The way I see it, the wallpaper is the way men, John, want women to be, or think women are. Nash Kevanyu summed this idea up very well: “Wallpaper is actually meant to represent a mold into which all women should fit” (Kevanyu, Nash). The narrator describing the background is actually her describing what it should be like. According to Gilman, men want women to be “dull enough to confuse the eye in following, pronounced enough to constantly irritate and provoke study, and when following for a while limp and uncertain curves them. . . destroy themselves in unprecedented contradictions". This means that men want women to be superficial, beautiful to a certain extent, and curvy but not intelligent. These standards that John wants his wife to also meet are what drives the narrator crazy. Her constant study of the wallpaper is an attempt to understand what John wants her to be. As stated in the story, the background changes, follows no pattern, and is difficult to follow. Johns standards are difficult to follow, constantly changing, and lack consistency