Stupefying Symbolism In The Yellow Wallpaper English Literature Essay

Stupefying Symbolism In The Yellow wallpaper English Literature EssayIn Charlotte Perkins Gilmans short news report, The Yellow Wallpaper, the cashier, whose conjure up is non given, has been placed in the top of an old house in a expressive style of life with colour wallpaper. The fair sex had just undergone child pedigree and is going through a anxious(p) condition (Gilman 721). As the cleaning ladyhood stays in the manner, she becomes obsessed with the yellow wallpaper plastered to the walls of her room. inwardly the literal factors of the story, are attributes that show the underlying message of the story symbols such(prenominal) as the room, report in her nonebook, and the yellow wallpaper. The story, when simply demo, shows a woman slowly going psychopathologic, entirely when read critically, the commentator is able to probe a deeper signifi tummyce captured in the symbols that lie in the story.The room that the narrator is staying in is an detached on e at the top of the house, containing nonhing but a bed that is nailed to the floor and the yellow wallpaper that she trem leftoverously dislikes (724). The uninvolved room is her place to draw up when alone, though she sees that her husbands sister thinks it is the writing which make me sick (724). The writer might infer from the latter statement that the isolated room is a symbol of a safe-haven for the narrator. As the story displace to its closing, the narrator locks herself in the room from both her husband, John, and his sister, Jennie, calling to them that the key is defeat by the front door under a plantain foliation (731). She was attempting to finish peeling the wallpaper back to stand behind it and the room was her only when thing tutelage her family out (731). Though the narrator was insane by this time, the reader stool infer that by locking herself in the room and her family out, she felt safe there.The narrator writes in her nonebook end-to-end the story, k eeping it hidden from her family, and taking it out only when they leave the room (724). The notebook symbolizes a hint of stableness in, what seems to be, a deeply oppress life of the narrator. An example of said oppression is when the narrator writes, There comes John, and I must put this away,he hates to have me write a word. The narrator believes that the writing is not making her sick and proves so when she writes about Jennie, I verily believe she thinks it is the writing which made me sick But I can write when she is out, and see her a long way by from these windows (724). As the story draws to a close and the narrator has begun to end her writing sessions, she goes insane. The reader might draw the conclusion that her writing was the only thing that was keeping the narrator sane.The yellow wallpaper, which the narrator refers to as paper, symbolizes the repression of the narrator by her husband, and eventually, exemption from said repression (721). Throughout the story, th e narrator tells her audience of her dislike for the yellow wallpaper, describing the twist as repellent, almost revolting a smouldering unclean yellow, fishily faded by the slow-turning sunlight. It is a dull yet lurid chromatic in some places, a sickly sulphur tint in others (722). The narrator states that, when she asked him to repaper the room, John meant to repaper the room, but later onward he said that I was letting it get the better of me, and that nothing was worse for a nervous patient that to give way to such fancies. He said that after the wallpaper was changed it would be the heavy bedstead and consequently the barred windows, and then that gate at the head of the stairs, and so on (723). The reader can pull from the latter statement that John was only making up excuses. He knew that his wife was upset by the paper and still would not change it. The narrators statements, Ive got out at last and in spite of you and Jane. And Ive pulled off most of the paper, so you bank building put me back shows that the narrator has agnise that the wallpaper was a way her husband oppressed her from life, and by part it off the wall, was able to become free (731).Some might manage that the narrators room is not a symbol of a safe-haven, but the symbol of imprisonment. As for writing in her notebook, some might dispute that symbolizes rebellion, kind of of stableness. Others may consider that the yellow wallpaper symbolizes the narrators sanity, and not repression. Though the points verbalize are logical to an extent, there are grounds to take a different approach to the symbolism of said symbols. Those who believe that the narrators room is a symbol of imprisonment may see the room in this way because of the blandness of it, the fact that the bed is bolted to the floor, and the reality of the narrator not be permitted to leave the room. What said people need to see is that the room is not imprisoning the narrator, her husband is. The room symbolizes se curity for the narrator because, as stated previously, the room is the only thing giving the woman the occasion to write. Some believe that the narrator writing in her notebook symbolizes rebellion because she states, I did write for a while in spite of them, but what those people dampen to see is that she did not does (721). The narrator felt only love towards her family and knew that it bothered them to see her write, so, she only did so when they were out of the room. The notebook symbolizes stability because it is only while writing in the notebook that the reader sees that the narrator is sane. It is not until the reader begins to tell a story, rather than write down events, that she turns insane. As for the yellow wallpaper representing the narrators sanity, some may see that as the wallpaper gets removed from the wall, the narrators sanity gets ripped away with it. What said people do not comprehend is that the narrator is slowly removing years of oppression that her husban d placed on her. She states, in spite of you and Jane. And Ive pulled off most of the paper, so you cant put me back (731). The latter quote shows that the narrator realizes how oppressed she was by her husband and refuses to go back to being repressed by him.When read simply, The Yellow Wallpaper, portrays a woman who is slowly going insane, and by the end has a mental breakdown. After looking at the short story critically, one must notice the use of symbolism in the story. The sequester room that the narrator stays in symbolizes a sanctuary, giving the narrator time to write when her family is away. The narrator writing in her notebook symbolizes the stability in the narrators life that slowly deteriorates as the story draws to an end. Last, but not least, the horrid yellow wallpaper symbolized the oppression that the narrator undergoes from her husband, and when finally removed, the freedom. The symbols displayed in The Yellow Wallpaper give the story a stronger underlying mean ing, and to the narrator, by her audience, a sense that she was not completely insane, but a woman who found independence in something as ugly as yellow wallpaper.Work CitedGilman, Charlotte Perkins. The Yellow Wallpaper. Exploring Literature Writing and Arguing About Fiction, Poetry, Drama, and the Essay. coarse Madden. 4th ed. New York Pearson Longman, 2009. 496-501. Print.