Charlotte P. Gilman's story "The Yellow Wallpaper" can be read from the perspective of various literary critiques.
While all these perspectives have their strong points as well as their weaknesses, I want to discuss in my paper the significance of the wallpaper in the story as presenting the different aspects of the madness of its female protagonist. The main theme of the story appears to me to be the insanity of the female protagonist, which is also the interpretation made by its first critics and officially acknowledged by the author. However, additional interpretations of the main theme may arise, drawn from the feminist and racial perspectives. I would like to integrate these readings into my argument by using the points made by Susan S. Lanser and Denise D. Knight. According to this combined interpretation, the wallpaper as seen by the female protagonist going insane, appears at first to look like the numerous frightening "sickly" (Gilman, 2) yellow "bulbous eyes" (3) whose trace cannot be followed, which may represent the unconscious disgust the speaker feels towards the "yellow" minorities of her country, whom she cannot understand (the interpretation proposed by Lanser), perhaps due to the difference in the national characters. However, later on the visage of the paper evolves, and changes in the protagonist's imagination to the shape of a "creeping" single woman trying to break free from her bondage, a counterpart of the protagonist in her struggle against the oppressive background (as interpreted by Knight).