The yellow background can be interpreted to embody many qualities regarding the narrator. The narrator exclaims: “It's the strangest mystery, that wallpaper! It makes me think of all the yellow things I ever saw, not pretty like buttercups, but old yellow things, disgusting and evil” (Gilman 316). The color yellow is often associated with illness or weakness, and the narrator's mysterious illness is a fitting example of the husband's oppression of the narrator. The connection to color and the narrator can also imply how the narrator despises herself. He even states that the wallpaper “…It bothered me at first. I seriously thought about burning the house down, to smell it. But now I'm used to it…” (Gilman 317). This exposes her internal perception of herself. She feels disgusted and disturbed by herself, but has gotten used to being cared for