Everyone everywhere needs some kind of ventilation system, and not the type that runs through the ceilings to keep you warm in the winter and cool in the summer, but more alongside a mental release or an escape. Reality can be a bit overwhelming at times, especially on the mind and spirit, and without a stable mind life can get disorganized. Essentially, being able to express yourself is important, whether you do it through exercise, singing, or playing an instrument. The narrator in "The Yellow Wallpaper " struggled with this very thing, she found solace through writing yet was not always able to do so due to her condition. She suffered from a "Temporary nervous depression ", in other terms Postpartum Depression. Typically someone who is in a state of depression should go out and change scenery, keeping the mind occupied. Consequently, being trapped with that amount of weight on your shoulders with no outlet will lead your mind to find other ways to express itself, whether it's through anger, sadness or in the narrator's case, through the images she saw on the wallpaper.
In the "Yellow Wallpaper " the narrator begins by describing the house she was advised to go to, until she recovered from her illness, as being "quite alone " (Gilman). She also states that "there is something strange about the house- I can feel it " (Gilman 2), perhaps this is the first moment she felt some sort of connection where she would be staying. The house was like a large castle; its aura as described seemed to come out as dark like a "haunted house ". People who suffer with depression feel this kind of "darkness or emptiness in the pit of their souls " (Stone 1). The house was complete opposite of where someone who suffers with postpartum should be. It was alone and confined "3 miles away from the village " (Gilman). Her better options should've "been to go out and change scenery " (PSI), or pursue her writing, anything that would keep the mind occupied.
