Charlotte Perkins Gilman's "The Yellow Wallpaper" is a story about a woman who begins to go crazy as she starts to be enthralled by things in her wallpaper. Not long after her fascination with the wallpaper begins, the woman starts to see a woman behind it that seems to be creeping. The images behind the wallpaper represent the narrator's struggles dealing with depression. The narrator gets progressively worse throughout the story as her feelings spiral downward.
At the beginning of this story, the narrator talks about a psychological problem others around her have diagnosed her with. However she also speaks of nice things such as the grandeur of her gardens and home. She makes mention of the wallpaper but is not yet consumed by it. At this point she is more concerned with convincing her husband of her sanity. However, she starts associating the wallpaper with her feelings as she is angered by it, "I wish I could get well faster. But I must not think about that. This paper looks to me as if it knew what a vicious influence it had!" (Gilman ln. 64-6). The narrator also begins to see living things such as eyes in the wallpaper. Because of her sickness, she is encouraged not to write by those around her, and so must hide herself when doing so. The eyes represent her feelings of being watched by those around her all the time. The narrator soon begins to see a figure in the wallpaper, "I can see a strange, provoking, formless sort of figure, that seems to skulk about behind that silly and conspicuous front design." (Gilman ln. 80-3). This conveys what the narrator is actually feeling, hiding what she really feels and wishes to do with her life. She also shows herself as feeling trapped when she sees a woman creeping in the wallpaper who, .
"In the very shady spots 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 that pattern- it strangles so; I think that is why it has so many heads" (ln.