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Symbolism In The Yellow Wallpaper By Charlotte Perkins Stetson

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When I read "The Yellow Wallpaper" by Charlotte Perkins Stetson, the four main things that stood out to me were the narrator's mental state, the symbolism of the yellow wallpaper, the role of women in society during that time, and the isolation experienced by the narrator. Firstly, the narrator's mental state is a significant theme throughout the story. As she becomes increasingly obsessed with the yellow wallpaper, it becomes clear that she is suffering from some form of mental illness. This is particularly striking because it highlights the lack of understanding and treatment of mental illness during the late 1800s. Secondly, the symbolism of the yellow wallpaper was fascinating to me. With its twisting patterns and yellow color, the wallpaper
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The central idea in “The Yellow Wallpaper” by Charlotte Perkins, Is that a person’s environment can lead to insanity. A writing strategy, which develops this idea, is symbolism. In Stenson’s short story, the narrator’s room symbolizes her confinement and being oppressed. An example where the narrator’s room symbolizes confinement is when she describes her room as, “a big airy room… for the windows are barred for little children…” (648). By the narrator describing the windows as barred, it gives off the feeling of being trapped.

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“The Yellow Wallpaper” by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, is a short story that deals with the concepts of gender difference and madness. The narrator in the story is a ‘bad’ and ‘unsuccessful’ woman and is also mentally-ill. Gilman criticizes the mainstream opinions regarding those concepts using symbolism and imagery. Gilman uses imagery and symbolism when describing the windows and the wallpaper, which helps the reader better understand the differences between ‘normal’ people’s outlook and the one of an insane person, such as the narrator. The windows are a symbol of the way most people, according to Gilman, view the world.

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At first glance, Gilman’s short story,”The Yellow Wallpaper,” is a very strange story. The story is based on a woman who eventually becomes taken over by the yellow wallpaper in her room, even to where she eventually is driven insane. Although the story only tells you the main details, the wallpaper is so much more than just a terrible decoration choice. When annotated, the wallpaper is made out to be a symbol of all the terrible things that are to come. The room at the top of the house was not just a room, but a place that caused the unfortunate woman to become crazy.

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In the short story “The Yellow Wallpaper” by Charlotte Perkins Stetson, the narrator had a nervous break-down because she just gave birth and was depressed. The doctor recommended her to rest in a quiet and isolated place. The narrator’s husband, John, followed the doctor’s orders and rented a summer house. John forbids his wife from doing any type of work and does not allow her to see her newborn; John wanted her to rest until she feels better. She believes that work and writing would make her feel better, but her opinion does not have importance.

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Settings function as a symbol and how it relates to the symbolism of the novel is chief to understanding the novel. The setting of the deteriorating house acts as a symbol for the deteriorating lives of the Lisbon girls. The narrator depicts, “As he lifted rugs and threw out towels, he unleashed the odors of the house in waves, and many people thought he wore the surgical mask to protect himself not from dust but from the exhalations of the Lisbon girls that still lived in bedding and drapes, in peeling wallpaper, in patches of carpet preserved brand-new beneath dressers and nightstands” (222). In this way the setting of the girls in a deteriorating house just mirrors the deterioration of the girls as they slip into a deep depression. The setting

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The narrator is a woman who is imaginative trying to make her mind think and realize the meaning of the yellow wallpaper. She describes the wallpaper as, “repellant, almost revolting; smouldering unclean yellow, strangely faded by the slow turning sunlight” (Gilman 641). This specific wallpaper makes the narrator feel a certain way. At first, she does not like the color or how it looks. But then not having anything else to do in the room, she starts examining the wallpaper.

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Throughout the generation, women have always been trapped in some way or another. In the short story, ‘The Yellow Wall-Paper’ and the novel ‘The Awakening’ highlights the struggle of women in the late 1800’s and the early 1900s in society. The Yellow wallpaper is a short story about women giving birth and being imprisoned in a room with a weird view of the yellow wall-paper. This resulted in her hallucination lead to the development of mental illness. By the end of the story, she rips off the yellow wallpaper and kills her husband.

