Symbolism In The Yellow Wallpaper, By Charlotte Perkins Gilman

Gilman does so by t... ... middle of paper ... ...she sees in the wallpaper is trapped behind the pattern, just like the narrator is trapped in the room. The woman’s mental status gets so deteriorated that she has a breaking point when she “escapes” her imprisonment. The author writes, “Then I peeled off all the paper I could reach standing on the floor” (320). Taking down the wallpaper symbolizes her finally freeing herself. Charlotte Gilman accomplishes her goal of spreading awareness about the oppression of women by forcing the readers to dig deep into The Yellow Wallpaper.

The “woman” behind the wallpaper is a symbol of women being trapped by mental health. The narrator even says she is the woman who is trapped behind the wallpaper. The woman the describes the wallpaper as a prison, she says, “…worst of all by moonlight, it becomes bars!” (Gilman 426). Gilman is trying to show readers that women have no say in what happens to them when they have mental health problems. The narrator says “Personally, I believe that congenial work, with excitement and change, would do me good.” she knows what she needs but no will believe her.

The narrator claims her husband John, whom sees his wife as a “little girl”, has trapped her inside the wallpaper also(Gilman). When the narrator tears the wallpaper down, she concludes the wallpaper was the oppression of masculine sunlight and has given her a new identity. As the woman inside of the wallpaper crawled around, the narrator must crawl around her room because the result of “feminist uprising(Feldstein).” Gilman describes how the narrator’s creativity is being held from her husband John. Since the narrator is ill with a “nervous” disease, he takes advantage on changing her creativity and imagination by forcing her to sacrifice her writing skills. Her husband demands the narrator resume her job as being a wife and mother.

Quawas offers honest insight and advice on “The Yellow Wallpaper,” and its symbolic significance that is portrayed throughout the short story. In the process, Quawas offers a deeper interpretation of the main character decline into madness and how the direct identification of the narrator with the wallpaper brings many underlying symbols that lie within the story. “The narrator is torn asunder between her own personal feelings, which are indeed healthy and positive, and the patriarchal society's view of what is proper and decent behaviour for women. Since she has internalized society's expectations of women, this conflict is felt as a schizoid within herself” (Quawas, 44). This supporting evidence helps give bigger insight of a deeper meaning to the correlation of insanity and symbols in the actual

She not only convinces herself that the wallpaper is moving, but that a woman is trapped behind it who is attempting to find her way out. By the end of the story, a mental breakdown ensues. She te... ... middle of paper ... ...ugh he does not even exist, once and for all saying that he can no longer stop her life's voyage. Through symbols and comparisons, Charlotte Perkins Gilman and her critics have showed the struggles of women for equality with their male counterparts. And, it is now evident that humans can easily become trapped in their life, and many times, they will not even notice it until it is too late.

Through the interaction between the characters, and the wife’s inner thoughts, one can say that the women during the time period had very little or no freedom of speech. As well, the confined surroundings around the wife represent how oppressed and imprisoned women were physically and mentally. Gilman’s feminist writing of The Yellow Wallpaper gained her a little bit of that power and freedom she so desired. Gender roles and power differences must be removed from the social order for women to ever be free and equal to those of men—only then will social harmony prosper. Works Cited Gilman, Charlotte Perkins.

Upon further examination, women are then found to be "lame uncertain curves" so full of contradictions they ... ... middle of paper ... ...f the wallpaper and towards schizophrenia. It is easy to see how someone could misinterpret what Gilman was attempting to express in The Yellow Wallpaper, but if you take into account her other books (which are clearly feminist), her intentions become more apparent. She obviously uses the wallpaper as a medium to expose the constraints that were placed upon women in the 19th century. Her attitude towards these restrictions is quite apparent from the narrator's account of the wallpaper and her subsequent insanity from overexposure to it. She despises the general view of women and of their mental capabilities.

The Feminist View of the Yellow Wallpaper The yellow wallpaper is a story about John and his wife who he keeps locked up due to her "nervous condition" of anxiety. John diagnoses her as sick and has his own remedy to cure her. His remedy s to keep her inside and deterring her from almost all activities. She is not allowed to write, make decisions on her own, or interact with the outside world. John claims that her condition is improving but she knows that it is not.

Analysis of The Yellow Wallpaper Gender played a very large role in the short story The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman. It symbolizes the way women were viewed in the 1800’s by society and most importantly, men. The narrator in the story believes that she is sick with a nervous condition. Her husband being a physician, down plays it and forces a treatment of completely isolating her in a room from the outside world, as well as restricting her from being active and writing. As the narrator writes in her hidden journal, we start to discover how peculiar she really is when she becomes obsessed with the yellow wallpaper.

This “cure” eventually leads to the decrease of her mental stability as she becomes more and more obsessed with the wallpaper. In order to convey a story with so many themes lots of literary devices were used. In “The Yellow Wallpaper,” Charlotte Perkins Gilman uses symbolism and characterization to explore themes about the lack of understanding of women and their mental health. The narrator of the story, though unnamed, represents a stereotypical woman with mental illnesses in that day and age. “Many details, like the lack of a name, argue against her individuality,” (Ford 1).