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Susan B Anthony The Yellow Wallpaper Analysis

Decent Essays

"The day will come when men will recognize woman as his peer, not only at the fireside, but in councils of the nation. Then, and not until then, will there be the perfect comradeship, the ideal union between the sexes that shall result in the highest development of the race." This quote is by Susan B. Anthony. "The Yellow Wallpaper" written by Charlotte Perkins Gilman is about a woman who has depression after the birth of her child. Her husband, John, feels she needs to get away and be in isolation. They rent a mansion in a secluded area and she gets a room in the old nursery. As the story goes on she becomes obsessed with the yellow wallpaper in the room and the woman "trapped" inside of it. From the story, it is clear that women did not speak …show more content…

One example is how she sees that the wallpaper is such a dark, dirty yellow. When she first sees the wallpaper she describes it by saying, "The color is repellant, almost revolting; a smoldering unclean yellow, strangely faded by the slow-turning sunlight." (239) According to colorsmatter.com, the dark side of yellow means betrayal and madness, which is how the woman starts to act. Another example of symbolism in the yellow wallpaper is when she describes the woman shaking the pattern on the wallpaper. She says, "The faint figure behind seemed to shake the pattern, just as if she wanted to get out." (243) This is where she starts seeing someone in the wallpaper and the more she studies it the more she begins to see. She becomes so obsessive over the wallpaper and tries to hide it from John and Jennie. In the end, she locks the door and rips down the wallpaper she tells John, "I've got out at last, in spite of you and Jane. And I've pulled off most of the paper, so you can't put me back!" This shows how crazy the wallpaper made her. From these examples it is clear that the woman feels trapped and alone because her husband is controlling her every move and thought just like many other women

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