"The Yellow Wallpaper", by Charlotte Perkins, is a book about a man who unconsciously drives his wife insane. The story develops around the room where the lady stays, which is covered by an old, torn wallpaper. Charlotte Perkins makes "The Yellow Wallpaper" interesting by using literary values such as point-of-view, characterization, and setting to make a point against men's mistreatment and discrimination against women. .
It begins giving us a scary feeling when the lady describes the house as "haunted". The story starts by describing its setting. She wonders why the house hadn't been rented for so long and why its prize is so low. But off course, John just laughs at her and tells her not to worry. From the beginning she has a bad feeling about the house, and that is a good foreshadowing; maybe the house itself isn't evil, but something bad is going to happen there. .
She introduces John at the very beginning of the story. This shows that she is very dependent of him and he is needed in her life. She also says, in the fourth line, that romantic felicity would be asking too much of fate; so in her heart she knows that her marriage is a failure, I just think that she doesn't want to admit it to herself. .
Charlotte Perkins, I think, makes the story first person mayor on purpose. By writing the story from this point of view, she gives intimacy with the lady. We can understand the process that leads to insanity. By looking inside her mind, we start realizing that she doesn't have a stream of consciousness. It gets worst as the story continues and her insanity begins to show more in her thoughts. We can see that she starts skipping from one point to the next without really making any sense.
From the beginning of the story we see how she talks bad about John without even noticing. She says, "I get unreasonably angry with John sometimes. I"m sure I never used to be so sensitive. I think it is due to this nervous condition.
