Human nature is complex. In order to remain healthy humans require of a multitude of essential elements, which supersede the basic needs of food, shelter and clothing. These essential elements include the natural human desire of attention, companionship, communication, and to be understood. In order to battle loneliness, achieve self-confidence and reach a point of happiness in ones life, it is only natural that one searches to satisfy these desires.

Charlotte Perkins Gilman vividly illustrations the journey for these human aspirations in "The Yellow Wallpaper". Gilman paints a horrific picture of how one woman loses touch with reality and engages in a battle with her own mind, including her conscious feelings and unconscious feelings, in an attempt to escape the unhappy and undesirable world that she lives in. However, this attempt at escape is the ultimate cause of the narrator loosing control over her impulses, resulting in primitive behavior, hallucinations and insanity. The actions and experiences that the narrator encounters can be analyzed through the psychoanalytical theories of Sigmund Freud.

The mind is not a stable function of the body. Based upon Fr

The world that the narrator's id creates is one of pure reality to her. In fact, she becomes certain that the other characters in the story want to tamper with this world that she is living in. This is evident when she says: "I have watched John when he did not know I was looking, and come into the room suddenly on the most innocent excuses, and I've caught him several times looking at the paper! And Jennie too. I caught Jennie with her hand on it once".

Hergenhahan states that Freud believes that "at birth...the entire mind consists of only the id." Therefore, the id is considered to be a pure element of the mind. The narrator is forced to think of primitive childhood memories of which is when she was pure and when her id was easily fulfilled. Recalling her childhood bedroom, she writes, " I remember what a kindly wink the knobs of our big, old bureau used to have, and there was one chair and feel safe". However, the narrator cannot run to her otherwise personal haven because she is already there. Therefore, the id needs to look even harder for safety and fulfillment. The place where she used to feel safe (her bedroom)is now what is causing her insanity. Furthermore, there is no chair that she can hop onto to save her. The only thing that can save her is the images in the wall. The narrator's id must free the trapped women by following her instinct and rip down the wallpaper. This will result in the narrator obtaining her freedom.

The ego arises in order for the mind to reach a point of reality by means of consciousness and searches for objects to satisfy the wishes that the id creates. The ego is the part of the personality that is shown to the world and "has no values...it follows society's rules only to avoid punishment". Therefore, it is often refereed to as the "reality principle". The ego tries to repress the id's urges and come up with a strategy, rather than a picture to help rationalize the mind. The ego thus helps the mind to control dangerous thoughts that can cause potential harm to the person's well being if the ego didn't come to the id's rescue. However, while the ego struggles to keep find a "safe" way to keep the id happy it often encounters many obstacles and struggles that threatens its goals.

The influence of the id can be depicted in the narrator's mind. As already established, the narrator knows that what is making her unhappy is the fact that she is forced into isolation against her own will. Since the wallpaper is the main object, and one of the only objects in the room, she becomes obsessed with it. In fact she says, "I'm getting fond of the room in spite of the wallpaper. Perhaps because the wallpaper". The id uses this obsession and focuses on the patterns in the wallpaper to try and fulfill her strong desire to escape from this isolation. The women that the narrator sees in the wallpaper is actually a reflection of herself. Just as the narrator is trapped in her room, the image of the woman is trapped in the wallpaper. She describes the front of the pattern as moving while "the woman behinds shakes it...she takes hold of the bars and shakes them hard". Since in reality, she sees no way to escape from this isolation, she lives vicariously through the image in the wallpaper. The women inside the wallpaper cannot bear to be trapped in it. Thus, the narrator's id can longer bear to look at the women being trapped. The only way for the women to escape is for the narrator to rip down the wallpaper.

The narrator also desperately yearns for companionship; though her husband and Jenny are present, she even says, " it is so discouraging not to have any advice and companionship about my work". After being repeatedly contradicted, patronized and silenced,

Some common words found in the essay are:
Hergenhahan Freud, Based Freud's, Jane I've, Wallpaper Gilman, Yellow Wallpaper, Freud Human, Sigmund Freud, Perkins Gilman, rip wallpaper, narrator's id, yellow wallpaper, id creates, women escape, mind narrator, mind ego, id unconscious level, rip wallpaper result, escape isolation, world dominated, ego doesn't, narrator rip wallpaper, women escape wallpaper, world dominated id,
Approximate Word count = 2527
Approximate Pages = 10 (250 words per page double spaced)