The Yellow Wallpaper Symbolism Essay

The idea she gives in her article based on Gilman not having the same view as the novel “Jasmine”. There is depression in one and freedom in another, but the comparison that they both have are merely on women trying gain there freedom back. Women equality had was a great issue to women back then, especially, when a situation explained in “The Yellow Wallpaper” the narrator does not understand that she is the one trapped behind the wallpaper behind those bars. Nadkarni explains, “the story charts the narrator 's growing madness and preoccupation with the wallpaper of her sickroom and ends with her identification with the woman she sees "crawling" (55) behind the "bars" (52) of the prisonlike pattern” (219). She discovers the narrator as an insane woman who does not understand that who she discovers behind the wallpaper is she on reflection; she is the one escaping from her own miserable life.

Charlotte Perkins Gilman uses her short story “The Yellow Wallpaper” to express her opinions about feminism and originality. Gilman does so by taking the reader through the terrors of one woman's psychological disorder, her entire mental state characterized by her encounters with the wallpaper in her room. She incorporates imagery and symbolism to show how confined the narrator is because of her gender and mental illness. Gilman incorporates strong imagery throughout "The Yellow Wallpaper" to set the scene for the story and foreshadow the certain madness that is to come of the narrator. As the story progresses, so does the woman's declining mental status.

While it may seem as though the speaker is becoming deranged, her bold action of tearing down the wallpaper is symbolic of her finally breaking free of the stereotypical roles of a woman. The author illustrates this in the last lines of the story, “I’ve got out at last, said I, “in spite of you and Jane! And I’ve pulled off most of the paper so you can’t put me back!” (pg. 167) In conclusion, “The Yellow Wallpaper” is a powerful short story that explores the ideas of female oppression. The speaker of this story longed to be freed from the constraints of living in a male-dominated society, and she symbolically found her freedom in the tearing down of the wallpaper.

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 Yellow Wallpaper,” by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, is a story that surrounds many different topics. The narrator is living in a time period where women were looked down upon and mental illnesses were misunderstood. The narrator of the story suffers from post-partum depression and is recording her journey in a journal. Her husband, the typical man at the time, put her on “the rest cure,” as he believed that mental illnesses should be treated like physical illnesses. He brings her to a house far away from other people and makes her stay in the nursery.

In this short story, the author used her own experience with her depression after giving birth to share how she feels. Gilman shows in her writing how the perception of the society influences in a women illness, in which the best solution was isolated her. The social context in the nineteenth-century represented women just as housekeepers which made Gilman’s recuperation more frustrated. In The Yellow Wallpaper, when the narrator is diagnosed

Barbara Angelis stated “Women need real moments of solitude and self-reflection to balance out how much of ourselves we give away” (Angelis, BrainyQuote). This statement reflects the theme of isolation and how one can truly understand themselves through self-reflection and time spent in loneliness. In the short stories, “The Yellow Wallpaper” by Charlotte Perkins Gilman and “A Rose for Emily” by William Faulkner, both female protagonists, experience a time of seclusion leading to self- realization. Hence, both of these pieces of literature illustrate the troubles of women in a male-dominated society. As a result, both characters experience oppression by overbearing male influences and are physically and emotionally isolated.

The wallpaper symbolizes the dominating effect that men had on women in the late 1800’s. The symbol of the wallpaper grows throughout the story, from the moment the narrator describes the wallpaper as “The color is repellent, almost revolting: a smouldering unclean yellow” (Gilman 474). As she begins to stare and find the meaning of the wallpaper, she begins to find patterns, and particular marking, and because of this she finds a woman trapped behind bars. As she notices as the women tries to escape and the narrator “peeled off yards of the paper” (Gilman 482). The wallpaper represents how women are trapped by the dominating society of men.

More sympathetic critics like Gilbert and Gubar read “The Yellow Wallpaper” simply as a narrative of one woman’s efforts t free herself from the structured psychic, and social atmosphere—indeed, a rigidly constructed atmosphere that was very restrictive for a female of this day and time. They envisioned the wallpaper as being ... ... middle of paper ... ...Conn: Yale University Press, 1979. 89-92. Gilman, Charlotte Perkins. “The Yellow Wallpaper”.

In the quote above, the narrator describes the movement of a supposed woman behind the yellow wallpaper. She claims that the pattern on the wall is moving because of a woman. I appreciate the imagery that Gilman places in this passage making it very descriptive. It permits me to actually experience what the ... ... middle of paper ... ... her condition get worse. It almost seems as if they want the narrator to be a “true woman”.