Charlotte Perkins Gilman's the Yellow Wallpaper

Charlotte Perkins Gilman's "The Yellow Wallpaper" stars a young wife, and her husband in their country side home. They, however, are not the average couple. The wife, Jane, is mentally insane. The true question of the novel is whether she was crazy before, or if her husband, John, drove her to the brink of insanity. In any case the concept of Jane's mental instability plays a vital role in establishing the larger themes of the story.

At the begging of the story Jane seems mentally stabile and spends her time describing the yellow wallpaper, and her dislike of it. By the end, however, Jane's stability is lost; she is a quivering helpless woman, who believes that she came out of the wallpaper. The important themes arise in the time between these events, in the span where Jane is losing her grip on insanity. It is during this time that the developing theme of relationships and trust within them forms. The traditional relationship is formed and throughout the piece we notice the changes of it. Jane trusts her relationship with John, in that she doesn't question it. Yet, she doesn't ignore his insistence on keeping the wall paper she feels is the cause of her troubles. She takes the role of the traditional wife, seemingly obedient and perfect, though there is evidence to suggest that he is trying to drive her crazy. First he tells her not to write, so she stops; then she begins again but only when John isn't home. Her defiance is followed with her establishing that John loves her, but doesn't understand her. Their relationship is a roller coaster between the lines.

The theme of relationships, and the changes of it that the couple goes through, is important in allowing the reader to question what caused Jane's insanity. It is entirely possible that Jane was insane by no fault of John. It was also possible that John meant to cause her loss of control, forcing her to be submissive to him. The decision is up to the reader, and the text allows for the reader to make either because of the means that Jane's insanity establishes the themes of the text.