Final answer:
By the end of “The Yellow Wallpaper,” the narrator identifies with a woman she imagines trapped in the wallpaper, symbolizing her struggle against the societal and mental constraints imposed upon her, culminating in her own psychological breakdown.
Step-by-step explanation:
In Charlotte Perkins Gilman's “The Yellow Wallpaper”, the story concludes with the narrator's mental state deteriorating as she becomes increasingly obsessed with the wallpaper in her room. The narrator starts to believe that there is a woman trapped within the patterns of the wallpaper, which is symbolic of the oppression of women and the protagonist's struggle for self-expression amidst the constraints imposed upon her. Despite her husband John's prescribed “rest cure,” which forbids her from writing and engaging in intellectual activity, the wallpaper serves as a focal point for her deteriorating mental state, reflecting her growing awareness of her confinement both physically and mentally. By the end of the story, she is convinced that she herself is the woman in the wallpaper who must be freed, resulting in a climax that suggests a break from societal constraints, though at the cost of her sanity.