Yellow Wallpaper Symbolism

   In the disturbing novel, The Yellow Wallpaper, the setting in which the action takes place is extremely important. The author uses setting to focus the reader’s attention into the story in a gradual manner. Also, the manipulation of setting allows the author to subtly introduce symbols in the text. These symbols represent Gilman’s view on the status of women in the patriarchal society of the nineteenth century.

In the “Yellow Wallpaper” the author uses imagery to describe what she is seeing in this “wallpaper.” This story is about a woman that is very sick, that lives with her husband John in an old house on a beautiful plot of land. The house might of been old and run down, however, was very thoughtful while being designed. In other words, it was very detailed and fascinating. While she was describing the house, she was also talking about how her husband wouldn't let her do anything because she was sick but she thought otherwise. She thought that she was capable of doing things on her own and that John didn't have to be there helping her with everything that she needed, “I have a schedule prescription for each hour in the day; he takes all care from

In the story, the wall was completely covered in yellow wallpaper, but it can be inferred that imagery was used by the author to explain that the wallpaper represents women in the late 19th century that they were under controlled by men having no rights of freedom. The wallpaper in the story was described in patterns seen by the wife throughout the story. It described that the wife saw a woman trapped behind bars, which this is a form of imagery since it is trying to show readers that the women in bars is the wife being held in

The pattern of the wallpaper is also significant because in a manner of speaking, it symbolizes solitary confinement and it is almost like the room she is in is one resembling one seen in a mental institution, or could also be considered to be a jail cell and the woman had been put behind bars; both cases would involve desperately trying to find some way to escape and declare her freedom.

After securing herself in the room the narrator says, “I suppose I shall have to get back behind the pattern when it comes night, and that is hard”! She has began to believe that the women behind the wallpaper is herself and that she must return to her rightful place come night fall, proving that she has gone completely mad. The character’s illness develops form her paranoia and curiosity about the ‘trapped women’ within the wallpaper to

Central to the story is the wallpaper itself. It is within the wallpaper that the narrator finds her hidden self and her eventual damnation/freedom. Her obsession with the paper begins subtly and then consumes both the narrator and the story. Once settled in the long-empty “ancestral estate,” a typical gothic setting, the narrator is dismayed to learn that her husband has chosen the top-floor nursery room for her. The room is papered in horrible yellow wallpaper, the design of which “commit[s] every artistic sin”(426). The design begins to fascinate the narrator and she

"The story was wrenched out of Gilman 's own life, and is unique in the

This woman she sees in the wallpaper would be symbolic of herself, and the battle of imprisonment that she was feeling internally.

At first, she finds the wallpaper's intricate patterns fascinating, but as her mental state deteriorates, she becomes obsessed with deciphering its hidden meanings and patterns. The oppressive and stifling nature of the wallpaper mirrors the constraints placed upon her by her husband and society. As she becomes increasingly fixated on the wallpaper, it becomes a manifestation of her own internal struggles and conflicts. The gradual unraveling of the wallpaper mirrors the protagonist's descent into madness, culminating in a chilling conclusion where she believes she is the woman trapped behind the pattern. The wallpaper takes on a life of its own in her mind, reflecting her own internal struggles and

In "The Yellow Wallpaper," by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, the protagonist symbolizes the effect of the oppression of women in society in the Nineteenth Century. In The Yellow Wallpaper, the author reveals the narrator is torn between hate and love, but emotion is difficult to determine. The effects are produced by the use of complex themes used in the story, which assisted her oppression and reflected on her self-expression.

She explained this in Why I Wrote the Yellow Wallpaper. After the loss of her child she admits she suffered from a sort of mental breakdown but never had any sort of hallucinations. The actual yellow wallpaper in the story was described to be hideous just as her situation was. This ugly situation “the wallpaper” is what had her trapped and she felt she need to free herself by tarring it down. The nursery room she was staying in resembled her being stuck in a period of morning for the lose of her child. Her doctor at the time and the doctor in the story was of the male gender along with the males being the ones that told her what to do and what was wrong with her and how to feel symbolizes how she felt oppressed by men and how other women in society did as well. This oppressing lead her to seeing the women in the wallpaper. She felt the need to free this woman and capture her because she initially wanted to free herself from the situation as well as find herself and her dignity

The wallpaper represents her trying to escape her husband after her husband tells her what is wrong with her but he is wrong. She said she saw a woman trapped trying to escape the wallpaper. This symbolizes her relationship with her husband how she wants to be let free, or let go of her husband's orders in other words. As she looks further into the wallpaper she is examining her life and begins to change her mind and talk about how she now despises her husband.

First, if the wallpaper stands for a new vision of women, why is the narrator tearing it down? Next, how can it be a ‘representation of women that becomes possible only after women obtain their right to speak,’ if it grows more vivid as the narrator becomes less verbal? Moreover, if the narrator comes into her own through the wallpaper, then why does she become more and more a victim of male diagnosis as she becomes further engaged

The wallpaper is beginning to take on the role of controlling her life. As the days proceed on and she continues to sit in this isolated room, she begins to notice objects incorporated throughout the patterns. Every day the shapes become significantly clearer to her until one moment it appears to be a figure trapped within the walls (734). This aversion to the color completely shifts at this point toward hallucination. The wallpaper now has complete control of the narrator’s mind and sanity.