“The Yellow Wallpaper” is a short story that examines many social issues that exist in today’s society from mental illness, misdiagnosis in the medical profession, and the many different forms of societal, familial, and mental confinement.  The author uses the written words of the narrator to tell the story in a very easily read format.  As a couple moves into a new home for a three month stay, the narrator describes the events that take place in her new surroundings and examines her thoughts and feelings to bring further insight to the reader.  The author uses many different binary opposites, namely freedom and confinement, to showcase the events of the story and bring about a deeper understanding of what is exactly is happening the new home and how the characters respond.

The narrator never truly is allowed to experience the real joys of freedom during the story.  It is clear that she longs for the freedom and release of her everyday habits that are forced upon her by many different people and objects simultaneously.  However, the author, Charlotte Gilman, showcases multiple levels of freedom that exist within the mind and surroundings of the narrator.  First, there is the freedom of the mind and body that would otherwise allow the narrator to not experience such sickness and nervous depression as she does.  The main supporting characters within the story are medical professionals, her husband and brother, and neither believes that she is truly sick and that the problems are all in her mind.  The next level of freedom that is discussed is the actual physical freedom, which the narrator never is allowed to truly have as well.  There are cases where she is free to move about the house or the yard to receive her daily exercise; however, the author focuses more on the forms of confinement within the short story than on the actual capabilities of receiving true freedom.

There are several instances of confinement within the short story that Gilman uses to emphasize precisely how trapped the narrator is in her relationships, surroundings and mental states.  The first form of confinement that is described early on in the story is that of the narrator’s relationship with her husband.  While she claims to be sick and nervously depressed, the narrator’s husband and brother both declare that the problems are with her mind and that she is not actually sick.  She is confined to the opinions of those closest to her and is not able to seek additional medical treatment without her husband giving his opinion to the doctor.  The reader is shown that she is confined in her illness by John, the husband.  Furthermore, she is confined in her behaviors by John because he will not allow her to write freely, a habit that she very much enjoys.  It comes to light later in the story that John believes the narrator is ill because of the writing.  Each time she suggests a specific action or behavior to her husband, John quickly shuts it down and attributes it to the illness or a lack of sleep.  She is not allowed to go visit with her family and she is not allowed to sleep in one of the downstairs bedrooms, all because of the actions of her husband.  In many cases, it can be argued that he is her biggest source of confinement.

The next level of confinement is in the surroundings of the characters.  The house itself is a form of confinement.  The room that she sleeps in every day and comes to spend all night in lying awake examining the wallpaper has bars in the windows, similar to that of a jail cell or prison.  The narrator informs the reader through her diary that the room was originally a child’s play room, which is the reasoning behind the bars in the windows.  The only true freedom she has to perform the writing she longs for is to lock the door to her room and confine herself into the room safe from the observation of John and his sister Jennie who is staying with the family to look after their child and the narrator during the day.  A twist in the environmental confinement throughout the story exists with the woman that is confined behind the wallpaper, only visible by the narrator.