Descriptions The Yellow Wallpaper The descriptive elements in The Yellow Wallpaper go a long way in enhancing the reader's perception of the particular kind of madness that afflicts the narrator. The descriptions, particularly of the background itself, are multi-sensory, artful and detailed. Using metaphorical imagery and surprising combinations of words, the narrator offers readers numerous ways to experience wallpaper. In the line about the wallpaper: "...they connect diagonally, and the sprawling outlines escape in great oblique waves of optical horror, like many seaweeds splashing in full chase." The combinations of words “optic horror” and similar are unusual and sensorial. This serves to increase the reader's interest and draw them more effectively into the description. Furthermore, the range of wallpaper descriptions not only covers several intense and detailed visual descriptions, but also an equally detailed olfactory description. The narrator describes the smell of the wallpaper in the following lines: But there's something else in that paper: the smell! I noticed it as soon as we entered the room, but with lots of air and sun it wasn't bad. Now we've had a week of fog and rain, and whether the windows are open or not, the smell is here. It creeps throughout the house. I find him lingering in the dining room, hiding in the living room, hiding in the living room. corridor, waiting for me on the stairs. It gets in my hair. Even when I go riding, if I suddenly turn my head and surprise him, there is that smell! Such a unique smell too! I spent hours trying to analyze it, to find out what it smelled like. It's not bad, it's very subtle at first, but it's definitely the most subtle and long-lasting smell I've ever encountered. In this humid weather it's terrible. I wake up at night to find him looming over me. At first it bothered me. I seriously thought about burning down the house to smell it. But now I'm used to it. The only thing I can think of is the color of the paper! A yellow smell. Also following are the two most important descriptions of the wallpaper (paragraphs removed to save space): I have never seen worse wallpaper in my life.