Gilman employs personification—a figure of speech in which the author attributes human characteristics to a thing, an animal, or an idea—frequently throughout “The Yellow Wallpaper.” The narrator constantly describes the wallpaper as a living entity and endows it with human characteristics. The increasing personification of the wallpaper throughout the story provides insight into the narrator’s deteriorating mental state.
"I find it hovering in the dining-room, skulking in the parlor, hiding in the hall, lying in wait for me on the stairs...."See in text(The Yellow Wallpaper)
Through personification—using words like “hovering,” “skulking,” and “hiding”—the narrator demonstrates how the odor seems to linger all throughout the house. The narrator does not realize however that this odor is the smell of decay. The smell follows her because it emanates from her body.
"It slaps you in the face, knocks you down, and tramples upon you. It is like a bad dream...."See in text(The Yellow Wallpaper)
Through a combination of second-person narration, personification, and simile, the narrator conveys how the wallpaper tortures her. With the second-person point of view, readers can understand firsthand the sort of mental unhinging the narrator experiences at each glance. Through personification, readers can grasp the figurative violence the wallpaper inflicts on the narrator as it “slaps,” “knocks,” and “tramples” her. Finally, the last phrase—the simile that likens the wallpaper to a nightmare—demonstrates the anxiety and unease it causes her.
"the interminable grotesques seem to form around a common centre and rush off in headlong plunges of equal distraction...."See in text(The Yellow Wallpaper)
“Grotesques” are depictions of mythical creatures, often used as architectural decorations. The grotesque-like caricatures in the wallpaper converge through a disordered interplay of horizontal, vertical, and diagonal lines—then suddenly disperse “in headlong plunges.” In the narrator’s mind, the images in the wallpaper become more and more turbulent, then suddenly disappear as maddeningly as they appeared.
"This paper looks to me as if it KNEW what a vicious influence it had!..."See in text(The Yellow Wallpaper)
Through personification, Gilman writes that the wallpaper looked as if it were mocking her. One spot on the wallpaper takes on the appearance of a face, as if two eyes attached to a loosely tethered neck were staring her down. The wallpaper takes on increasingly more grotesque imagery, as these eyes appear to move and crawl along the wall.
"it sticketh closer than a brother..."See in text(The Yellow Wallpaper)
Gilman personifies the wallpaper through her use of a saying drawn from Proverbs 18:24 in the King James Bible: “A man that hath friends must shew himself friendly: and there is a friend that sticketh closer than a brother.” This biblical allusion illustrates how closely the wallpaper sticks to the wall and how difficult it is to tear away.
