Descent Into Madness

Charlotte Perkins Gilman's, "The Yellow Wallpaper" is the story of a woman's descent into madness as the result of being isolated as a form of "treatment" when suffering from post-partum depression. On a larger scale, Gilman is also telling the story of how women were kept prisoners by the confines of the society of her time and the penalties these women incurred when they attempted to break free from these confines. In the beginning of …

…Jane and, in her madness, she believes she has become the woman from the wallpaper and finally escaped. "The Yellow Wallpaper" is a fascinating look into the mind of a woman slipping deeper and deeper into mental illness. It is also, however, clearly a statement by Gilman of the absurd confines society places on the women of her time and the extreme consequences that befell the women who attempted to break free of those confines.