ipl-logo

The Yellow Wallpaper Symbolism Essay

1202 Words5 Pages

The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman is a short story told through diary entries of a woman who suffers from postpartum depression. The narrator, whose name is never mentioned, becomes obsessed with the ugly yellow wallpaper in the summer home her husband rented for them. While at the home the Narrator studies the wallpaper and starts to believe there is a woman in the wallpaper. Her obsession with the wallpaper slowly makes her mental state deteriorate. Throughout The Yellow Wallpaper Charlotte Perkins Gilman uses many literary devices such as symbolism, personification and imagery to help convey her message and get it across to the reader. Symbolism is one of the literary device used in The Yellow Wallpaper. Symbolism is the use of symbols, in this case objects, to represent ideas or qualities, by giving them symbolic meaning that is different in a literal sense. Some of the symbols used are the nursery, the wallpaper, the yellow color and the greenhouses. Firstly, the nursery symbolizes the way her husband John treats her like a child (Cummings).For example, ”"What is it, little girl?" he said. "Don't go walking about like that you'll get cold."” (Gilman 652). He also treats her as if she can not make her own decisions. …show more content…

The narrator leads a fairly boring life. The only thing she seems to do all day is sleep, write, eat, look out the window and study the yellow wallpaper in her room. Evidence of this in the story is “I lie here on this great immovable bed - it is nailed down, I believe - and follow that pattern about by the hour” (Gilman 650). Another piece of evidence would be, “The color is repellant, almost revolting ; a smouldering unclean yellow, strangely faded by the slow-turning sunlight. It is a dull yet lurid orange in some places, a sickly sulphur tint in others” (Gilman 649). The next symbol is the

Show More
Related

The Color Yellow In Charlotte Perkins Stetson's The Yellow Wallpaper

231 Words | 1 Pages

The color yellow, when used negatively, represents sickness or weakness. in "the yellow wallpaper", Charlotte Perkins Stetson uses the wallpaper to represent how the main character is perceived by her husband, but also to help her understand herself. To her husband it is just wallpaper, but to her it becomes the personification of her life. The appearance she is forced to perceive versus the reality of her mind is expressed in the setting, the symbols use, and the irony of her situation.

Read More

What Are The Similarities Between Harold Krebs And The Yellow Wallpaper

775 Words | 4 Pages

The narrator of "The Yellow Wallpaper" is the main character in the short novel. She is a young newly married mother in the upper middle class who is very imaginative. The narrator is going through a stage of depression and believes the house they have temporarily moved into is haunted. What the narrator is actually experiencing is called Postpartum depression, depression suffered by a mother following childbirth. This illness can arise from the combination of hormonal changes, psychological adjustment to motherhood, and fatigue.

Read More

Color Symbolism In The Yellow Woman

681 Words | 3 Pages

Anderson 1 “Color Symbolism in The Yellow Woman” by Lalicia Anderson Color Symbolism have always been evident in stories over the years. An example of symbolism is black used to represent evil, such as in Nathaniel Hawthorne's "The Scarlet Letter." Writers and poets use colors to create precise images of their characters, scenes and events. In literature it convey a deeper meaning to the words, it transforms the content into a more Compelling Literary device.

Read More

Symbolism Within The Yellow Wallpaper

624 Words | 3 Pages

Symbolism Within “The Yellow Wallpaper” Symbolism within a story holds a lot of importance. When symbolism is created within a story it gives it a deeper significance. For example, At the beginning of the story the yellow wallpaper is merely an annoyance, but as the story goes on it develops a much deeper meaning. Other than the yellow wallpaper there are more symbols that contribute to depth of the story. At the beginning of the story the young couple has just had a baby.

Read More

Brief Summary Of 'The Yellow Wallpaper'

335 Words | 2 Pages

She is isolated to only seeing her husband and her housekeeper. She starts to spend a lot of time in the room where her and her husband sleep. This is the room with the yellow wallpaper. She doesn’t mind anything in the room except the wallpaper. She doesn’t like the color, and the

Read More

Literary Analysis Of The Yellow Wallpaper

1248 Words | 5 Pages

In Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s short story, “The Yellow Wallpaper”, the narrator is suffering from postpartum depression. The narrator 's husband John, who also happens to be her physician, prescribes the rest cure to help lift his wife of her depressive state and ultimately heal her depression. However, the rest cure does not allow the narrator to experience any mental stimulation. Therefore, to manage her boredom the narrator begins obsessing over the pattern of the yellow wallpaper. After analyzing the pattern for awhile, the narrator witnesses a woman trapped behind bars.

Read More

Isolation In The Yellow Wallpaper

570 Words | 3 Pages

In “The Yellow Wallpaper” by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, the female narrator is greatly troubled by the suppression of her imagination by her husband and her ultimate isolation due to this subordination. These feelings are reflected through the author’s use of setting as the narrator’s dreary and malicious descriptions of the house and the wallpaper mirrors her emotional position. Throughout the reading, the reader is exposed to the narrator’s in-depth loss of touch with reality as she sinks further and further into her own reality. As she becomes more isolated, her descriptions of the house become more abstract as she begins to focus on the wallpaper and starts to see herself as being hidden behind it.

