect herself with the lady in the pattern for example, when she explains the lady is very quiet during the day the woman reasons that “it is the pattern that keeps her so still. It keeps me quiet”(103). As the lady in the pattern develops into a clearer image, the woman withdraws even more from reality. She describes how she sleeps most of the day because John believes it will help her get better. Ironically enough, the less time the woman spends awake during the day the more of herself she represses, causing her to pull herself into the wallpaper even more. The wallpaper becomes something the woman can not escape from, which is demonstrated when the woman describes the smell. The woman starts to smell the paper; as herself and her thoughts become more confused, the yellow odour she smells is more evident. The woman describes the smell as one could describe a nagging or burdening thought: “It creeps all over the house…It gets into my hair…I wake up in the night and find it hanging over me”(104). The smell itself symbolizes the woman’s confusion and disorientation which is slowly driving her into madness. After the woman becomes accustomed to the smell, the rate at which she descends into insanity quickens. The woman has repressed so much of herself that she can no longer ignore the thoughts that have been buried and Gilman uses the lady in the wallpaper to demonstrate the woman’s need to express herself. The lady in the paper symbolizes the repressed part of the woman and the quote, “she just takes hold of the bars and shakes them hard. And she is all the time trying to climb through. But nobody could climb through”(105), depicts the repressed part of the woman attempting to show through. The quote demonstrates how the woman has locked a part of herself away and even when she tries to break down the barriers entrapping her she can not get out. The woman starts to mimic the actions of the lady in the paper for example, when the woman claims that...