Setting in The Yellow Wallpaper Essay

The Use of Setting in the Yellow Wallpaper

In present day writings, readers see setting used to create, and enhance many aspects of a story. This technique of writing was also seen in a short story written in 1899, called The Yellow Wallpaper, by Charlotte Gilman. Through close evaluation, readers see how Gilman used the setting to create and enhance character, mood, theme, and plot in The Yellow Wallpaper.

The setting of this story told the readers how the characters should act. The narrator states that it was A colonial mansion, a hereditary estate (Perkins 1). This gave the reader the insight of knowing the story was in the late 1800s or early 1900s. While knowing this, the reader was able to understand why John acted a lot different than a physician in present times would. The setting also created the narrator. Through her journal she finds a comfort and sense of belonging. In this journal she describes the setting and imagery of the wallpaper. With close reading, readers see she is really describing herself and her illness. Gilman creates this character through the setting and imagery of the wallpaper.

Next, Gilman used setting to set the mood of the story. In the second sentence of the story, Gilman describes the place as a haunted house. This set the mood as being mysterious and intensifying. Later in the story, Gilman described the wallpaper in a sentence where the narrator states the sprawling outlines run off in great slanting waves of optic horror (4). This sentence showed another example of how Gilman used setting to create a mysterious and intensifying mood. With the setting, Gilman creates the mood and enhances it throughout the story with dramatic descriptions of the room with the yellow wallpaper and the house.

Readers then saw that Gilman used setting to develop the theme. This is the theme of humans dependence on the environment. Gilman showed that the narrator became drawn to the room and depended on the comfort of the wallpaper. Readers saw the narrators dependence on the room when she said, Im getting really fond of the room in spite of the wallpaper. Perhaps because of the wallpaper. It dwells in my mind so! (4). This quote by the narrator proved that she was becoming addicted to the setting of the room. Also, the setting of the mansion and the barred room showed how the narrator experienced being alone in seclusion and loneliness, along with her dependence on it because the realism of her becoming ill. With this addiction, Gilman created the theme of humans addiction to environment. It also proved that a human can be enhanced by an environment.

Not only has Gilman used setting to create and enhance character, mood, and theme, but she also used setting to enhance the plot. Gilman created the whole story based on the setting. The title, The Yellow Wallpaper, told the reader what the story was about before even reading. Without the setting of the wallpaper and room, there would be no plot. It is hard to describe the effect of the wallpaper without plot summary, but basically the narrator becomes drawn to the room of the yellow wallpaper. The role of the setting in this story was not to tell what happened, but where, when, and why certain events happened. The majority of the plot is the description of the setting.

Gilman created the story based on the setting. With close evaluation, readers see how she used setting for four different aspects of the story, which include character, theme, mood, and plot. In present writings, readers can see how authors use setting to enhance stories; just as Charlotte Gilman used simple techniques of setting to enhance her story, The Yellow Wallpaper.

Word Count: 600