Read More

Symbolism In 'Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?'

834 Words | 4 Pages

Symbolism is one of the most important properties a story can have. It's often used to develop a character or a theme throughout the story that is being told. Symbolism in literature is best described by as the use of symbols and objects to signify ideas and qualities by giving them a symbolic meanings that are very different from their literal sense. The short stories "Where are you going, Where have you been?" and "The Yellow Wallpaper" have very obvious examples of symbolism.

Read More

The Yellow Wallpaper Point Of View Analysis

814 Words | 4 Pages

The short story “The Yellow Wallpaper” by Charlotte Perkins Gilman is a story full of imaginative symbolism and descriptive settings. However, without the narrator’s unique point of view and how it affects her perception of her environment, the story would fail to inform the reader of the narrator’s emotional plummet. The gothic function of the short story is to allow the reader to be with the narrator as she gradually loses her sanity and the point of view of the narrator is key in ensuring the reader has an understanding of the narrator’s emotional and mental state throughout the story. It’s clear from the beginning of the story that the narrator’s point of view greatly differs from that of her husband’s and other family in her life.

Read More

Theme Of Mental Illness In The Yellow Wallpaper

562 Words | 3 Pages

(678) in this statement she is challenging herself and this shows the reader she is facing some confusion. The yellow wallpaper in the main characters (the narrator) bedroom is a major point in the story. The yellow wallpaper plays a major role in the woman’s insanity. The woman’s obsession with the wallpaper creates her problem and affects her mind and judgment. This is shown in, “It dwells on my mind so!”

Read More

The Yellow Wallpaper Character Analysis Essay

501 Words | 3 Pages

To be trapped in one's own mind may be the worst prison imaginable. In Charlotte Perkins Gilman's "The Yellow Wallpaper", the narrator of the story is constantly at battle with many different forces, such as John, her husband, the yellow wallpaper that covers the walls of her room, and ultimately herself. Throughout the story the narrator further detaches herself from her life and becomes fixated on the yellow wallpaper that surrounds her in her temporary home, slowly driving her mad. The narrator of "The Yellow Wallpaper" is a major and dynamic character as she is the main character of the story, and throughout the story her personality and ways of thinking change drastically.

Read More

Examples Of Postpartum Depression In The Yellow Wallpaper

1106 Words | 5 Pages

Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s “The Yellow Wallpaper,” the narrator, Jane, has postpartum depression. In order to cure this depression, John, Jane’s husband and a doctor, administer the rest treatment on her. Gilman wrote “The Yellow Wallpaper” through her personal experience. Along with writing “The Yellow Wallpaper” she wrote an explanation for why she wrote “The Yellow Wallpaper.”

Read More

Personification In The Yellow Wallpaper By Charlotte Perkins Gilman

779 Words | 4 Pages

The short story, The Yellow Wallpaper, written by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, is a brilliant piece of fictional literature. The tale involves a mentally ill woman who is kept in a hideous, yellow room under the orders of her husband, John, who is a physician. The ill woman is conflicted due to the fact that the horrifying yellow wallpaper in the room is trapping a woman who she must help escape, but the sick woman is aware that she must get better in order to leave the terrifying, yellow room. The setting and personification applied in the short story, The Yellow Wallpaper, allows readers to develop an understanding of the sickness of the main character faces.

Read More

Feminism In The Yellow Wallpaper

810 Words | 4 Pages

The yellow wallpaper is not just the dreadful décor the narrator is stuck within the story but the most important symbol in the story. It symbolizes how women were not allowed to change or free to make their own decisions. The narrator once said that the wallpaper "sticks horribly and the pattern just enjoys it" (Gilman). She felt like the wallpaper stuck and not able to succumb to change she demonstrates this as well when she says "The faint figure behind seemed to shake the pattern, just as if she wanted to get out" (Gilman). The narrator herself became the women she saw in the wallpaper that she felt trapped in a life without change which manifested itself into the wallpaper further increasing the symbolism and importance of yellow wallpaper.

Read More

The Yellow Wallpaper Gothic Analysis

658 Words | 3 Pages

Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s “The Yellow Wallpaper” tells the story of a young woman who is battling severe depression. The protagonist is essentially locked away for the summer as a cure for her psychological disorder(s) (Craig 36). Being locked in the house with the yellow wallpaper worsens her mental state and eventually drives her to insanity. Throughout the course of the story, the protagonist’s mental state noticeably declines; she claims there are people in the wallpaper and believes it is haunting her. Several Gothic themes are scattered throughout “The Yellow Wallpaper”; however, the protagonist’s isolation, the presence of insanity, and the occurring idea of supernatural elements are most prominent and can be used to justify “The Yellow

Read More

More about The Yellow Wallpaper Symbolism Essay

Open Document