Imagery In The Yellow Wallpaper

In the story "The Yellow Wallpaper" by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, written in the 1890s, the narrator is put on a rest-cure which was popular for females during that time period. A rest-cure is a treatment for women who have nervous disorders, and consists of complete rest. The narrator 's husband orders her to be put on a rest-cure, and throughout the story her husband gives her no freedom to do anything beside resting and being locked up in a room. In Charlotte Perkins Gilman story "The Yellow Wallpaper", Gilman uses imagery of a creepy old house and the symbolic bars of the wallpaper in order to show readers that the narrator feels trapped. Over time the wallpaper changes its shape and color as she becomes more ill, and this suggests that …show more content…
In between all the commotion going on in the house the narrator illness is getting worse every day. In her room at the very top of the house she says, "I 'm getting really fond of the room in spite of the wallpaper. Perhaps because of the wallpaper. It dwells in my mind so! I lie here on this great immovable bed--- it is nailed down, I believe--- and follow that pattern about be the hour"(659). The narrator says this because of her illness and how she is starting to get delusional. In the critical essay called, "Managing Madness in Gilman 's 'The Yellow Wallpaper '" that states, "The narrator describes the yellow wallpaper, the central symbol of this triumphantly suffocating domesticity, with elaborate and self-conscious artistic precision"(Hume 3). The narrator is slowly starting to lose her mind as she see the wallpaper starting to change its shape. With that being said she suddenly started to notice that the wallpaper was looking back at her. Over the time she has spent in her room she starts to notice different things starting to change within the room and notices it even more at night. The narrator states, "At night in any kind of light, in twilight, candlelight, lamplight, and worst of all by moonlight, it becomes bars! The outside pattern I mean, and the woman behind it is as plain as can be"(662). …show more content…
Gilman was ill and decided to write about her illness, but the story is not a true account of her illness. Through the story it talked about the symbolism of the wallpaper and how she felt trap. Gilman 's main point of this story was to inform women to not be dependent on a man and to take a stand and speak up. Overall "The Yellow Wallpaper" Gilman makes you believe that gender plays no role no matter if you 're a men or a