The yellow wallpaper
...horrid paper” (246). She likes the room, except the wallpaper that covers the walls of the room. She is getting annoyed just watching it. This hate for the wallpaper makes her distracted. Because she spends most of the day thinking about it, she is unable to focus on anything but the wallpaper. As she says, “But I must not think about that. This paper looks to me as if it knew what a vicious influence it had!” (246). She is completely obsessed with the wallpaper as she thinks it is being cruel to her, and knows how to be malicious with her. Her writing is influenced by the wallpaper because it makes her believe that it is a part of her identity. Her mental deterioration is shown through her descriptions, thoughts, and beliefs about the wallpaper. Being alone for the whole day, staring at the wall, has caused the author to become lonely and depressed. She expresses her feelings through words and actions. She says, “I cry at nothing, and cry most of the time” (247). She can only express her feelings by crying because there is no one with whom she can share her thoughts and feelings. The emotions she experiences are not caused by anything in particular, as she believes there is no real reason for her crying all the time. She just cries when she is alone, because she does not want her husband to find out about her suffering. The crying and loneliness cause a deep pain inside of her that is slowly leading to a state of depression and contributes to her mental instability. In the following examples, the author shows how the wallpaper no longer knows anything about the narrator, but it is the narrator who perceives something about it, as she is observing the wallpaper and its surroundings. She states, “There is one marked peculiarity about this paper, a thing nobody seems to notice but myself and that is that it changes as the light changes” (250). The only thing that she can do in the room is to observe the wallpaper because there are no objects in the room with which to distract her. She senses something about the wallpaper that attracts her attention. Her loneliness, perceptions about the wallpaper and her surroundings, and her beliefs about the occurrences around her contribute to her mental condition as she begins to have delusions. The author believes that she is the only one who has perceived these peculiar things. Another example is, “But there is something else about that paper – the smell! I noticed it the moment we came into the room, but with so much air and sun it was not bad. Now we have had a week of fog and rain, and whether the windows are open or not, the smell is here” (251). She had perceived a strange, unfamiliar smell the first time that she entered into the room but didn’t give it any attention because her mental condition was not as bad is now. The narrator associates the changes in the weather to the increasingly strong smell of the paper. She feels as though she is being chased by this smell; wherever she goes it is there. This is another example of the narrator noticing something else related to the paper, although this time she describes her new discovery as something entertaining. She says, “I have found out another funny thing, but I shan’t tell it this time! It does not do to trust people too much” (253). Although Gilman, the narrator, has noticed different...