Sanity or Insanity?

Despite the narrator's odd character, I actually believe she has sanity within her, still. True, she suffers from postpartum depression as she narrates the story. In reality, many women suffer from this form of depression after experiencing childbirth. I know my mother went through phases of depression after giving birth to both me and my younger sister. Now, would it be reasonable to single the narrator out by labeling her as insane, when numerous mothers suffer from this disease sometime in their life? Perhaps, readers label the narrator's condition as 'insanity' because she is writing during the time of experiencing her postpartum depression. It's not like she's crazy 24/7 for no particular reason!

The narrator frequently discusses how she does her own version of a 'close reading' of the wallpaper. She mentions how the paper, "looks to [her] as if it knew what a vicious influence it had!" (2 right). She also indicates that "the whole thing goes horizontally, too, at least it seems so, and [she exhausts herself] in trying to to distinguish the order order of its going in that direction" (3 right). Sure, she may sound a little loopy, going into detail about wallpaper, but what else is she supposed to do? Think about it: This poor woman is still healing from childbirth; she is suffering from postpartum depression; she has to live in submission to her husband; she is confined to a former nursery room where the "windows are barred" (1 right). The only 'acceptable' thing to do, from a male's perspective (since men were dominant), is to look around. It just so happens that the interesting yellow, wallpaper pattern tends to grasp the narrator's attention, provoking her to wholly consume herself in its unfamiliar pattern. In the pattern she imagines a woman who, too, is trapped, and is trying to escape.

In fact, the narrator attempts to keep record of the wallpaper woman's progress and activities, such as creeping, in an effort to occupy her mind and imagine escaping herself. Think about it: The narrator mentions that the woman is striving to "climb through" because the wallpaper and it's print "strangles so" (5 right). Similarly, the narrator also wishes she could break free and not have to be submissive to her husband all the time. Towards the beginning of "The Yellow Wallpaper," the narrator says "There comes John, and I must put this away--he hates me to write a word," as if she can't do anything without her husband's approval (2 left). Obviously, no one likes to be controlled. Seemingly, the narrator would like to escape oppression if she had the chance to. With this common desire to escape, both the woman in the wallpaper and the narrator can relate. Since the only way the narrator can escape is in her imagination, she mentally relates to the mysterious woman, to help cope with her current situation of confinement.