Theme Of The Yellow Wallpaper

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Charlotte Gilman’s short story “The Yellow wallpaper” is about a woman who retreats into an obsessive fantasy, due to the fact that she feels imprisoned in a marriage where she has little to no say in her own life. We learn in the beginning of the story that our character suffers from a nervous disorder, that we now know today as post-partum depression. In the search for a treatment our Narrators husband, John, prescribes “Rest Therapy”. The “Rest Therapy” that is prescribed prevents her from “working”, seeing friends, and enforces isolation. Although our Narrator strongly disagrees with the treatment she doesn’t do anything about it and follows his orders. This central conflict portrays the overall message or meaning of the story. Gilman intelligently …show more content…

In the first paragraph the new house that they are renting for the summer is described as “a colonial mansion a hereditary estate”, this is a clear reference that the time period was in the late 1800s (478). During this time period it is known that a women’s role in a marriage is submissive and inferior to their husbands. Another time where Gilman uses symbolism is when the Narrators condition begins to worsen she retreats into an obsessive fantasy. This fantasy is with The Yellow wallpaper in the bedroom, a place where she spends most of her time. At first she describes the paper as repellant, revolting and horrid. According to a work analysis “Her visions of the creeping women and the woman trapped behind her bedroom’s wallpaper symbolizes her own binding and oppression.” (Barth). This can be proven because towards the end of the story the Narrator locks herself in the bedroom and is able to “creep” around as she pleases. She states “I suppose I shall have to get back behind the pattern when it comes night, and that is hard!” (489). Gilman symbolically relates the pattern of the wallpaper as the Narrators relationship with John. The nursery symbolizes Johns relationship with the narrator and describes what our narrator believes the bedroom is like. John is basically the care provider for the narrator and relating the nursery to his treatment it is …show more content…

It is a story with an underlying meaning about the subordination of women in Marriage during the time period of the late 1800s. In this story the Narrators voice was continuously suppressed, there was a significant connection between the treatment prescribed and her decent of sanity and evidence through symbolism proving the oppression of women in the 19th century. Overall, the story proved the fact that through oppression, imprisonment and having very little to any say in a relationship it can easily deprive an individual and descend one into a state of “madness” or

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