I'm getting really fond of the room in spite of the wallpaper. Perhaps because of the wallpaper

I'm getting really fond of the room in spite of the wallpaper. Perhaps because of the wallpaper

In Charlotte Perkins Gilman's iconic short story "The Yellow Wallpaper," the narrator expresses conflicting feelings towards the room she is confined to, due to her husband's prescription of the rest cure for her supposed nervous condition. The room is described as having yellow wallpaper that the narrator finds repulsive at first, but as the story progresses, she becomes increasingly fascinated by it. The quote "I'm getting really fond of the room in spite of the wallpaper. Perhaps because of the wallpaper" encapsulates the complex relationship the narrator has with her surroundings and her own mental state.

At the beginning of the story, the narrator despises the room and its wallpaper. She describes it as "repellent, almost revolting; a smouldering unclean yellow, strangely faded by the slow-turning sunlight." The wallpaper becomes a symbol of her confinement and oppression, mirroring her own deteriorating mental state. As she becomes more isolated and deprived of stimulation, she fixates on the wallpaper, seeing patterns and shapes that seem to come alive.

However, as the story progresses, the narrator's feelings towards the room begin to shift. She starts to see the wallpaper as a source of comfort and companionship, as she projects her own emotions and desires onto it. The wallpaper becomes a reflection of her own inner turmoil and a means of expressing her suppressed creativity and agency. In a way, the wallpaper becomes a metaphor for the narrator's own struggle for autonomy and self-expression in a patriarchal society that seeks to silence and control her.

Ultimately, the quote "I'm getting really fond of the room in spite of the wallpaper. Perhaps because of the wallpaper" highlights the narrator's complex and contradictory feelings towards her confinement. The room and its wallpaper become a metaphor for the oppressive forces that seek to silence and subjugate women, but also a symbol of the narrator's resilience and defiance in the face of adversity. Through her evolving relationship with the wallpaper, the narrator asserts her own agency and asserts her own identity, reclaiming her voice and her autonomy in a society that seeks to erase her.