Trapped In The Yellow Wallpaper By Charlotte Perkins Gilman

Trapped Married women in the 1880’s were legally subordinate to their husbands. The women could not own their own property, and did not have any money because they did not have a job. Their job was to stay home, cook, take care of their children and to obey their husbands. Married men were taught that they were absolute monarchs in their families. The married women are considered trapped because no matter what the married man did, he would know that the woman would keep completely quiet because the wife had no right to leave or disobey the husband (The Struggle for Married Women's Rights, Circa 1880s). The narrator in Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s story, “The Yellow Wallpaper,” finds herself trapped because her husband, also her physician, makes all the decisions for her. She also is actually trapped in a room in her temporary house, with yellow wallpaper, while her house is getting repairs done to it. In “The Yellow Wallpaper” the wallpaper symbolizes the narrator’s mind and how she finds herself trapped and descending into madness. …show more content…
The worst part about the wallpaper is the different shapes and patterns that are in it. The narrator gets confused about the wallpaper just as she gets confused about her own mind and feelings. How she feels about the wallpaper connects to how she feels about herself. The narrator portrays to be depressed and can only see the wallpaper as horrid. She does not know why she is depressed, her husband does not even think anything is wrong with her; but does blame the wallpaper for her worsening condition. The narrator said, “this paper looks to me as if it knew what a vicious influence it had” (Gilman 79), which proves she blames the wallpaper for her condition getting