Conflicts in "The Yellow Wallpaper"

In "The Yellow Wallpaper" by Charlotte Gilman, the narrator encounters conflicts with herself, her husband, and with nature.

The human vs. human conflict was between her and her husband. I believe part of her knows that he loves her and only wants the best for her as stated in paragraph 29, "He is very careful and loving, and hardly lets me stir without special direction." As the story progresses, and her mind regresses, she becomes suspicious of his motives. Paragraph 160 says, "The fact is I am getting quite afraid of John. He seems very queer sometimes." She tries to tell him what is going on, and even mentions in paragraph 141 "Better in body perhaps", but he doesn't want her to dwell on it in fear of her condition worsening.

The narrator also struggles with nature, mainly the sunshine and moonlight. Throughout the story, the narrator sees people walking in the deep-shaded arbors, the moonlight creeping in and either shaking the wallpaper or turning it into bars, while the "first long, straight rays" change it back. She becomes obsessed with the changes made in the moonlight, and begins to sleep during the day and not at night. Paragraph 212 "She said I slept a good deal in the daytime. John knows I don't sleep very well at night, for all I'm so quiet."

The final and most compelling conflict is human vs. self. Throughout the story, she faces battle after battle with her mind. She knows that her mind is faltering, but can't seem to differentiate between what is real, and what is a hallucination. She has tricked herself into believing that the children who lived there before her had "scratched, gouged, and splintered" (parag. 74) the floor, dug holes in the plaster, and stripped the wallpaper off in "great patches all around the head of my bed, about as far as I can reach, and in a great place on the other side of the room low down." (Parag. 33) She also belives that the bars on the windows and the rings in the wall was because "It was a nursery first and then playroom and gymnasium, I should judge." (Parag. 32) She admits in paragraph 90 that she ""cries at nothing, and cries most of the time." I think she knows in some part of her brain that what she is seeing isn't real, but as time goes on, she is less and less sure of this.