An Analysis of “Yellow Wallpaper” “Yellow Wallpaper” by Charlotte Perkins is one of the most famous depictions of madness in 19th century literature ; taking the form of the diary of a woman undergoing treatment for mental illness. She records her experiences and her mental life as she descends into total madness. Perkins details this crazy experience and how his condition is made worse by his peers. The story reveals Perkins' views on androcentrism regarding the outdated gender roles of his time. Perkins describes a difficult relationship between her narrator and her husband. John has a respectable social position as a doctor and is therefore placed in a position of authority. This is clearly expressed in the lines: “If a high-ranking doctor... assures his friends and relatives that there is really nothing wrong with him, except a temporary nervous breakdown.. . what to do? ” (Perkins 76) Perkins places her narrator in a position in which she is surrounded by male authority figures who restrict her will and her social nature. Perkins clarifies that the social rules, which the narrator's husband tries to protect, are responsible for the worsening of her illness. From the choice of the play to the expression of her own feelings, the narrator is systematically denied the possibility of acting according to her own desires and having them validated by those around her. The feeling of both duty and dependence on one's husband is a dominant theme of the story. Mental illness is both denied and caused by the social relationships in which it participates. As the story progresses, Perkins contrasts the relative coldness of those around her narrator with the life she finds in the wallpaper: “I have never seen so much expression in an inanimate world. .. middle of paper ...... the tragedy of the story, however, is that the narrator will almost certainly be permanently interned, as her peers seek to assert their own views more directly. In conclusion, “Yellow Wallpaper” presents a situation in which its narrator is subject to the rationalistic and controlling logic of male authority figures and is unable to meet her own needs. The result is a steady descent into madness as she projects the life absent from her social relationships onto the inanimate objects around her. Throughout this, her husband and friends are both reactions and causes of this behavior. Works Cited Perkins, Charlotte. Literature “The Yellow Wallpaper”: a portable anthology. Ed. Janet E. Gardner, Beverly Lawn, Jack Ridl and Peter Schakel. Boston: Bedford/St. Martins, 2013. 76-89. Print.