The main character Jane in "The Yellow Wallpaper" by Charlotte Perkins Stetson starts to believe there is a woman in the yellow wallpaper of her room. She thinks this woman is following her while hiding in the wallpaper. She is being given the Rest Cure for showing symptoms of depression. The Rest Cure removed all socialization from her life for a set time of about three months. The isolation causes her to hallucinate as her sanity starts to slip. The true story "The Yellow Wallpaper" by Charlotte Perkins Gilman demonstrates Modernism techniques via profound symbols, and unique descriptions through figurative language, and breaks the conventions by opening up about mental health in a time when mental health was not openly talked about.
Two of the main symbols in “The Yellow Wallpaper” are the woman trapped within
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It was breaking away from the plot line. Showing a character's train of thought. Or even something as simple as looking at the same thing from multiple perspectives. An example of this from the text is, “The front pattern does move-and no wonder! The woman behind shakes it!”(Stetson, 654). This was a very conservative period; there were things that people were just not supposed to talk about. This is showing her mental state as well as how the rest cure has affected her. Except for this time you were not supposed to openly talk about mental health; it was considered a taboo topic. Another example of breaking standardized conventions is, “I can see her out of everyone of my windows! It is the same woman, I know for she is always creeping, and most women do not creep by daylight”(Stetson, 654). This break in the storyline shows how rapidly Jane's mental state has declined to the point of hallucinations. This opens up some of the effects the rest cure could have on women's minds. This broke the societal standards of not publicly talking about mental health and mental