The Yellow Wallpaper Metamorphosis Analysis

The Metamorphosis in “The Yellow Wallpaper” by Charlotte Perkins Gilman Animals such as the caterpillar, frog, and dragonfly all undergo the transformation of metamorphosis where they transition to a new stage of life. In Gilman’s “The Yellow Wallpaper”, the narrator, assumedly Jane, undergoes a unique metamorphosis and her transformation is symbolized by the yellow wallpaper within the short-story. Like a caterpillar, the narrator’s metamorphosis is spent mostly in isolation, a real life cocoon where the silk swaddles are traded for barred-windows and the transformation into a butterfly is Jane’s liberation from herself. The powerful symbolism depicted in the short-story has been criticized for numerous years, and K.V Rao’s analysis eloquently

Now, the paper is no longer dead and as the life of the wallpaper resuscitates, Jane’s life is collaterally being drained. Rao takes this occurrence on an even deeper level and states, “The dead wallpaper has come alive for Charlotte and it has the power to influence her; and it 'knows' its power and it conveys the fact that it knows!” (Rao 41). The wallpaper’s animation evolves as the piece progresses, and Jane admits, “I can see a strange, provoking, formless sort of figure, that seems to skulk about behind that silly and conspicuous front design” (Gilman 959). The next stage and similarly the pupa stage of Jane’s metamorphosis is when she states, “the faint figure behind seemed to shake the pattern, just as if she wanted to get out” (Gilman 961). Like a caterpillar entrapped in a pupa, Jane’s liberation is

Then, as a butterfly would emerge from a pupa, the narrator is liberated not only from herself, but also from her mental cognizance. Jane’s statement, “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!” (Gilman 966), marks her mental and self-liberation. Rao sums the story up by stating, “In Gilman’s hands, the wallpaper comes alive. The progressive degeneration in the narrator’s mental health and the slow but sure spiritual assertion in the female protagonist are worked out with the help of the central symbol of yellow wallpaper” (Rao 44). Moreover, the wallpaper illustrates the metamorphosis of Jane from a state of confinement to liberation. Gilman’s “The Yellow Wallpaper” illustrates a woman’s unique path from mental and physical confinement to liberation of them both. Similar to animals undergoing metamorphosis, the narrator’s transformation allowed her to enter a new stage in life; a stage where the narrator is no longer confined by the hypothetical patterns and wallpaper in her life. In conclusion, Jane’s metamorphosis allowed her to shatter the chains of confinement, and like a caterpillar’s transformation to a butterfly, Jane is transformed by the process and able to fly