Symbolism In Charlotte Perkins Gilman's The Yellow Wallpaper

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“The color is repellent, almost revolting; a smouldering unclean yellow, strangely faded by the slow-turning sunlight” (Gilman, “Yellow Wallpaper” 469). For the narrator, this wallpaper becomes an obsession that feeds this unclean desire to continue writing despite her husband’s will and the wallpaper serves as a mirror that reflects the narrators desire to be free. It becomes quite comical how the narrator begins describing the wallpaper as she enters it for the first time. This behavior is usual with someone who is rebellious or in the narrator’s case; this behavior is normal for someone that is obliged to follow rules that will “better their health.” Charlotte Perkins Gilman, the author of “The Yellow Wallpaper,” writes her perspective on …show more content…
Although the narrator sees a woman wanting to escape the wallpaper. “The faint figure behind seemed to shake the pattern, just as if she wanted to get out (Gilman “Yellow Wallpaper” 473).” There is something greater revealed than just a figure lurking in the Wallpaper. The narrator goes on to describe that not only was it one woman, however there were many trying to escape the wallpaper. Whether it be the fumes of the arsenic leaking from the wallpaper, or not, it is certain that the symbolism found in the wallpaper is a cry of the feminist movement. According to Rena Korb, “Essentially [The Yellow Wallpaper] is a story of female confinement and escape. Gilman’s narrator is trapped in the home, in her maternal body, and in the text she has created for herself, which is the only escape she can find (286).” Again, this is another example of a critic of “The Yellow Wallpaper” that states the importance of women making their voice heard. Moreover, Korb believes that the author is making her voice heard. Likewise, the idea of women isolation or women segregation is also identifiable in these excerpts. I find ironic the part of the last excerpt that says her only escape was writing yet it was prohibited and frowned upon for the narrator of the story and the
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