Whom Does The Narrator See Hiding In The Wallpaper?

The narrator in Charlotte Perkins Gilman's short story "The Yellow Wallpaper" sees a woman hiding in the wallpaper of the room where she is being confined for "rest and cure." The narrator, who is suffering from postpartum depression, becomes increasingly obsessed with the wallpaper and imagines that she sees a trapped woman trying to escape from behind it. The woman in the wallpaper symbolizes the narrator's own entrapment and repression, as well as the societal constraints that limit women's agency and autonomy. The story is often cited as a feminist classic and a critique of the medical and social treatment of women in the 19th century.

Was this helpful? No votes.