In "The Yellow Wallpaper," by American writer Charlotte Perkins Gilman, the narrator is locked in an isolated room to recover from a "nervous depression," a common disorder of women in those times. She is also forbidden to work, so the lack of stimulation makes her become obsessed with the wallpaper.
The narrator's feelings of enclosure are related to how she perceives marriage - as an oppressive force of society which does not allow women to go beyond the family home.
