The Yellow Wallpaper Analysis

Charlotte, the author of the story, was not completely well. She suffered from a nervous disorder which caused her to hallucinate and imagine things that were far from true. Though she battled with these hallucinations, they eventually got the better of her. Luckily for Charlotte, this creativity works through her pen and gives her brilliant stories. Throughout this story, Gilman tells us about a certain part of her life where she lived in a large estate. Though this was supposed to make her better, in reality it worsened things.
Gilman uses an unintentional form of pathos throughout the narration, lulling the readers to believe what she is saying. For this reason, throughout the first half of the story she seems like a woman with a minor disorder. However, as events unfold, we see her to be well worse off. Her writing becomes more desperate and she seems obsessed with the wallpaper that she thinks confines her. With the diction, it was easy to see the transition between her being almost normal and changing into an insane woman. This tool of transition is very effective and keeps the reader interested, it makes us want to know what happens in the end.
Realism is displayed while describing the house, in particular the yellow wallpaper. She described it in so many ways, we can’t possibly decide on how it looked. From Gilman’s perspective, the wallpaper did look different at different times of the day. But as readers, we know that it is impossible for wallpaper to change as she describes it. Our thoughts are confirmed by her husband’s reaction. This is more proof that Charlotte is far from normal. Her description of the wallpaper once again shows how obsessed she becomes with it. Though at the beginning she would talk about her life and her husband, but near the end all she talked about was the wallpaper, the woman behind it, and how she would capture the woman. It is at this point where the story becomes even more interesting. Still, throughout the whole story, she makes a pathos appeal as though she were doing everything right, and everyone else was wrong.
Charlotte may not have made these appeals purposely, and she may not have been fully aware of her condition, but it resulted in an engaging story about a part of her life. She realistically explained her everyday life in a way we could understand, inviting us into her events and thoughts. We find out things about her before they are revealed to the characters of the story. This foreshadowed an odd ending, and that is what we got from it. By the end the reader could be positive that she was insane. But whether she was insane or not, a story can always be made better. Although she used an appeal of pathos very well, she had very little ethos or logos. This is most likely because she does not relate to most people that way. If she had used it, it may have been ineffective and taken away from the story.
The story was written very well overall. There are no obvious mistakes I can see, she attracts the readers and keeps them reading throughout. The story develops almost perfectly, where we can actually see the change in the main character. Charlotte uses realism in explaining both the wallpaper and her relationship with her husband. Because the reader is able to relate to her in these aspects, she keeps them interested in the story.