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The main character and narrator in The Yellow Wallpaper, written by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, Jane, conveyed her troubles with the stifled freedom of expression for women during the 1890’s in her marriage through her thoughts, actions, and environment. The story projected Jane’s perspective, from her journal, as she wrote about the couple’s and caretaker’s summer stay in ancestral halls, due to home improvement work. Jane, an upper-middle class woman, married her husband, John, a physician, who diagnosed her with “temporary nervous depression-a slight hysterical tendency (Gilman 363).” Since John fulfilled the position of her physician, he prescribed absolute rest to detain her hysterical tendencies. Jane’s caretaker and sister-in-law, Jennie,

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In the short story “The Yellow Wallpaper” by Charlotte Perkins Gilman a woman with a so called “nervous condition” is very distressed by the yellow wallpaper in the room she is confined to. The symbolism of the journal, the room, and the wallpaper is what really brings a deeper meaning to this story. On the surface, the story seems to be about a woman who ends up going insane. However, the oppression of women is brought out through the incredible symbolism in this story.

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The personal aspect of The Yellow Wallpaper is not only the reason so much accountability was held to doctors and psychologists during the 19th century, but also an incredibly inspiring piece that led many women to stop driving themselves crazy. The protagonist suffers from hysteria due to isolation, and a large part of this is the influence the room she is kept in has on

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The vast majority of people wouldn’t give the wallpaper much thought, however the narrator becomes obsessed with it. To the narrator, the wallpaper is alive and becomes the focus of all her time. Her overwhelming lure to the wallpaper becomes obvious when she first provides a very vivid description stating “It is dull enough to confuse the eye in following, pronounced enough to constantly irritate and provoke study, and when you follow the lame uncertain curves for a little distance they suddenly commit suicide – plunge off at outrageous angles, destroy themselves in unheard of contradictions” (217-218). As she begins to lose her grip on reality, the narrator beings to see faces and eventually a woman within the wallpaper. At first, her description of seeing faces in the wallpaper seems like it could be her mind making since of the varying patterns or just part of her imagination.

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The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman is a short story told through diary entries of a woman who suffers from postpartum depression. The narrator, whose name is never mentioned, becomes obsessed with the ugly yellow wallpaper in the summer home her husband rented for them. While at the home the Narrator studies the wallpaper and starts to believe there is a woman in the wallpaper. Her obsession with the wallpaper slowly makes her mental state deteriorate. Throughout The Yellow Wallpaper Charlotte Perkins Gilman uses many literary devices such as symbolism, personification and imagery to help convey her message and get it across to the reader.

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(678) in this statement she is challenging herself and this shows the reader she is facing some confusion. The yellow wallpaper in the main characters (the narrator) bedroom is a major point in the story. The yellow wallpaper plays a major role in the woman’s insanity. The woman’s obsession with the wallpaper creates her problem and affects her mind and judgment. This is shown in, “It dwells on my mind so!”

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The short story, The Yellow Wallpaper, written by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, is a brilliant piece of fictional literature. The tale involves a mentally ill woman who is kept in a hideous, yellow room under the orders of her husband, John, who is a physician. The ill woman is conflicted due to the fact that the horrifying yellow wallpaper in the room is trapping a woman who she must help escape, but the sick woman is aware that she must get better in order to leave the terrifying, yellow room. The setting and personification applied in the short story, The Yellow Wallpaper, allows readers to develop an understanding of the sickness of the main character faces.

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The protagonist's fantasy about people in the wallpaper addresses the idea of supernatural elements in its most prominent form. Throughout the story, several Gothic elements are explored. The most prominent elements are isolation, insanity, and the supernatural. The eerie events that occur throughout the story and its literary elements of Victorian Literature develop “The Yellow

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