The Yellow Wallpaper

     The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman is a short story published in 1892 about a woman with depression who journals without her husband's knowledge.  We as readers are never told specifically what she is afflicted by, but we can assume that it is some form of depression - possibly post-partum depression - as she mentions her new baby a few times.  The context is of this woman's husband wanting to heal his wife, but through arrogant means.  He treats her as a child and looks down on her as a woman, and she is naiive to this type of treatment, rationalizing by saying it's how her husband loves her and treats her kindly.
     Meanwhile, she is not allowed to recieve any sort of stimulation, believing it would overwhelm her and cause her to fall more into her illness.  She occupies her mind by desperately trying to figure out the pattern within the yellow wallpaper that decorates the room she needs to stay in.  She also writes without her husband's knowledge.  She eventually becomes obsessive to a point where she becomes unstable.
     If we look closer, there is much symbolism between the wallpaper and the patterns she finds within it, and her own self within her mind and marriage.  The varying symbolism fascinates me, as does just the story itself.  The sociological issues that arise within the context of publication, and the psychological issues within herself creates a fascinating dynamic.