Example Of The Yellow Wallpaper Literature Review

Gilman devotes numerous journal entries to label the wallpaper in her room. She asserts that the wallpaper has a break-neck pattern, has a yellowish smell, and leaves yellowish patches on one’s hair, skin and attire if touched (Fleenor 287). Fleenor suggests that Gilman’s long stay in her room compels her to have a conviction that the patterns on her wallpaper are in constant mutation, especially at night times when it is shined upon by moonlight. The room becomes a symbol of repressive society since she is frightened by the whole experience in the room.
With determination to free the woman in the wallpaper; the narrator peels off the remaining papers from her wall. This makes her satisfied since she believes that she has finally set the woman free. The domestic sphere existing at that time provided that women were to hold to the private realm of life comprising child rearing, housekeeping, and domestic life. On the contrary, men were anticipated to hold on to the public spheres of life comprising the world of commerce, law, politics, and economy. Fleenor explicates this in the manner in which she says that Gilman marveled at the way men worked together to create a functional train system; while women were denied the opportunity to work together (Fleenor 286).
Fleenor asserts that one of the main themes in the short story is punishing women for being female (Fleenor 287). This is demonstrated in the manner in which their children are taken away from them; thus, subjecting them to pain and misery. According to Fleenor, taking away children from women and confining them as was the case with the narrator is the cause of women breakdown. This is because they are confined as prisoners yet they have not committed any crime (Fleenor 287).