The Yellow Wallpaper Forum

IT Represents realization of her own fluids.
she is repressed by paternal figures in a society that she feels repress her.
it could be any smell from the body.  She is having a hard time dealing with the fact that men think they know what she needs.  She needs to act like a good girl they say.  Good girls dont recongnize their body fluids.  Could be childbirth smells, sexual smells, or anything that is un-lady like.
the story is about women's repression, and the smell is a way at the time she wrote it to get women and men thinking.

Awesome analysis on "odor."  Perhaps our "Jane Doe" simply has not showered considering the fact that he is indeed depressed - A classic symptom of depression as we know it today.  After all, she is one with the wallpaper. 

Interesting thought on "Jane" not liking her own odors, (childbirth, etc.) all of which represent femininity.  Maybe she detests the odors because it is her very femininity that oppress her.

I will be teaching a class on this short story shortly.

Thoughts?