The Yellow Wallpaper Allegory

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The Yellow Wallpaper - Gilman
The Yellow Wallpaper is a short story written by Charlotte Perkins Gilman. Gilman used a great amount of symbolism, imagery, allegories, and other literary devices while writing this story. The Yellow Wallpaper is briefly about a woman who believes she is mentally ill, but her husband who is a physician does not want to believe her. Though he does not believe her, he gives her what he describes as treatment, which involved the two of them leaving for a summer together, into ancestral halls. The woman did not get to decide the room she would be staying in, instead of the once she likes with roses spread around, John, her husband chose the one that was previously used as a nursery with “awful” yellow wallpaper. The …show more content…

Gilman used other literary devices in the story as well, such as imagery, metaphors, as well as allegories. Symbolism in “The Yellow Wallpaper” include the wallpaper itself, the house, the garden, the baby, and last but not least, the journal. The way Gilman uses the symbols really made the story a good …show more content…

The yellow wallpaper symbolizes the protagonist's mindset and thoughts during the treatment she is experiencing throughout the story. The words she uses to describe the wallpaper have very negative connotations, which can be related to the way she feels about her condition. She explains the wallpaper has all these different shapes and curves that do not seem to fit, kind of like her feelings do not fit into what she is supposed to feel based on her husband’s preferences. After two weeks of being in the room, she starts explaining that she enjoys the room, just not the wallpaper, she was starting to gain a positive outlook however the wallpaper was still holding her back, much like a person’s depressed thoughts could have potential to do. Eventually, she begins seeing a woman behind the wallpaper who seems to be behind bars, this is later revealed to be herself trapped in the room. Finally, near the end of the story, she tears down the wallpaper in search of the woman behind it, though she never sees the woman, but she is finally content with herself at this point because she has taken out the one thing that has been really negative to her during the time she stayed in the mansion. Her tearing the wallpaper down symbolizes her finding herself once again and get rid of the wallpaper that has been bothering her since her rest cure

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