“The Yellow WallPaper” Style Analysis
1st period
In the excerpt from “The Yellow Wallpaper,” Charlotte Perkins Gilman uses
diction and sentence structure to depict the narrator’s appearance of craziness. Gilman’s
word choice shows the paranoia of the speaker. A quick count of the one syllable words
shows that about 175 have only one syllable. There are only about 200 words in the entire
excerpt. This means that about 75% are monosyllabic. These short, choppy words
demonstrate bursts of thoughts that are sporadic. Since people who have psychotic
tendencies tend to be all over the place, the short words are appropriate. This shows that
diction gives the impression that the narrator is crazy. In addition, sentence structure,
which is also short & to the point, shows a lack of flow. For example, one of the
sentences in the middle of the passages states: “It is not bad—at first, and very gentle, but
quite the subtlest, most enduring odor I ever met.” This relatively short sentence is
broken into five obviously choppy parts, contributing to the feeling of insanity given to
the reader. Clearly, diction and sentence structure gives the impression that the narrator is
nuts.