In Charlotte Perkins Gilman ‘s short narrative, “ The Yellow Wallpaper, ” the storyteller, whose name is non given, has been placed in the top of an old house in a room with xanthous wallpaper. The adult female had merely undergone child birth and is traveling through a “ nervous status ” ( Gilman 721 ) . As the adult female stays in the room, she becomes obsessed with the xanthous wallpaper plastered to the walls of her room. Within the actual factors of the narrative, are symbols that show the implicit in message of the narrative ; symbols such as the room, composing in her notebook, and the xanthous wallpaper. The narrative, when merely read, shows a adult female easy traveling insane, but when read critically, the reader is able to see a deeper significance captured in the symbols that lie in the narrative.
The room that the storyteller is remaining in is an stray one at the top of the house, incorporating nil but a bed that is nailed to the floor and the xanthous wallpaper that she enormously disfavors ( 724 ) . The stray room is her topographic point to compose when alone, though she believes that her hubby ‘s sister “ thinks it is the composing which made me ill ” ( 724 ) . The author might deduce from the latter statement that the stray room is a symbol of a safe-haven for the storyteller. As the narrative drew to its shutting, the storyteller locks herself in the room from both her hubby, John, and his sister, Jennie, naming to them that “ the key is down by the front door under a plantain foliage ” ( 731 ) . She was trying to complete skining the wallpaper back to stand behind it and the room was her lone thing maintaining her household out ( 731 ) . Though the storyteller was insane by this clip, the reader can deduce that by locking herself in the room and her household out, she felt safe at that place.
The storyteller writes in her notebook throughout the narrative, maintaining it hidden from her household, and taking it out merely when they leave the room ( 724 ) . The notebook symbolizes a intimation of stability in, what seems to be, a deeply laden life of the storyteller. An illustration of said subjugation is when the storyteller writes, “ There comes John, and I must set this away, — he hates to hold me compose a word. ” The storyteller believes that the authorship is non doing her ill and proves so when she writes about Jennie, “ I verily believe she thinks it is the composing which made me ill! But I can compose when she is out, and see her a long manner off from these Windowss ” ( 724 ) . As the narrative draws to a stopping point and the storyteller has begun to stop her authorship Sessionss, she goes insane. The reader might pull the decision that her authorship was the lone thing that was maintaining the storyteller sane.
The xanthous wallpaper, which the storyteller refers to as “ paper, ” symbolizes the repression of the storyteller by her hubby, and finally, freedom from said repression ( 721 ) . Throughout the narrative, the storyteller tells her audience of her disfavor for the xanthous wallpaper, depicting the colour as “ repellant, about revolting: a smoldering dirty yellow, queerly faded by the slow-turning sunshine. It is a dull yet lurid orange in some topographic points, a sallow sulfur shade in others ” ( 722 ) . The storyteller states that, when she asked him to repaper the room, John “ [ aˆ¦ ] meant to repaper the room, but subsequently he said that I was allowing it acquire the better of me, and that nil was worse for a nervous patient that to give manner to such illusions. He said that after the wallpaper was changed it would be the heavy bedframe ; and so the barricaded Windowss, and so that gate at the caput of the stepss, and so on ” ( 723 ) . The reader can draw from the latter statement that John was merely doing up alibis. He knew that his married woman was upset by the paper and still would non alter it. The storyteller ‘s statements, “ I ‘ve got out at last ” and “ in malice of you and Jane. And I ‘ve pulled off most of the paper, so you ca n’t set me back ” shows that the storyteller has realized that the wallpaper was a manner her hubby oppressed her from life, and by rupturing it off the wall, was able to go free ( 731 ) .
Some might reason that the storyteller ‘s room is non a symbol of a safe-haven, but the symbol of imprisonment. As for composing in her notebook, some might challenge that symbolizes rebellion, alternatively of stableness. Others may see that the xanthous wallpaper symbolizes the storyteller ‘s saneness, and non repression. Though the points stated are logical to an extent, there are evidences to take a different attack to the symbolism of said symbols. Those who believe that the storyteller ‘s room is a symbol of imprisonment may see the room in this manner because of the blandness of it, the fact that the bed is bolted to the floor, and the world of the storyteller non being permitted to go forth the room. What said people need to see is that the room is non incarcerating the storyteller, her hubby is. The room symbolizes security for the storyteller because, as stated antecedently, the room is the lone thing giving the adult female the juncture to compose. Some believe that the storyteller authorship in her notebook symbolizes rebellion because she states, “ I did compose for a piece in malice of them, ” but what those people fail to see is that she “ did ” non does ( 721 ) . The storyteller felt merely love towards her household and knew that it bothered them to see her write, so, she merely did so when they were out of the room. The notebook symbolizes stableness because it is merely while composing in the notebook that the reader sees that the storyteller is sane. It is non until the reader begins to state a narrative, instead than compose down events, that she turns insane. As for the xanthous wallpaper stand foring the storyteller ‘s saneness, some may see that as the wallpaper gets removed from the wall, the storyteller ‘s saneness gets ripped off with it. What said people do non grok is that the storyteller is easy removing old ages of subjugation that her hubby laid on her. She states, “ in malice of you and Jane. And I ‘ve pulled off most of the paper, so you ca n’t set me back ” ( 731 ) . The latter quotation mark shows that the storyteller realizes how laden she was by her hubby and refuses to travel back to being repressed by him.
When read merely, “ The Yellow Wallpaper, ” portrays a adult female who is easy traveling insane, and by the terminal has a mental dislocation. After looking at the short narrative critically, one must detect the usage of symbolism in the narrative. The privy room that the storyteller stays in typifying a sanctuary, giving the storyteller clip to compose when her household is off. The storyteller authorship in her notebook symbolizes the stableness in the storyteller ‘s life that easy deteriorates as the narrative draws to an terminal. Last, but non least, the horrid xanthous wallpaper symbolized the subjugation that the storyteller undergoes from her hubby, and when eventually removed, the freedom. The symbols displayed in “ The Yellow Wallpaper ” give the narrative a stronger implicit in significance, and to the storyteller, by her audience, a sense that she was non wholly insane, but a adult female who found independency in something every bit ugly as xanthous wallpaper.
Work Cited
Gilman, Charlotte Perkins. “ The Yellow Wallpaper. ” Researching Literature: Writing and Arguing About Fiction, Poetry, Drama, and the Essay. Frank Madden. 4th erectile dysfunction. New York: Pearson Longman, 2009. 496-501. Print.
