Symbolism In Charlotte Gilman's The Yellow Wallpaper

A book like an abstract painting, Charlotte Gilman’s “The Yellow Wallpaper” can be perceived in many ways. These perceptions can vary in its use of symbolism and what everything could mean. One of these is the idea that the women/narrator is either trapped in her own home or she is a patient in an asylum. There are facts from the story that help argue both sides, but there is more in favor of the woman being trapped in her own home. The evidence that supports the woman being trapped in her own home, instead of an asylum, is the imagery used in the story, the level of sanity the narrator has when the story begins, and the real-life application of the procedures she was introduced to during her time of mental illness. The story itself …show more content…
The woman uses very descriptive words describing her newly bought house, like “delicious garden” and even “The most beautiful place!” These words and phrases would suggest the speaker felt good about moving into the new estate and not being forced into an asylum. The speaker also describes seeing greenhouses which would most likely be at a house and not a mental institution. The unnamed woman talks about the past of the house saying it has been abandoned for some time. This is because the last owner passed and there was conflict in who should inherit the colonial mansion, so instead they decided to sell. When the woman started to settle into her new house, her husband chose the nursery for her. The nursery was a large room with little amounts of furniture with lots of windows and rings on the walls all engulfed in yellow wallpaper. A large room would not be given to a …show more content…
The woman is lowered down to a childlike standard. She is put on a schedule for her medicine and daily exercise. The speaker is not withheld from human contact and is not needed to be restrained like if she was feral. In the story, the woman’s mother and another woman named Nellie stayed over for a week to visit the main woman. In asylums, people do not visit for extended periods of time. The husband says that if she did not get any better that he would send her to a specialist, Weir Mitchel. If she was already in an asylum they would send her away to get help, because she was already in treatment. The treatment itself is called the “rest cure” and it was invented by neurologist Silas Weir Mitchel. Doctor Mitchel came up with this treatment to combatant hysteria and other nervous illnesses. The treatment was used as an alternative method rather than admitting the patient to an asylum. Once in an asylum the rest cure was rarely used and the rest cure was substituted for other more harmful methods. The treatments intentions were to take away worry and nervousness, but later studies found that is rather broke down the patients emotionally. All the treatments and the medical protocol the speaker was exposed to was to keep her out of an