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Symbolism In The Yellow Wallpaper

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In the short story “The Yellow Wallpaper”, written by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, Jane is going insane due to her husband's patriarchy. She is in a room all day with this yellow wallpaper that is driving her insane. She believes that the wallpaper is holding her captive, and eventually tears down the wallpaper. After she gets rid of the wallpaper she believes that she is free, and said that her husband was trying to keep her contained as well. This part in the story is when Jane reaches her breaking point. After John sees this she is also freed from her husband’s patriarchy. The author’s message is to be free from patriarchy. This is shown throughout the text in multiple different ways. Two ways she showed this was by using symbolism. One symbol …show more content…

John symbolizes patriarchy, and how John controls her and whatever Jane does. John also tells Jane that she is not really sick and that she can just feel better whenever she wants. He represents how in the nineteenth century how men had full power over women and anything that they wanted to do. Another symbol that relates to the author's purpose is the window. In the article, it states “I always fancy I see people walking in these numerous paths and arbors, but John has cautioned me not to give way to fancy in the least. He says that with my imaginative power and habit of story-making, a nervous weakness like mine is sure to lead to all manner …show more content…

She showed this in many different ways, but the main way was symbolism. Two symbols that she used to show gothicism, along with the message of the story of freedom from patriarchy, were the key and the wallpaper. With the key, Jane did not want to be let out of the room unless it was by her husband, John. The text explains “I have locked the door and thrown the key down into the front path. I don't want to go out, and I don't want to have anybody come in, till John comes” (Gilman 211-212). By throwing the key away, Jane was showing how she was trapped and needed someone's help to be let free. The key represents how Jane is trapped by a patriarchal society. Jane throwing the key represents the contrarians finally being broken, and John opening the door symbolizes the reality of women and their mental health issues. The wallpaper also represents gothicism and helps represent the message that goes along with the story. In the short story, it says “Then I peeled off all the paper I could reach standing on the floor. It sticks horribly and the pattern just enjoys it! All those strangled heads and bulbous eyes and waddling fungus growths just shriek with derision” (Gilman 216)! The wallpaper was what is making her go insane, and Jane tearing it off should make it so that she is released from all stress, and bring back her sanity, but in reality, it was her breaking

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Gilman intentionally tried to make Jane a typical woman of the time period. She is economically dependent on her husband, as she does not work out of the house. She is not allowed to make her own decisions, John will not let her out of bed, even though she wishes to do so; and she is often treated like a child, John gives her a dirty look when she expresses that she is still not well when he believes that she is getting

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At the end of “The Yellow Wallpaper,” Jane metaphorically escapes the wallpaper, representing women's oppression in society however, she seems to have lost her mind in the process. Jane states, “‘I’ve got out at last,’ said I, ‘In spite of you and Jane! And I’ve pulled off most of the paper, so you can’t put me back!’ Now why should that man have fainted? But he did, and right across my path by the wall, so that I had to creep over him every time!”(Gilman 17).

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In the short story The Yellow Wallpaper, by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, a physician convinces his wife that she is sick and must rest in her room as much as possible. She eventually becomes stir crazy and starts believing that there are women trapped inside the wallpaper in her room. She tears it off the wall to set them free, and when her husband finds her, she claims that she is now free too. One of the major themes of this story is that isolation can cause madness and insanity.

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Then after this she kinda just went beyond crazy. “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.” She wanted the woman in the yellow wallpaper to escape so she helped her out. Because her husband traumatized her she was always nervous and emotional.

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(Perkins GIlaman 14). Jane's hallucinations got so bad she caved and tore off all the wallpaper. Now that the woman in the wallpaper is out Jane is free from the hallucinations. Although the caretaker has hallucinations they aren't as bad as Jane’s where she does not even identify with herself making her more

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By understanding the symbolism in the darkness, the reader can get a better idea of the deteriorating relationship between the man and the woman. Comprehending the symbol allows the reader to gain a deeper understanding of the relationship between the man and woman, which is a large part of the story. Another symbol found in the story comes to light when “she noticed the baby’s picture on the bed and picked it up” (217). Picking up the picture depicts the woman’s longing to keep the baby in her custody. The picture symbolizes the actual baby, and by picking it symbolizes the woman’s connection to her baby.

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This differs greatly from Jane, who begins to sympathize with the plight of all domestic women through her experience with the woman behind the yellow wallpaper. Although she initially frowned upon the woman’s efforts to escape, the more her mental health deteriorated, the more she began to relate her plight to that of the trapped woman, both prisoners desperate for escape. With her newfound revelation, she sought to save the trapped woman from her prison, subconsciously freeing herself in the process. “As soon as it was moonlight and that poor thing began to crawl and shake the pattern, I got up and ran to help her…I wonder if they all came out of that wallpaper as I did?… “I’ve got out at last,” said I, “in spite of you and Jane!

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This symbolizes a deep message, the main character describes the room “for the windows are barred for little children”(Gilman 648). Charlotte Perkins Gilman uses this symbol to describe what sort of depression and illness the main character is going through; postpartum depression. Within this passage readers understand the main characters illness in the story far better and what the bars symbolize. The bars may symbolize the boundaries with the character and the child she just had, keeping a distance away from the child. Furthemore, the window itself is a great usage of symbolism.

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At the beginning of the short story Jane absolutely hates the wallpaper in her bedroom, but at the end Jane claims that she is “getting really fond of the room in spite of the wallpaper.” (page ) At the beginning of the story Jane is aggravated at John and after John’s treatment she describes him as “so wise” (page ) and “loving [her] so.” (page ) Throughout the “Yellow Wallpaper” John consistently makes Jane’s condition worse and worse until she finally has a mental breakdown.

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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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(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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Symbol: With John gone, Kathy lost weight, symbolizing the loss of emotional baggage. John was putting much emotional stress on Kathy when he was around her. Theme: In the novel, mystery causes increased interest and satisfaction among those it reaches. People are fascinated with John’s magic, similarly to how Kathy is very into John’s personality and secrets.

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(99). The woman on the floor trying to take the wallpaper down would not let her husband in as he tried to knock the door down, but she does not realize she is doing it to herself. For example, Catherine Golden states in her article that, “The narrator seems detached from the bits of wallpaper on the floor next to her and John wallpaper fragments that could be read as a literal representation of the source of her insanity. The narrator’s hallucinations and action of tearing down the wallpaper to free the woman trapped behind the wallpaper pattern condemn her to madness” (60).

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The yellow wallpaper is not just the dreadful décor the narrator is stuck within the story but the most important symbol in the story. It symbolizes how women were not allowed to change or free to make their own decisions. The narrator once said that the wallpaper "sticks horribly and the pattern just enjoys it" (Gilman). She felt like the wallpaper stuck and not able to succumb to change she demonstrates this as well when she says "The faint figure behind seemed to shake the pattern, just as if she wanted to get out" (Gilman). The narrator herself became the women she saw in the wallpaper that she felt trapped in a life without change which manifested itself into the wallpaper further increasing the symbolism and importance of yellow wallpaper.

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