Schizophrenia is a brain disease that affects the way a person thinks, acts, and sees the world. Those with this disease often have an altered perception of reality. Sufferers have changes in behavior and other symptoms such as delusions and hallucinations. In some people, schizophrenia appears suddenly and without warning. But for most it comes on slowly with subtle warning signs and a gradual decline in functioning. The most common signs of schizophrenia are depression, oversleeping or insomnia, inappropriate laughing or crying, and the inability to laugh or cry, "I cry at nothing, and cry most of the time" (Gilman). The cause of schizophrenia is still to this day unknown. "However, it appears that schizophrenia usually results from a complex interaction between genetic and environmental factors" (Segal). In "The Yellow Wallpaper," the narrator's symptoms of her illness are rather shocking. She develops a relationship with the wallpaper in the room, totally engrossed by it, clinging to everything it represents. But this occurs after she is first disgusted by the wallpaper. So one can see how her illness began to play with her mind, causing her to refocus her feelings of hate of the wallpaper, to wanting to know every little detail about it and actually hallucinating as she gazed upon the wallpaper. .
In the beginning, we can sense that the narrator is exhibiting fanatical behavior. She says, "there is something strange about the house-- I can feel it" (Gilman). After weeks of being isolated from her newborn baby, her family, and often her husband her condition worsens, even though John insists her condition is getting better. Having been confined to this room with this tormenting wallpaper that she identifies as her nemesis, she begs John to repaper the room because it frightens her. "The paper looks to her as if it knew what a vicious influence it had" (Gilman).
