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Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in The Yellow Wallpaper, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Mental Illness and its Treatment
Gender Roles and Domestic Life
Outward Appearance vs. Inner Life
Self-Expression, Miscommunication, and Misunderstanding
Summary
Analysis
The narrator is feeling an improvement in her mood. She says the change is due to the wallpaper, although John doesn’t know that and she ‘has no intention of telling him.’ She is fascinated by its secrets and certain that, with the week remaining, she will be able to uncover them.
The narrator’s sense of purpose has returned with this ‘activity’ of sorts, but the reader can see that it is a dangerous obsession. She is no longer attempting to express her inner life to John.
Themes
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