Symbols In The Yellow Wallpaper

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“I never saw so much expression in an inanimate object before.” (The Yellow Wallpaper) In order to understand Charlotte Gilman’s stories one must first know about the life she lead. In 1884 Charlotte married her husband Charles Walter Stetson and began to sink into depression. During this time Gilman wrote her famous story The Yellow Wallpaper (Radcliffe). Within the story the reader can pick out parts of Gilman’s own life woven into it. Gilman, like the main character Jane had postpartum depression as a result of this she divorced Stetson and sent their daughter to live with him and his second wife. In 1900 Gilman subsequently married her first cousin George Houghton Gilman. Unlike her first marriage this one was happy and fulfilling until …show more content…

As the houses symbolism progresses, Jane is repulsed then obsessed. Within the story Gilman uses a series of complex symbols such as the house, the window, and the wall-paper. Although customary to find the symbol of the house as a secure place, in this story that is not the case. She does not want to be in the house and calls it “haunted” many times. Though she hated the house, it served as a cocoon for her transformation. The house allowed and contained her metamorphosis. The house also facilitates her release, accommodating her, her writing and her thoughts. These two activities evolve because of the fact that she is kept in the house. Another characteristic of the house is the window. The Window Symbolizes all that she could have, or could be. At the beginning of the story she likes the window and looks out of it frequently, but towards the end she says “I don 't like to look out of the windows even - there are so many of those creeping women and they creep so fast.” When she says this she is implying that she finally realizes that women are not equal to men and that they have to “creep” in the shadows of society. When she no longer wants to look out the window it is because she does not want to see all the other women who have to creep in the shadows because she knows they are a reflection of herself. The window is no longer a gateway for her, she can not enter the other of side of it, literally, because John will not let her, and because that world will not belong to her. She will still be controlled and forced to control her self- expression (A twist on Conventional Symbols). The biggest form of symbolism within the story, is the room with the yellow wallpaper. The yellow wallpaper serves as two purposes throughout the story, at first, to cage her in, and then to set her free. Jane describes the wallpaper as being the worst thing she has ever

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