Symbolism in 'The Yellow Wallpaper'
by Lillian Bonar
Essay: Symbolism in 'The Yellow Wallpaper'
Pages: 11
Rating: 3 stars
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• Symbolism in 'The Yellow Wallpaper'.pdf
• Symbolism in 'The Yellow Wallpaper'.doc
For centuries women in literature have been depicted as weak, subservient, and unthinking characters. Before the
19th century, they usually were not given interesting personalities and were always the proper, perfect and
supportive character to the main manly characters. However, one person, in order to defy and mock the norm of
woman characterization and the demeaning mindsets about women, Charlotte Perkins Gilman wrote "The Yellow
Wallpaper." This story, through well crafted symbolisms, brought to surface the troubles that real women face. Her
character deals with the feeling of being trapped by the expectations of her husband, with the need to do
something creative or constructive, and to have a mind and will of her own. These feelings are represented
through various symbols in the story which include the wallpaper, the woman in the wallpaper, the mental
sickness that progressed throughout the story, male presence/influence, moonlight/daylight, and the crazy pattern
on the wallpaper.
The wallpaper in Gilman's story represents the unnamed narrator's repressed and trapped self. The side that is not
liberated by insanity. It represents everything that she detests about her life, not being allowed to write, having to
be a mother, and needing to be someone who John expects her to be. In this way, her immediate hatred of the
wallpaper is fitting. The old saying that says a person always hates others for the things they hate about
themselves applies to her hatred of the wallpaper. The yellowness of the wallpaper reminds her of her sickness
because yellow is the color of jaundice and generally symbolizes inferiority, strangeness, cowardice, ugliness, and
backwardness. Therefore, because she sees these things in herself, she hates t...
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