Free At Last
When a reader first reads The Yellow Wallpaper it appears to be a story of a young woman suffering from post pardum depression that slowly ends in the total loss of reality. However, understanding that Charlotte Perkins Gilman was an early feminist, and her writings share a common theme that women do not have an equal human status in society, the story takes on a whole new meaning. The author's creative use of symbolism in The Yellow Wallpaper allows the reader an inside look of a young woman's struggle to free herself from society's "norm". The author's use of setting and symbolism perfectly represents the male dominant society in the Victorian era that believed a women's place was in the home. The author carefully constructed her sentences and symbols to produce a picture of arrogant and creepy male oppression.The story opens with the young woman describing the house as a "colonial mansion, a hereditary estate, I would say a haunted house, and reach the height of romantic felicity-but that would be asking too much of fate!" (168). The author uses this symbolism to describe the different roles a woman played. The colonial mansion describes her as a wife and a hereditary estate that of a mother. The haunted
The young woman's fascination with the ugly paper begins as an innocent annoyance, builds to a pastime, and turns into an obsession. It was not deemed proper for a woman to be openly individualistic and to do so they had to skulk or lurk among men. The formless figure represents women who are forced to the background, a mere shadow of men, by male dominance. In other words, no wonder most women hated marriage and even though she loved her husband, she herself would come to hate it if she continued to allow her husband to suppress her creativity. The young woman comes to the realization that "If only that top pattern could be gotten off from the under one! I mean to try it, little by little" (179). Another symbol is the paper's odor, which is a metaphor for the foul effects of male domination. It trapped a woman in a role of being submissive and dominated. I fancy it is the pattern that keeps her so still" (176). The author slowly releases clues that allow the reader to see the wallpaper as a symbol of male authority. It is a dull yet lurid orange in some places, a sickly sulphur tint in others" (170). The young woman also states that there is a kind of sub-pattern and "in the places where it isn't faded and where the sun is just so-I can see a strange, provoking formless sort of figure, that seems to skulk about that silly and conspicuous front design" (173). "No wonder the children hated it! I should hate it myself if I had to live in this room long" (170).
Common topics in this essay:
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Perkins Gilman,
male dominance,
,
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height romantic,
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paper begins,
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Acceptance Essays
