Charlotte Perkins Gilman's short story "The Yellow Wallpaper" is a literary exaggeration of Gilman's personal battle with depression that not only exploits the flaws in the perception of the Depression in the late 1800s, but also the flaws in that society's view of women. Presented in the form of a diary, the entry documents a three-month stay in a remote mansion where the narrator's doctor husband, John, who told friends and family that there had “really nothing serious with [his wife]”, brought her. as a sort of sabbatical leave, in the hope of treating his “nervous breakdown” (394, par. 10). The diary format comes from the fact that the narrator is not openly allowed to write or “work” as part of her treatment. The ledger becomes his secret confidant as well as a map of how his depression turns into full-blown psychosis. Having been instructed by her husband not to focus on her illness, she sets her sights on the yellow "flamboyant patterns committing all artistic sins" on the wallpaper of the converted attic/nursery that John has commandeered as a bedroom for him. summer (395, para. 34). As the narrator submits to gifts from her husband and her sister Jennie, her depression seems to transform into a state of paranoid hallucinations fueled by her obsession with yellow wallpaper. Eventually, the inner turmoil manifests itself in a very outward way and bursts into full madness, with the narrator believing she is the woman she saw in the wallpaper trying to escape. Having noted the slow decline of the narrator from imaginative and independent to submissive and secretive, this hits home for me personally, as I have suffered from depression in my personal life. I intend to identify...... middle of paper ......ge/ReferenceDetailsWindow?displayGroupName=Reference&disableHighlighting=false&prodId=SUIC&action=2&catId=&documentId=GALE%7CCX3470800268&userGroupName=lftla_pultch&jsid=ba2a9816fea4773bf2d1b3da34a59 a1b>Tre Ichler , Paula A. “Escaping the sentence: diagnosis and discourse in “The Yellow Wallpaper”. Tulsa Studies in Women's Literature, Vol. 3, n° 1/2, Feminist questions in literary research (spring - autumn 1984), pp. 61-77. JSTOR. Pulaski Technical College Library, AR. November 22, 2011. Wiedemann, Barbara. “The yellow wallpaper.” Short Fiction: A Critical Companion. 1997. Literary Reference Center. EBSCO host. Pulaski Technical College Library, AR. November 22. 2011.