Women in literature are often portrayed in a position that are dominated by men in the nineteen-hundreds era which was considered the norm. In the short story “The Yellow Wallpaper” by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, the protagonist is oppressed by the husband and shows the effect of the oppression of women in society usually through her writing. The symbolism used in the short story also resembles the feminist views and the overall theme of feminism. Gilman uses symbolism to show the restrictions put on women, the oppression shown on the protagonist, and feminism through the uses of symbolism. It is customary to assume to the house represents a symbol in which it is a secure place for a woman’s transformation and release of self-expression.
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The unnamed protagonist to this short story notices the yellow wallpaper when she first arrived and called it “a smouldering, unclean yellow” (Gilman “The Yellow Wallpaper 649). She later sees images in the wallpaper that can only be seen in certain light as her condition is declining. She sees a woman trying to creep and crawl while she is in her bedroom trying to escape which can show them being driven more mental. The protagonist is being oppressed in the room by her husband as her condition is getting worse. She is set to a rest cure method while being trapped by the barred windows and nailed down bed where she shall be turned into an infant-like female again. She cannot go out as John has taken such control of her activities that all she can do is sit and watch this paper as this requires no mental activeness. She becomes absorbed by the patterns of the paper and tries to follow them to the end which drives her mad. This is her only escape so she follows the pattern to the point of insanity. She looks at the main cage for escape, which has come to resemble the bars of a cage. As she looks, the cage can be more clearly seen as medicine, the structure of family, and tradition in which the narrator finds herself trapped and oppressed. The wallpaper is submissive and domestic, and Gilman skillfully writes this nightmarish and horror trapped wallpaper as a symbol of the domestic life that traps so many
The unnamed protagonist to this short story notices the yellow wallpaper when she first arrived and called it “a smouldering, unclean yellow” (Gilman “The Yellow Wallpaper 649). She later sees images in the wallpaper that can only be seen in certain light as her condition is declining. She sees a woman trying to creep and crawl while she is in her bedroom trying to escape which can show them being driven more mental. The protagonist is being oppressed in the room by her husband as her condition is getting worse. She is set to a rest cure method while being trapped by the barred windows and nailed down bed where she shall be turned into an infant-like female again. She cannot go out as John has taken such control of her activities that all she can do is sit and watch this paper as this requires no mental activeness. She becomes absorbed by the patterns of the paper and tries to follow them to the end which drives her mad. This is her only escape so she follows the pattern to the point of insanity. She looks at the main cage for escape, which has come to resemble the bars of a cage. As she looks, the cage can be more clearly seen as medicine, the structure of family, and tradition in which the narrator finds herself trapped and oppressed. The wallpaper is submissive and domestic, and Gilman skillfully writes this nightmarish and horror trapped wallpaper as a symbol of the domestic life that traps so many