In The Yellow Wallpaper, the cruel and disdainful nature towards women, especially women who don’t quite agree with convention, is displayed by several main characters and by the yellow wallpaper itself. My stance is that through symbolism and characterization, the yellow wallpaper represents the abstract concept of oppression, especially for women in a general sense, and John represents the concrete concept of oppression--the oppressor. Gilman pushes the yellow wallpaper throughout the story as the central figure of blame for the narrator’s descent into madness. The narrator becomes blindingly obsessed with this one key element of the setting, and makes this her prime instigator of insanity. In the beginning, she constantly refers to the wallpaper, …show more content…
However, the yellow wallpaper is also her liberator, as the narrator sees and understands to an extent the woman and the patterns in it. When staring at the paper, she muses, “There are things in that paper that nobody knows but me, or ever will” (119). The yellow wallpaper in this case represents oppression that forms in conceptual ways, such as laws, culture, and general emotions or ways of thought. These are methods of oppression that the narrator cannot physically see or maybe even comprehend. The narrator stares at the wallpaper, thinking, “I know a little of the principle of design, and I know this thing was not arranged on...anything else that I ever heard of”(118). She focuses on these abstract systems to shift blame away from the actual physical being who instilled these laws and upholds the standard patriarchal culture of this time. “Dear John! He loves me dearly and hates to have me sick,” is a repeated mantra throughout the story, as she digs for excuses and for blame to be placed elsewhere. This prevents her from having to confront an ugly truth, but at the same time, her