Even though women are not literally imprisoned, Gilman shows that the expectations they face mentally and, on occasion, physically imprison them. The wife, who is also the narrator, is put into a house by her husband so that she can heal. In the house, she starts to hallucinate women trapped in the wallpaper, “But in the places where it isn't faded and where the sun is just so—I can see a strange, provoking, formless sort of figure, that seems to skulk about behind that silly and conspicuous front design.” (4). The woman is starting to hallucinate, but also show the symbolism behind the wallpaper. The body behind the front design represents women, and the design is the ideas that lock women inside of expectations. Likewise, the woman eventually believes that she also came out of the wall, “I wonder if [all the creeping women] came out of the wall as I did?” (11). This emphasizes even more the symbolism of the wallpaper. The narrator comes out of the wall, basically, out of society’s expectations, and is seen by her husband as sick because of that. These symbols show that women are imprisoned by society’s
Even though women are not literally imprisoned, Gilman shows that the expectations they face mentally and, on occasion, physically imprison them. The wife, who is also the narrator, is put into a house by her husband so that she can heal. In the house, she starts to hallucinate women trapped in the wallpaper, “But in the places where it isn't faded and where the sun is just so—I can see a strange, provoking, formless sort of figure, that seems to skulk about behind that silly and conspicuous front design.” (4). The woman is starting to hallucinate, but also show the symbolism behind the wallpaper. The body behind the front design represents women, and the design is the ideas that lock women inside of expectations. Likewise, the woman eventually believes that she also came out of the wall, “I wonder if [all the creeping women] came out of the wall as I did?” (11). This emphasizes even more the symbolism of the wallpaper. The narrator comes out of the wall, basically, out of society’s expectations, and is seen by her husband as sick because of that. These symbols show that women are imprisoned by society’s