Gender In Ernest Hemingway's The Yellow Wallpaper

The main way in which the story emphasizes the husband's murderous intentions is through the wallpaper which suggests that he has killed his previous wife. The description of the manor's wallpaper is depicted from the current wife as she states the walls of the manor to be "papered with stiff stripes"(Carroll). The wallpaper is specifically described as "stiff" which is a slang for "a dead body; corpse" (Stiff). Behind the wallpaper is the first wife's dismembered body. The word stiff is a direct reference to how to the first wife's body is placed inside the walls. The wallpaper is blue which correlates to masculine traits. The blue hue can be seen on the wallpaper and other objects in the manor. The colour blue can be " authoritative, deceitful, …show more content…
Vertical stripes are usually worn by women and casually used as slang to refer to women's femininity. The vertical stripes on the wall represent the first wife as a function to make the reader know of the wife's body is hidden behind the walls. The wallpaper has stripes which can be deciphered in two ways. One is that the stripes are associated with criminals clothing which was worn in "1820 [to] 1930 [which] saw the introduction of black-and-white striped all-in-one prison uniforms in order to demean and identify prisoners" (Ash). The striped wallpaper serves as a constant reminder to the people in the manor, specifically the husband that he is branded as a criminal even in his own home. Secondly, the striped wallpaper symbolizes prison bars. The most identified term associated with the word prison is the image of steel bars. Prison bars are used to confine individuals who have committed a serious crime. Referring back to the husband, he has killed his first wife and is metaphorically in prison. The use of striped wallpaper serves as a reminder to the husband of his crime and to constantly remind him of where his first wife's body is