Introduction
The Yellow Wallpaper is a short story by the American writer Charlotte Perkins Gilman that revolves around a young woman succumbing to a mental disorder after giving birth. The work is littered with numerous symbolic elements, but the most prevailing one is the yellow wallpaper in the protagonist’s sickroom. As her mental health worsens, she becomes increasingly obsessed with it and begins to feel a psychic connection to its pattern. Through the symbolism of the yellow wallpaper on the house walls, Gilman conveys the mental health state of the protagonist throughout The Yellow Wallpaper.
Main body
The patterns perceived in the wallpaper by the narrator symbolize the patriarchal oppression she feels in her own life. Her husband, who is also her physician, disregards her agency and forbids her to work or see her friends and family. Since the narrator is restricted from other mental stimulation, she investigates and analyses the yellow wallpaper in her room (Gilman 8). At first, she notices unpleasant stains, but over time, a pattern emerges, forming a desperate woman trapped in the cage-like stripes of the wallpaper (Gilman 12). The phantom woman’s entrapment in the wallpaper symbolizes the narrator’s feelings of being trapped by patriarchal gender norms wherein women are expected to be subordinate to men. The author uses symbolism to show the effects of the husband’s protective paternalism on the narrator’s mental health.
Conclusion
In conclusion, through the use of symbolism, the author shows that debilitating effects of patriarchal oppression and the rest cure on the female psyche. The progression of the yellow wallpaper’s pattern mirrors the disintegration of the narrator’s mental health. The image of a woman stuck in the yellow wallpaper reflects feelings of entrapment and helplessness that women face in marriage and society. In detailing the mental deterioration of the protagonist, the author calls strongly for social reform in how women and their mental health get treated.
Work Cited
Gilman, Charlotte Perkins. The Yellow Wallpaper, Rev. ed, Feminist Press, 1996. Gale College Collection, Web.