The Yellow Wallpaper Analysis Essay

“The Yellow Wallpaper”, by Charlotte Perkins Gilman represents the role women have in society by using symbolism, gender roles, social criticism, and personal experiences by Gilman herself. The society being described concerns not only a certain class, but also a class in which women play restrained roles. “Feminist criticism contends that literature either supports society’s patriarchal structure or provides social criticism in order to change this hierarchy(----.)” In “ The Yellow Wallpaper” it is to criticize the way society is molded as it depicts a woman’s struggle against the typical female role which society forces her to live.

The symbolism portrayed in the story goes a long way if you are able to grasp the true analysis of what Gilman is trying to state. The title itself is an important element as the yellow wallpaper represents her being trapped. The ugly room she has become obsessed to is society and the narrator is trapped within the pattern of being a woman in the 19th century. The pattern being a never-ending cycle of achieving minimal education, getting married, then raising your family. The effect created by the symbols which include the nursery, wallpaper, and the house

Her role compared to the role of John’s sister who is the ideal woman and is able to care and nurture for a child who is not her own makes his wife feel horrible with a sense of jealousy. She writes “There comes John’s sister. Such a dear girl as she is, and so careful of me! I must not let her find me writing. She is a perfectionist and enthusiastic housekeeper, and hopes for no better profession. I verily believe she thinks it is the writing which makes me sick!(Gilman -.)” This helps us differentiate the two types of women, John’s sister being the ideal woman, and his wife who is in the wrong for being unsatisfied with her