Veronica Ibarra

Mrs. Sharp

Per.3

April 11, 2016

CIA #5

In the short story, The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, the author's

purpose is to inform the audience about mental illness through the characters archetypes. The

main characters archetype is the trapped spouse archetype, while her husband, John,

demonstrates the tyrant archetype. John's wife suffers from postpartum depression, and due to

her illness he takes her to a house for three months in hopes that she'll recover.

In Gilman's short story, the structure contributes to the revealing of her purpose and

audience because in the beginning Johns wife has postpartum depression already then, he takes

her to the house believing it would help her get better but in fact it made her worse. The wife

stated that the house makes me think of english places that you read about, for there are hedges

and walls and gates that lock, and lots of separate little houses for the gardeners and people.

(Gilman 1). The house is described like an asylum, which is how she feels being in the house.

The wife believes the wallpaper is actually making her worse because she becomes very nervous

and seeing things within the wallpaper. The wife describes the wallpaper as a kind of sub-

pattern in a different shade, a particularly irritating one,.. then continues onto say I can see a

strange, provoking, formless sort of figure, that seems to skulk about behind that silly and

conspicuous front design. (Gilman 3). The figure she begins seeing within the wallpaper is

herself, the bars the figure is behind represents the wife's subconscious trapped feeling both

mentally and physically. John's wife is not free from this mental state until she leaves at the end
of the story, I've got out at last... in spite of you and Jane. And i've pulled off the paper, so you

can't put me back! (Gilman 8). The wife peeling off the wallpaper represents her overcoming

her postpartum depression. Her saying you can't put me back was not aimed directly towards

John, it was her feeling empowered and speaking to the mental state she was in. The structure of

the short story shows how she went from relying on John to becoming independent of figuring

out how to overcome her depression.

The archetypes the characters represent in the novel are trapped spouse and tyrant. John

is obviously the tyrant because he treats his wife as if she was a kid and tells her what to do. John

told his wife What is it, little girl? (Gilman 4) as if he's superior to her. Then he continues to

tell her Don't go walking about like that-you'll get cold. (Gilman 4) speaking to her again as if

she was a child, whether it be because her mental illness or because she's a woman. The wife

represents trapped spouse because she does what John tells her to do and relies on him for

guidance. The wife says The fact is that Im getting a little afraid of John. (Gilman 5). Her

becoming afraid of John is because she wants to leave the house because she knows it's only

making her worse and she's afraid of what he'll do if she attempts to leave.

The author used structure to develop her purpose to inform the audience about mental

illness, more specifically postpartum depression. She also used the trapped spouse and tyrant

archetypes to show how relationships can affect the mental illness negatively or positively.