How does the narrator's illness free her in The Yellow Wallpaper?

Answer 1

The story 'The Yellow Wallpaper' is extremely psychological in its nature and explores mostly, the demerits of suppressed creativity and other feminist themes in its narration.

The story is told through the first person narrative's point of view and her voice is an unreliable one, for, the character is already known to have a psychological disorder, the words uttered by whom need to be filtered with skepticism. An analysis of a greater representation of an idea that is inclusive in the story must be hunted for and delved into.

The voice of the narrator is a representation of a cause of a gradual consequence of a psychological breakdown that must be understood through the inadvertent revelation of the seemingly factual narrator. She begins constructing a character of her kind, suppressed and barred from natural disposition, in the yellow wall-paper which ultimately becomes the cause of her desired freedom, though a psychological one. She wants to take out her own representation (the woman) out of the bars of the yellow wallpaper. With the woman's freedom she will be free too, for, the woman behind the bars is none but she.

The intention of the author in portraying such happenings is to explore the conflict between creativity and rationality. Though her creativity is curbed, the woman makes the wall paper a means to imagine her freedom. The role of woman as a good housewife and a mother is critically countered too, for a woman must also be given a freedom to explore, experiment, imagine, construct and create.

In such prison of social norms, the only escape for the woman is insanity and none but the same happens in the story.

Answer 2

The narrator's illness allows her to detach from societal expectations and constraints, giving her the freedom to explore her own thoughts and desires. It also leads her to question the oppressive nature of her marriage and the patriarchal influences in her life. Ultimately, her illness serves as a catalyst for her rebellion and self-discovery.