Yellow Wallpaper Symbolism

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“The Yellow Wallpaper” contain many symbols in which Charlotte Perkins Gilman develops the idea that society at the time of the story presumed certain things “proper” - without knowing that they were indeed harmful. In the author’s time, woman had no power, worth, or opportunities, and that could have been enough to drive woman of the time, including the narrator, into madness. Women were not apart of the workforce, could not vote, or have a say in anything. Charlotte Perkins Gilman wanted to change the way in which women were viewed in the 19th century. In “The Yellow Wallpaper”, she uses numerous symbols to show the many restrictions upon women, lack of public interaction, and the struggle for equality.
Perhaps the biggest symbol in support …show more content…

“I did write for a while in spite of them; but it does exhaust me a good deal—having to be so sly about it, or else meet with heavy opposition.” She also claimed that, “I sometimes fancy that in my condition if I had less opposition and more society and stimulus—but John says the very worst thing I can do is to think about my condition, and I confess it always makes me feel bad.” She is restrained from both writing and reading, so her mind settles onto the wallpaper as her source of literary work instead. This supports my thesis statement because men viewed it “proper” for a woman to be entirely dependent on a man, even though it was economic and socially damaging. In comparison, in William Shakespeare’s “Taming of the Shrew”, Bianca, one of the female leads, is praised for her ways that never “tested the system”, which is why many suitors came her way. Katherine on the other hand, pulled, tested, and played the social setup for woman at the time. Men despised Katherine because of her rebellious nature and she was viewed as an outcast at the time. The narrator of “The Yellow Wallpaper” is very much like Katherine, wanting to bring out her true self, yet she is forced to be more like Bianca, quiet and obedient. The narrator internally struggles with this expectation of herself throughout the entire

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