As the narrator is isolated in order to better cure herself, she is left to her imagination as she stares daily at the wallpaper. She is not being treated by modern methods of medicine, where talking and medications are prescribed; instead, she spirals deeper into her own mind, and her mental illness worsens.
The story highlights the afflictions of the mentally ill, particularly during this time period where medicine sought emotional and moral strength as the answer to physical ailments. Charlotte Perkins Stetson fiercely disagreed with the treatment of women, especially those suffering from mental illness, by the male-dominated medical field.
Silas Weir Mitchell referenced in the story , which actually serves to exacerbate the symptoms of mental illness even more. One of the cornerstones of modern psychology is the free expression of emotions and thoughts in exploring things that are troubling the patient. The narrator, however, must not even think about her condition, according to her husband, and she is not allowed to express her emotions in a journal, but she does so in secret anyway.
It causes the narrator intense guilt, but also a sense of freedom and burden being lifted from her shoulders. The yellow wallpaper and the pattern in the upstairs nursery at first is hideous, even odious, to the narrator. The pattern infuriates her. As the weeks and her isolation wear on, however, eventually her obsession with the wallpaper invades her senses and her mind.
The wallpaper eventually comes to symbolize the trapped woman inside of the narrator, who is truly ill and in need of help, but being brushed off as weak and nervous by male doctors.
Eventually, the wallpaper embodies her mental breakdown when the narrator finally frees the woman behind the wallpaper, and her consciousness intertwines with the imagined woman. In her breakdown, the narrator finds freedom at last.
It is a place where she can express her fears, her guilt, and her resentment at her husband and her doctors for a treatment that is not making her better, but worse. It is also a place where she can express her frustration at her isolation from family and friends. The narrator focuses a lot on the differences she sees and experiences in the house during the day and in the moonlight evenings.
The nursery itself gets a lot of sunlight from all angles during the day, and it is as the sun moves across the room that the narrator sees the changes in the patterns on the wallpaper. In the moonlight, the pattern becomes like bars, hiding the trapped woman. By day, the woman behind is subdued and quiet, much like the narrator; but by night, she awakens and shakes the bars to escape, much like the inner turmoil and illness of the narrator. The yellow wallpaper itself is one of the largest symbols in the story.
It can be interpreted to symbolize many things about the narrator. The wallpaper symbolizes the mental block mean attempted to place on women during the s. It symbolizes women being out of the public eye in the time period. Women were needed to stay inside and tend to the house and children. Get Access. Satisfactory Essays.
Symbolism In The Yellow Wallpaper. Read More. Better Essays. The Yellow Wallpaper Words 4 Pages. The Yellow Wallpaper. Powerful Essays. Some critics argue this represents repressed female sexuality, probably because a bed is where people have sex, and chains are a repressive measure.
Parents Home Homeschool College Resources. Study Guide. By Charlotte Perkins Gilman. Previous Next. Take a look at this trailer for The Yellow Wallpaper short film. It is a modern take on the story but can aid your understanding of setting by seeing a visual adaptation, see how the film makers have portrayed the house and the room to be in keeping with the gothic genre.
The narrators baby is only mentioned in the story twice, and only as passing comments. This is intentionally done as it serves to highlight the issues the narrator has with the feminine role, as well as suggest that the mental illness that the narrator suffers from is postnatal depression. Such a dear baby!
And yet I can not be with him, it makes me so nervous. Manuscript page This is also particularly apparent as it can be assumed that the narrator is also jealous of Mary for being able to look after the baby when she can not. Later in the novel when the narrators madness becomes more and more apparent, she seems to use her baby as an excuse to stay in the room with the wallpaper.
Notice in the extract below how her short sentences and use of exclamation marks reflect her erratic state of mind, and the way in which she talks about her baby is no longer as calm and restrained as in the last extract. If we had not used it, the blessed child would have! What a fortunate escape! I never thought of it before, but it is lucky that John kept me here after all, I can stand it so much easier then a baby, you see. The first person perspective of the novella mimics that of a journal, the reader is able to get a personal view of the narrator as it is as though the reader is intruding on her personal thoughts and feelings.
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