The color yellow is often associated with sickness or weakness, and the writer’s
mysterious illness is a symbol of man’s oppression of the female sex. The two
windows from which the writer often peers out of, observing the world but apart
from it, is representative of the possibilities of women if seen as equals by
the opposite sex. The story “The Yellow Wallpaper,” written by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, was
interesting with deep symbolic undertones. The story starts out with John and
his wife moving to a colonial estate for the summer. Meanwhile, the woman finds
the mansion to be “a haunted house” and still she thought it had something
queer about it. This estate and her environment have much to do with this
woman’s fate. The woman just had a baby, so most of her depression could come
from this big event in her life but the baby is only mentioned a few times near
the beginning of the story. After she settles in the new house, the yellow
wallpaper starts to bother her, which is a key turning point in this woman’s
life. “The Yellow Wallpaper” is symbolic for the main character’s sanity and her
entrapment, physically and mentally. As the story progresses, so does the main character. The main character that
speaks in first person, believes that she is sick. John, her husband, as well as
her brother are both physicians. They two believe she is sick. John on the other
hand treats his wife with an almost demeaning attitude, calling her little
girl, and little goose. He treats her as a child at times, plus doesn’t really
listen.
The yellow wallpaper acts like a mental entrapment for the main character. At
the end of the story, the main character rips down the yellow wallpaper to
release the woman behind the paper. This was symbolic because even though she
saw a woman, this woman was her. When the narrator was angry she put that onto
the wallpaper, so that is why she ripped the wallpaper down. She was trapped
behind the pattern and she couldn’t move from it. This is the point where her
sickness has gotten to the worst extent. This woman is full on crazy now. The
wallpaper led her to create her own madness. The main character says in the
story, There are things in the wallpaper that nobody knows about but me, or
ever will. Not even John knew what was really going on because he was
always working and never took his wife’s thoughts too seriously. The yellow wallpaper also acts as physical entrapment to the main character. The
wallpaper blocks her into that small room. She feels like she cannot get better
in that room. In a sense she can’t get better in that room because of the things
preventing her from resting. Her eyes are constantly on the yellow wallpaper.
Forcing her to scrutinize the detailed pattern. Her mind also feels she cannot step away from the
wallpaper.The underlying symbol of the yellow wallpaper is the main
character’s sanity. As the wallpaper changes so does the character’s attitude
towards herself. When the character changes or progresses so does the main
character. The yellow wallpaper itself is the most obvious symbol in this story. The
wallpaper represents the main charcater's mind set during this time. It further
symbolizes the way women were perceived during the 19th century. The wallpaper
cannot be categorized into any particular type. It contains patterns, angles,
and curves that all contradict one another, and it can be seen the same could be
said for the wife's emotions during this time. The nursery is a symbol of the
way women of this time were seen as being on the same level as children. The
barred windows are symbols of the confinement of women during this time with
respect to the perception of what a woman's role was. The narrator's tearing down the wallpaper in an attempt to find the woman in
the wallpaper represents her struggle to retain or regain her sanity. The
wallpaper has been part of her confinement and by her tearing it down, she is
freeing herself from that confinement. Another symbol is the narrator's
writings in her notebook and the notebook itself. Both represent the narrator's
attempt to have normalcy and sanity during this horrible ordeal of being locked
in her room. Despite being told by her husband that he wants to limit the
amount of time she uses to write, she continues to write more behind his back
and this is her tie to her own sanity and sense of reality whatever her reality
is at this time.
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