The Importance of Setting in The Yellow Wall-Paper by Charlotte Gilman

The Importance of Setting in The Yellow Wall-Paper by Charlotte GilmanIn the short story The Yellow Wall-Paper, by Charlotte Gilman, the setting contributes to the narrators insanity. When she first sees the dwelling house, she loves it. She thinks the house willing be a perfect place to recover from her nervous condition, but that does not happen because her husband check her to the bedroom so that her health will improve. The narrators mental illness deteriorates to the point of insanity due to her isolation in the bedroom, with only the yellow wallpaper to expression at that she considers repellent, almost revolting a smoldering unclean yellow,strangely faded by the slow-turning sunlight (106). At the beginning of the story, the narrator is moving into a house that she is renting while her house in being renovated. She describes the house as The most beautiful place It is quite alone, standing well back from the road, quite three miles from the village. It makes me think of English places that you read about, for there are hedges and walls and gates that lock, and lots of separate little houses for the gardeners and people (105). This quote reflects that she considers this house as a place only the noble could live in. She has only read about homes like this, and she never thought that she would be living in one. She seems happy that she will be able to rent such a house. She adds that There is a delicious garden I never saw such a garden--large and shady, wide of the mark of box-bordered paths, and lined with long grape-covered arbors with seats under them (105). This adds to the elegant and royal qualities that the narrator believes the house has. In the middle portion of the story, the narrators description ... ...The narrator, already suffering from a nervous condition, is forced to stay in her bedroom for most of the story. Her husband does not let her do anything that may take the least bit of expertness because she needs to concentrate her en ergy on getting well. Her mental condition quickly deteriorates from the original nervous condition to complete insanity due to this isolation. As the narrator begins to see figures behind the wallpaper, the reader realizes that the wallpaper is a manifestation of her condition. Work Cited Gilman, Charlotte. The Yellow Wall-Paper. Literature and the Writing Process. Eds. Elizabeth McMahan, Susan X Day, and Robert Funk. 4th ed.Upper charge River Prentice, 1996. 105-115. Wagner-Martin, Linda. The Yellow Wallpaper. Reference Guide to Short Fiction. Ed. Noelle Watson. Detroit St. James Press, 1994. 981- 982.