The yellow wallpaper is the story of a woman’s struggle with depression as well as suppression. In an attempt to help his wife recover from her condition John rents a vacation home and hopes that the air and relaxation will make his wife “get well faster”. She begins by saying that her husband and brother are both doctor’s and concur that she is emotionally unwell, however, she doesn’t agree with their diagnoses of her. She believes that she should be able to work in order to feel better about herself. She says “Personally, I believe that congenial work, with excitement and change, would do me good”. Although she describes the house as lovely, unfortunately she doesn’t have the same feelings for the bedroom that John insisted they must stay in. The longer she spends cooped up in that room the more depressed she became. She goes on to describe the sickening color of the wallpaper and claims that it is maddening, something that will ultimately drive her crazy. Towards the end of the story however, she comes to realize that it’s the wallpaper that set her free. She claims to see a creeping woman, which we could interpret for a metaphor for her own state of mind, making the comparison that she also needed to “creep” and hide from her husband in order to do what really makes her happy, write.
