The Yellow Wallpaper Analysis

What Does The Wallpaper Symbolise In 'The Yellow Wallpaper'?

'The Yellow Wallpaper' is a short story written by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, who in her lifetime produced many short stories, novels, essays and poetry. She was born in 1860 in Connecticut, USA and was brought up by a single mother. After giving birth to her daughter Katherine in 1884 she fell into a deep, post-natal depression and was told to go on the 'rest cure'. This is a period spent in inactivity with the intention of improving one's physical or mental health. While it did arise her depression, this 'cure' almost drove Gilman mad. She wrote 'The Yellow Wallpaper' in 1892 to show the horrors of the 'rest cure'. In the story, the narrator (Jane) and her physician husband
(John), have rented a mansion for the summer so that she can recuperate from a “slight hysterical tendency”. Although the narrator does not believe that she is actually ill, John is convinced that she is suffering from a post-natal depression and prescribes the 'rest cure'. She is confined to bed rest in a nursery and is forbidden by John from working or writing. The spacious room has yellow wallpaper with a hideous and chaotic pattern. The narrator detests the wallpaper, but John refuses to change rooms, arguing that the nursery is best suited for her recovery “You know the place is doing you good - I don't care to renovate the house just for a three months rental”. Throughout the story, the narrator's condition gets worse and as more days pass, the narrator grows increasingly anxious and depressed. The wallpaper provides her only stimulation, and she spends the majority of her time studying its confusing yet intriguing patterns. There is an image of a figure stooping and "creeping" around behind the wallpaper which becomes clearer each day. By moonlight, she can see that the figure is trapped behind what seem to be bars. The narrator's health improves as her interest in the wallpaper deepens. At night, the woman in the wallpaper shakes the bars in the violently as she tries to break through them, but she cannot break free and the narrator intends to peel off the wallpaper before she leaves the house. At the final night, the narrator locks herself in her room and strips off the wallpaper. In the morning John breaks into the room, but the narrator doesn’t recognise him. She tells him that she has peeled off most of the wallpaper so that no one can put her back in the pattern. John faints, and the narrator continues “creeping” around the room. While there are many accounts of symbolism in 'The Yellow Wallpaper' the most obvious is the wallpaper itself.
At first the narrator sees the wallpaper as just an unpleasant decoration with a horrid pattern. However, as the story goes on she starts to see what appears to be a sub-pattern behind the main pattern. This later comes to view as a woman who seems to be trying to escape the
wallpaper. One theory is that the wallpaper represents Victorian society and the mistreatment of women during that time period.
The woman in the sub-pattern is trapped in an unfair society which she cannot escape. When the narrator starts to peel it off the wall, the wallpaper “sticks horribly and the pattern enjoys it!”. This could refer to the strict rules of Victorian society and how it had a set routine for all people to follow. “All those strangled heads and bulbous eyes shriek with derision”. This gives the reader a grotesque view on the wallpaper, and therefore society. “those strangled heads” could also show the narrator sees the 'cage' as festooned with the heads of many woman that have tried to escape before, but failed. I believe that the author wrote this to show how the rules of her time were so strict, that it was very difficult for a woman to escape the 'pattern' and become an
individual.