The Yellow Wallpaper Symbolism Essay

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In “The Yellow Wallpaper” by Charlotte Perkins Gilman the author uses the literary device of symbolism to suggest the confinement the narrator is in throughout the story. The author uses symbolistic view of the yellow wallpaper and her home as this cage the narrator in confined in. Tying to the theme of women oppression and exploring the idea in where the narrator is faced with society's male dominance. Systematically, the wallpaper develops its symbolism as the story progresses. In the beginning we only view the yellow wallpaper as this smaller idea. While it may be supposedly this grimy yellow and smeared shade with nonuniform patterns all over the wall it becomes very dismissive as a simple side note of the color. However, as the …show more content…
The author symbolizes the home as another cage where ironically a home naturally comes to represent the opposite. The home,“far away from roads”, arguably can be said that even at home she’s forcefully disconnected from society suggesting that the narrator can’t even live in a place with someone to talk to except her husband. As the story progresses the narrator at home can be understood to be treated like a child where her husband called her childlike names like “blessed little goose” and places her in a bedroom where it once was a nursery. While at home naturally it would be a place to forget she is constantly reminded of her unusual status and confined domestic life.
“The Yellow wallpaper” by Charlotte Perkins Gilman uses the literary device of symbolism to help interpret the narrator's battle with herself. Tying to the theme of male dominance and female oppression her insanity becomes more present coming to the end of the novel we as readers finally get to see the overall image her everyday life actually means. While it may seem nothing at first symbolically it transcribes into more than just wallpaper and a home it transitions into becoming a cage that traps the
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