Charlotte Perkins Gilman's The Yellow Wallpaper

Throughout Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s short story “The Yellow Wallpaper” there are many aspects of critique towards the treatment of women in 19th and 20th century marriages. During these times men were seen as the superior sex, being in charge of everything and in many cases oppressed women including their own wives. There are many different viewpoints on what the wallpaper represents and what its true hidden meaning is during the story. The wallpapers symbolism increases throughout the story, it starts out as being very unpleasant but as the narrator begins to see things in this wallpaper it becomes evident that the wallpaper represents the domestic life that she and many women find themselves trapped in. As the story progresses the critique toward the treatment of women during the 19th and 20th century increases. One way that the

In the story Gilman writes “But nobody could climb through that pattern-it strangles so; I think that is why it has so many heads.” (317). This shows that the wallpaper symbolizes the oppression that women during this time faced on a day to day basis. The lady trying to climb through the pattern but not being able to relates to women trying to be independent of men but failing during the 19th and 20th century. This led to women feeling trapped in a world controlled by men that they can not escape, which his expressed through the symbolism of the wallpaper. In Jürgen Wolter’s essay he states “The wallpaper had trampled upon her, and now she tramples upon him and it.” (205). The wallpaper trampling upon her symbolizes her husband having complete control over her life, and now that she has torn down the wallpaper she becomes free from his oppression. This supports the idea that the wallpaper represents the fact that all women were being trapped and oppressed by men during this