Throughout history, we see how women in literature are usually depicted as weak and inferior in comparison to men. Charlotte Gilman's short story titled, “The Yellow Wallpaper” was written to resemble a heavy period in Gilman's life. After the birth of her daughter in 1886, gilman suffered from a bout of postpartum depression and was placed on a rest cure. She places an emphasis on feminism in her stories and in the yellow wallpaper, she uses her experience and her beliefs. Gilman uses literary devices such as personification, similes, and dramatic irony in her short story “the yellow wallpaper” to emphasize the torment the wallpaper is imposing upon the main character while affected with depression.
Gilman uses personification when describing the wallpaper and references it as being a living entity. The wallpaper first begins as a symbol of the domestic life the narrator experiences but as the story progresses it becomes a person, more specifically a woman. Omar Mukhar mentions in his article about the psychology behind “the yellow wallpaper” that “what begins as a "temporary nervous depression" rapidly becomes a florid psychosis with the wallpaper serving as a focal point.” (Mukhar 10) Through the personification of the wall paper it reveals her true inner psyche and how mentally ill she truly is. Another point I would like to bring up is because of the personification of the wallpaper becoming a women, it becomes a metaphor for how she sees herself. Gilman writes that "a woman creeping on all fours, trying to escape the bars from the shadows." The main character sees herself as a woman trying to escape behind bars and is desperately trying to crawl away from her husband, the wallpaper and her become one person. Through the use of characterization in "the yellow wallpaper", more specifically indirect characterization, it allows readers insight to the narrators innermost thoughts and feelings and places emphasis on it. As readers, we get a vague description of this women and how bizarre she really is. We don't know her name or what she looks like instead we know her personality which paints a different picture to readers. On the other hand, we have a direct characterization of her husband, john, who is described to be “practical” and “has no patience for faith” by his wife. Although the wife could be a unreliable narrator due to her unstable mental state thus we can’t trust hers characterization of her husband and her surroundings. For example, later in the story she describes him as being “so queer” which is hard contrast from the beginning of the story which emphasizes the contrast of her capability as a narrator.
By using dramatic irony when describing the relationship between the husband and wife, it forces readers to truly understand how the wife feels from her side. Although in the beginning John seemed to be a husband that cares about his wife’s wellbeing he actually tampers with her happiness by placing her on a rest cure. He insists that she needs to stop working but it is clear that the narrator suffers from boredom which worsens her condition. Throughout the story, she becomes aware of her situation that her husband is a doctor who is completely unaware of her true mental state and is actually doing more worse than good. It is also used when she first describes the room she is staying in as having a nailed down bed and bars on the windows. She attributes this to the fact that the room used to be a nursery when in fact it sounds like a room that used to house an insane person. Towards the end of the story, the effect becomes exemplified when the reader sees her from the outside as she begins identifying as the women in the wallpaper. To which the reader finally connects with Johns reaction to the narrator's breakdown at the end.
Charlotte Gilman communicates her experience of postpartum depression in this story through the use of characterization, personification and dramatic irony which can be seen in many of her other works. Her experience of postpartum depression is exemplified by these literary devices in connections with the yellow wallpaper. Gilman's feminist writings can inspire any women of any era to stand up and assert for themselves in all situations.