The Yellow Wallpaper

In what ways does Charlotte Perkins Gilman´s “The Yellow Wallpaper” show effective use of short story conventions and structure?

“The Yellow Wallpaper” presents the use of short story conventions and structure. To begin with we have the use of short story conventions, in which they cover a short period of time, or deal with a single event in their plot. In this story we can appreciate its effective use, by showing us how everything is connected with a main issue: the illness of the women. “(…) he does not believe I am sick!” p.81 We can also support the idea by saying that the whole story takes place on the three months they have rented the house, that is an established period of time.

Then we also have two main characters in the story that are the narrator: the women, and her physician husband: John. “If a physician of high standing, and one´s own husband (…)”p.81 Here we can infer that the narrator is in 1^st person and is the women that is writing; and through the whole story we can see that are like her journal entries.

We also have the fact that the actions have taken place in one setting that in this case would be the house: the hallucinations the main characters goes through are in the house, all her nightmares and meetings with the wallpaper. “He said that after the wallpaper was changed it would be the heavy bedstead, and then the barred windows (…)”p.85   

Furthermore, we have the other side of the structure; in which at the beginning a context or a situation is presented. Here we have the visit of the couple that wants to rent the house for the summer. “(…) secure ancestral halls for the summer” p.81

Also the fact that in the middle of the story a main character has to deal with problems that would be the hallucinations the women suffer that are supposedly due to stress. But this torment is not the first time to appear, she remembers that as a child she had suffered from been haunted as same as now. To sum up, we have demonstrated how well the author has used these techniques that helped the story to have a better structure and organization. And as well we can easily recognize the themes and the main actions in this story.