Despite the fact that the narrator initially feels that
the wallpaper is disgusting and frightening, she eventually comes to feel compassionate
toward the woman she believes is trapped behind the pattern of the paper (before she
believes it is actually herself). As she descends into mental illness, she strives to
help the trapped woman:
As soon as it was moonlight, and that poor thing
began to crawl and shake the pattern, I got up and ran to help
her.
I pulled and she shook, I shook and she pulled, and
before morning we had peeled off yards of paper.
And then
when the sun came and that awful pattern began to laugh at me I declared I would finish
it today!
It is clear that
the narrator is also removing the wallpaper because she feels it is mocking and
belittling her by laughing at her. Both the feeling of being trapped and the notion the
wallpaper is laughing at her are indicative of her relationship with her husband. She
is trying to save herself, essentially, by freeing herself.
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