One example or irony is when the wife says:
I sometimes fancy that in my condition if I had less opposition and more society and stimulus—but John says the very worst thing I can do is think about my condition, and I confess it always makes me feel bad. So I will let it alone and talk about the house.
This mental struggle (focusing on the house instead of her situation) this desperate attempt not to think about her unhappiness, makes her feelings onto her surroundings, especially the wallpaper, which becomes a symbolic image of “her condition.” She feels bad whenever she thinks about her “condition,” that is, about both her depression and her condition in general within her oppressive marriage.
