Symbolism In Charlotte Perkins Gilman's The Yellow Wallpaper

The short story of The Yellow Wall-Paper written in 1892 by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, is very unique in the way the author portrayed the story to the public in a psychological manner and made a feminist art piece. The short story is told by the narrator who is not named throughout the story seems to have mental illness and feels abandoned. The narrator mentions how she feels depressed and her husband John who is a physician does not believe she is sick. According to the narrator, “ John does not know how much I suffer. He knows there is no reason to suffer and that satisfies him.” (The Yellow Wall-Paper, p. 649) This describes how she knows she has a problem and the ones around her do not seem to understand the magnitude of her illness. She becomes desperate and finds writing as a relief. As the narrator wrote she would describe the house, imaginations and her feelings towards her husband’s ideas that would make her feel subordinate. With this being said, the author creates a notion that women should be treated equally as men.
The author, Charlotte Perkins Gilman, was a resident from Hartford, Connecticut born in July 3, 1860. Charlotte had a very difficult childhood because her father …show more content…
A symbol is known for something physical that may have a meaning. Now, if the symbol has many meanings or simply the meaning cannot be identified it becomes challenging in a way it makes it better. In this case, the symbol in this story is the yellow wallpaper. The narrator talks of how ugly and creepy the yellow wallpaper and mentions how there’s a woman behind those bars during the day but comes out at night. The narrator is basically referring to the yellow wallpaper of being like a cage where she is trapped and cannot escape. In other words, the narrator is like the woman in bars meaning women are kept in a sort of prison when the get marriage and life when it comes to personal