The wildly popular short story “The Yellow Wallpaper” written by Charlotte Perkins Gilman is a gripping story of a woman with mental illness. Every aspect of this story contributes to its success, including the characters and their interactions, the plot, the setting, the most apparent symbols, the point of view used, and the overall message of the story. This story is an excellent depiction of mental illness in the time it was written – misunderstood and feared. “The Yellow Wallpaper” is about a woman struggling with what we now know to be postpartum depression. She is having a nervous breakdown, and her husband, who is also her doctor, takes her to a house away from her life so that she can “rest”. This rest treatment literally consists of nothing; no writing, no drawing, just rest. In fact, this rest drove her crazy and she suffered a complete break with reality (Trimmer). The two main characters in the story are the narrator and her husband John who is her doctor. These characters greatly influence the story in many ways. In addition to the narrator playing a pivotal role because it is his story, without John the narrator would never have received rest treatment and would have ultimately escaped his depression through creative expression. Without John, the style of writing the story would be very different. Because the narrator was not allowed to do anything other than rest, she had to write chunks of writing between each time she saw him. The plot greatly affects the story. The narrator recently had a child and suffers from postpartum depression. When her husband takes her to a new house for the summer, he thinks it's best to keep her alone in an upstairs bedroom for the sake of his...... middle of paper ... ... wife repressed by her doctor husband. We can all learn something from "Yellow Wallpaper": things always get worse before they get better, but once you're down, there's only one way to get back up: back up. It's always worth fighting for your rights as a human being. Works Cited Cangialosi, Kristin E. ""The Yellow Wallpaper"" Plot Summary. University at Buffalo, State University of New York, 2013. Web. March 24, 2014. Gilman, Charlotte P. “The Yellow Wallpaper.” The Sundance Introduction to Literature. By Joseph F. Trimble. Np: Thompson Wadsworth, 2007. 1089+. Print.Thomas, Deborah. "The Changing Role of Femininity: From Real Woman to New Woman in Charlotte Perkins Gilman's 'The Yellow Wallpaper'." Gilman, “Yellow Wallpaper,” Florida Gulf Coast University, nd Web. March 24, 2014. “Yellow Wallpaper Characters.” » Notes saver. Grade Saver LLC, nd Web. March 23. 2014.