Symbolism Analysis of The Yellow Wallpaper One might know that Charlotte Perkins Gilman, author of the short story “The Yellow Wallpaper” uses the wallpaper in the main character’s room as a symbol for a bigger underlying meaning. This is a short story about a young women diagnosed of depression and “a slight hysterical tendency”. In hopes of healing the narrator, her husband moves them into an old, ornate home for the summer and required her to refrain from any activity to calm her mind. However, instead of getting better, the narrator goes into a deeper level of madness. This madness is caused by her obsession over what she believes is animate patterns and a trapped women in a peeling, aged wallpaper in her room. As the story progresses it is palpable that the yellow wallpaper itself symbolizes mental illnesses. One reason the wallpaper symbolizes mental illness is because in the beginning of the story the narrator’s insanity is getting worse by her distress over the paper. The narrator of the story is the first person who is affected by the wallpaper, and just like mental illness in real life, the victim is the first person to be aware and affected by their condition. One of the things disturbing the narrator at first were the shapes of the paper and how they became more evident as the days past.“There are things in that paper that nobody knows but me, or ever will. Behind that outside pattern the dim shapes get clearer every day”(Gilman 652). This scene shows that the