The Yellow Wallpaper Symbolism Essay

Charlotte Perkins Gilman was a remarkable writer and a progressive activist for women's rights during the early twentieth century. She lived in a time when women were systematically restrained from thriving beyond the sphere of domestic life, which effectively hindered their independence, autonomy, and self-development. Inspired by her personal experiences, Gilman incorporated extensive amounts of symbolism in her famous short story "The Yellow Wallpaper" to depict the social norms and oppressive nature of traditional gender roles within the institution of marriage during the late nineteenth century.

Much of the symbolism in "The Yellow Wallpaper" is tied to its devastatingly monotonous setting. The story takes place in a countryside mansion,

According to the social norms of the nineteenth century, women are expected to fulfill their duties as mothers and wives and be content in their domestic existence, while men are expected to be authoritative, dominant, in charge of provision and decision-making. This imbalance of power dynamic tends to demand subserviency from the former to the latter. It is concurred early on in the story as the narrator expresses concern with her husband's diagnosis: "If a physician of high standing, and one's own husband, assures friends and relatives that there is really nothing the matter with one but temporary nervous depression — a slight hysterical tendency — what is one to do?" (par.10). She then follows up with, "My brother is also a physician, and also of high standing, and he says the same thing" (par.10), restating the fact that on the subject of her own wellbeing, she is subjugated to the opinions of the men in her life. Even when she does try to vocalize her thoughts and struggles, the efforts are futile as "John laughs at me, of course, but one expects that in marriage"

Trying to distract herself from the loneliness of isolation, she begins to fixate on her physical environment, which marks the beginning of her mental deterioration. She projects her unhappiness onto her limited surroundings, especially the yellow wallpaper she deems repulsive at first glance, which slowly becomes a symbolic image of her "nervous condition." The entire course of the story is driven by the narrator's assumption that the wallpaper is a puzzle that she must interpret, a challenge to be overcome, and partially a malevolent force that keeps her from successfully adhering to the rest cure. The symbolism of the wallpaper then develops and shifts its significance