The Yellow Wallpaper is a short story by the American writer Charlotte Perkins Gilman, first published in January 1892 in The New England Magazine. It is regarded as an important early work of American feminist literature, illustrating attitudes in the nineteenth century toward women’s physical and mental health. The narrator of “The Yellow Wallpaper” is a paradox: as she loses touch with the outer world, she comes to a greater understanding of the inner reality of her life. As the narrator sinks further into her inner fascination with the wallpaper, she becomes progressively more dissociated from her day-to-day life. When the narrator finally identifies herself with the woman trapped in the wallpaper, she is able to see that other women are forced to creep and hide behind the domestic “patterns” of their lives, and that she herself is the one in need of rescue. The horror of this story is that the narrator must lose herself to understand herself. She has untangled the pattern of her life, but she has torn herself apart in getting free of it. I read this story in high school and it has stuck with me since. The story struck me as interesting espeically because I too wrote down my feelings and were able to relate. However, it wasn’t until recently in life and my new found place in the music industry that I started reconsidering my inner self. When I sat down to reevaluate my life and the people surrounding me, I found that I am closer and to myself and my craft than I ever have been, but like the woman in the story; it took me to loose myself to find myself again.


Sheila D Yeah

A small-but-committed group of writers, bloggers and videographers that (mostly) exist and function all over the D.C. Metro area.