In the short story "The Yellow Wallpaper," written by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, there are various symbolic elements, which create the hidden theme of the story. As the reader focuses on these symbols they are able to understand the basic conflict of the story. This conflict is that of the attitudes of men toward women and women's needs in the late19th century. The chief symbol in this story is the yellow wallpaper. The woman's focused attention on the wallpaper helps us to discover what she is only just discovering herself. There are various other symbols throughout the story, which lend a hand in the meaning behind the story. Starting with the discussion of the yellow wallpaper and continuing with other minor symbols, this essay will show how these symbols, collectively, with the majority of the significance placed on the wall paper, helps us to understand the central conflict of the story.
             In the story "The Yellow Wallpaper" John and his wife rent a house for the summer, secluded from the village, standing well back from the road. John brings his wife here so she can get rest, and get better. John is a physician and he says his wife has a slight nervous depression and getting rest, not working and not looking after her child will do her good. So they go to this house for the summer and one of the first things she notices is that there is something queer about the house (319). The thing that disturbs her the most about this house is the yellow wallpaper in the room which is her bedroom for the summer. The rest of the story deals with her issues surrounding the wallpaper and her progression from nervous depression to insanity.
             There are different features of the wallpaper that have an important role in the discovery of what the wallpaper represents. At first John's wife does not like the wallpaper, as this exchange from her journal shows us:
             It is dull enough to confuse the eye in following, p...