Ghosts and invisible forces cause nervous glances over one's shoulder, accelerate the heartbeat and provoke one to hide under a blanket, but what if invisible forces were not the cause of terror, can the mind create like this so afraid that we see things and create demons that truly terrify? Charlotte Perkins Gilman's "The Yellow Wallpaper" showcases this scenario for its audience as the wallpaper haunts the unnamed narrator. As her mind slowly plays tricks on her, she begins to see things, impossible things within the paper. Suffering from an unknown disorder, perhaps postpartum depression, the illness and the time she spends alone contribute to her descent into madness. When she and her husband move into a rented house, she reveals an immediate aversion to the wallpaper in her bedroom, and over the course of the story her hatred of wallpaper slowly becomes an obsession. “I'm becoming very fond of the room despite the wallpaper. Maybe BECAUSE of the wallpaper. It stays in my mind like that” (Gilman)! Trapped in her own home and in her own mind, she is haunted by something other than ghosts and demons, and that is more terrifying than you might imagine. Watching the narrator lose his sanity can be more terrifying for readers than simply seeking an otherworldly experience. be or a logical explanation. In “The Yellow Wallpaper” he is aware of his repulsion for wallpaper, yet he is unaware of the disturbing consequences it has on his mind. “He first thought I was sleeping, but I wasn't, and he stood there for hours trying to decide whether that front pattern and the back pattern were really moving together or separately” (Gilman). Most stories try to terrify in a predictable and more traditional way, “The Red Room” by HG Wells is terrifying in...... middle of paper...... internal struggle, is extremely unaware of the effects totals that the wallpaper has on her. Fear is the first ingredient of every horror story, but when mixed with a demented mind, as is the case with storytellers, terror truly takes on a whole new meaning. The paranormal, ghosts, spirits and demons are intangible to anyone but the narrator, but as she dives headfirst into her own reality she takes the reader deeper into the world she resides in, where she is allowed to creep in and the only thing left to do is watch the terror unfold. Works Cited Perkins Gilman, Charlotte. The Yellow Wallpaper, November 1, 1999. Gutenberg.org, ebook.Rao, KV Rama. “The Yellow Wallpaper: A Dynamic Symbol: A Story Study by Charlotte Perkins Gilman.” Poetcrit 19.1 (2006): 38-44. Literary reference center Plus. Web.Wells, HG The Red Room. October 27, 2007. Gutenberg.org, ebook.