"Now why should that man have fainted? But he did, and right across my path by the wall, so that I had to creep over him every time!..."See in text(The Yellow Wallpaper)
Gilman ends “The Yellow Wallpaper” on an ambiguous note. Readers can only guess what becomes of John and the narrator. Literary critics generally agree that if the story were to proceed further, the narrator would be sent to a mental hospital. Instead of receiving proper treatment, she would likely continue to live in confinement and isolation, her illness only becoming more and more aggravated.
"I pulled and she shook, I shook and she pulled, and before morning we had peeled off yards of that paper...."See in text(The Yellow Wallpaper)
The parallel structure and use of the pronouns “I” and “she” confuse and unite the narrator and her mirror image. As one performs one task, the other follows suit. Demonstrated through the use of the pronoun “we,” the two—or rather, one—peel off the wallpaper.
"Round and round and round—round and round and round—it makes me dizzy!..."See in text(The Yellow Wallpaper)
Although the narrator claims not to know, readers should recognize that the narrator is responsible for the “funny mark” on the lower portions of the wall. As she creeps around the room in her frenzied state, she forms a streak or “smooch” along the wall. The narrator states that she has become very dizzy—presumably from circling the room. The repetitive use of the word “round” demonstrates how frequently she has circled the room and how unhinged she has become.
"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.
"she had found yellow smooches on all my clothes and John's, and she wished we would be more careful!..."See in text(The Yellow Wallpaper)
At the time of Gilman’s writing, the word “smooch” referred to a stain or smudge. As the narrator tears away and peels at the wall, the yellow stain from the wallpaper transfers onto her clothes. The narrator believes that Jennie is touching the wallpaper to get a closer look at it and fails to realize that Jennie is actually more concerned with her strange and obsessive behavior.
"It is fortunate Mary is so good with the baby. Such a dear baby!..."See in text(The Yellow Wallpaper)
Here, readers encounter the first of only two times the narrator mentions her baby. From these few lines readers can gather the key information that the narrator’s baby is a boy who is cared for by a nursemaid, Mary. As the she states, the narrator does not spend very much time with her son because doing so causes her to become anxious and experience feelings of exhaustion and sadness. Readers can ascertain that her nervous condition may be the result of postpartum depression.
"He said that after the wall-paper was changed it would be the heavy bedstead, and then the barred windows, and then that gate at the head of the stairs, and so on.
..."See in text(The Yellow Wallpaper)
Notice how every element of the nursery room is intended to keep the narrator confined. The bedstead is nailed to the floor, the windows are barred, and the stairs are shut off by a gate. Despite the narrator’s plea to go downstairs, John insists that this confinement serves her some good. The narrator even begins to think so herself.
"We have been here two weeks, and I haven't felt like writing before, since that first day...."See in text(The Yellow Wallpaper)
Notice how Gilman does not attach specific dates to any of the journal entries; rather, each entry follows the next without a break, leaving it up to readers to follow the passage of time as signaled—or not signaled—by the narrator.
"At night in any kind of light, in twilight, candle light, lamplight, and worst of all by moonlight, it becomes bars! The outside pattern I mean, and the woman behind it is as plain as can be...."See in text(The Yellow Wallpaper)
Throughout the story, the narrator descends further into madness. Conversely, the image in the wallpaper becomes clearer. As the moonlight casts its glare onto the windows, the narrator finally perceives in the wallpaper an image of a woman behind bars. By now, readers should understand that the narrator is not seeing another woman but a reflection of herself in the yellow wallpaper. The narrator’s mirror image serves as a symbol for her own repressed self who desires to break free from the bars of forced subservience.
