An Interpretation of TheYellow Wallpaper

by Brandi Mahon

There are many differences and simularities in the interpretation of the reading we watched on the story The Yellow Wallpaper and the interpretation that I came to terms with as I read the story myself. As I read, I had the feeling of anxiety that the narrator had as she felt "locked up" in the room which served as her cage. The men in her life were controlling her every aspect in her life, even down to the emotional release she had the ability to write. I never seem to gain the sense that she was "insane" until I saw the movie. As I read I did sense that this isolation did in some way contribute to her inability to determine reality and fantasy but it never crossed my mind that she was already on her way to the mental house before arriving to this estate to "rest". The one simularity I did notice was not really stated in the story but was indeed my interpretation. That was that the narrator saw herself as the woman creeping around the garten and she was indeed also the woman in the cage trying to get out. I feel overall the movie did not fullfill my idea of what the story was about.