Yellow Wallpaper Symbolism
In Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s “The Yellow Wallpaper”, the wallpaper symbolizes the husband’s oppression of the narrator’s creativity and femininity.
The husband, John, uses his wife’s depression to constrict her to his forms of “treatment.” John uses the fact that he is a physician to compensate for the various forms of repression of the narrator, such as her creativity and femininity. The yellow wallpaper with its faded yellow color and complex patterns is as symbol for the narrator’s oppressions.
For instance, the narrator first introduces her husband, John, as a physician of high standing. She says, “But John says if I feel so, I shall neglect proper self-control; so I take pains to control myself—before him, at least, and that makes me very tired.” The narrator explains that, because her …show more content…
He says, ”What is it, little girl?" he said. "Don't go walking about like that—you'll get cold.” John calls his wife by the title “little girl”, which indicates that he does not see his wife as a grown woman.
Similarly, the narrator mentions, “There’s one comfort, the baby is well and happy, and does not have to occupy this nursery with the horrid wall-paper.” The narrator, a mother, does not take care of her own baby. By taking away the responsibility of taking care of one’s own child based on a depression disorder, the narrator’s identity of being a woman and mother is nothing. The narrator’s lack of a name shows that she has no identity. She is treated as a helpless child, which eliminates her identity of being a woman.
After the narrator has torn down the yellow wallpaper, she states, ”I’ve got out at last," said I, "in spite of you and Jane. And I've pulled off most of the paper, so you can't put me back!” The tearing down of the yellow wallpaper symbolizes that the narrator is tearing her old life of oppression away in hope of another. Her former lifestyle will be changed like the
The husband, John, uses his wife’s depression to constrict her to his forms of “treatment.” John uses the fact that he is a physician to compensate for the various forms of repression of the narrator, such as her creativity and femininity. The yellow wallpaper with its faded yellow color and complex patterns is as symbol for the narrator’s oppressions.
For instance, the narrator first introduces her husband, John, as a physician of high standing. She says, “But John says if I feel so, I shall neglect proper self-control; so I take pains to control myself—before him, at least, and that makes me very tired.” The narrator explains that, because her …show more content…
He says, ”What is it, little girl?" he said. "Don't go walking about like that—you'll get cold.” John calls his wife by the title “little girl”, which indicates that he does not see his wife as a grown woman.
Similarly, the narrator mentions, “There’s one comfort, the baby is well and happy, and does not have to occupy this nursery with the horrid wall-paper.” The narrator, a mother, does not take care of her own baby. By taking away the responsibility of taking care of one’s own child based on a depression disorder, the narrator’s identity of being a woman and mother is nothing. The narrator’s lack of a name shows that she has no identity. She is treated as a helpless child, which eliminates her identity of being a woman.
After the narrator has torn down the yellow wallpaper, she states, ”I’ve got out at last," said I, "in spite of you and Jane. And I've pulled off most of the paper, so you can't put me back!” The tearing down of the yellow wallpaper symbolizes that the narrator is tearing her old life of oppression away in hope of another. Her former lifestyle will be changed like the