It is not hard to see why Charlotte Perkins Gilman is best known for her work "The Yellow Wallpaper". Aside from being engaging, this is a story extremely rich in all literary aspects. Expressly, this is a tale loaded with symbolism. It is also a story that shows the undeniable importance of perspective. Gilman uses the women trapped behind the yellow wallpaper to symbolize Jane being trapped in the house with her illness. In order to do this, Gilman must use Jane as the narrator, in order for the reader to understand the wallpaper's true meaning in the story. Had the story been told from another perspective, the symbolism of the yellow wallpaper would have been lost. These aspects work together to create a solid story, as well as excellent examples of symbolism and point of view in literature.
             The yellow wallpaper is used as symbolism in this story to reflect Jane, or the narrator's growing madness. Its importance is foreshadowed almost immediately when it is introduced: "It is dull enough to confuse the eye into following, pronounced enough to irritate and provoke study..." What should be a simple part of her surroundings becomes an obsession, eventually driving her completely mad. When she initially asks her husband to have it replaced, he says it is all in her head, and that it would be dangerous for them to "give way to such fancies." He says a similar thing further on, when she asks him to take her away from the house. "I told him that I really was not gaining here, and I wished he would take me away." To this he replied "There is nothing so dangerous, so fascinating, to a temperament like yours. It is a false and foolish fancy." He continually writes off her pleas as arbitrary; her fears as problems that are all in her head. This is when the narrator begins seeing the figures behind the wallpaper. While she is trappe
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