Introduction
“The Yellow Wallpaper” is a story written by Charlotte Perkins Gilman concerning a woman’s gradual decline to insanity from her depression that has emerged as a result of the birth of her child. In other words the story is exclusive of both feminist masterpiece and a haunting psychological story. Gilman, the wife and writer of the story existed during the time when she felt that women were denied access to participate in other fields beyond their homestead. She felt that women are in need of having opportunity to grow, to works and participate in other operations outside their homes.
In the Perkins Gilman’s “The Yellow Wallpaper” different symbols are applied to reveal the oppression experienced by women from men and the struggle against such female depressed society. Various symbols are cited from the story in order to support this.
The writer has a negative view on the yellow wallpaper as she affirms, ‘I never saw a worse paper in my life’ (p.833). This is a symbol that represents the mental screen that men perceive upon women. Gilman also declares that, ‘the color is hideous enough, and unreliable enough, and infuriating enough, but the pattern is torturing’ (p.839. the writer here uses the symbolic metaphor to illustrate how men have placed various restriction on women. The writer want to reveal how the gender equality is viewed as “hideous” act by the males, and when women are granted some elements of gender equality, it is frequently “unreliable”. According to Gilman, she states how she almost firmly restricted to perform any type of “work” by her brother and her husband (p.833). In this case, the word “work” is quoted as a symbol to represent independent interaction with the society or any other type of intellectual work. Back in 1800s, the woman’s public interaction, regardless of her reason, was seen as a harlot.
Another symbolism is revealed when the writer told her husband, a physician, that she is ill and she would like to spend some time with him at his summer house. She strongly felt that she is ill but both her brother and her husband, both physicians, affirm her that there she is fine (p.833). This is clear indication of a symbolism used to reveal how the women struggled for equality while being oppressed and ignored back in 1800s. Gilman continues on the same page saying that, ‘I sometimes fancy that in my condition if I had less opposition and more society and stimulus- but John says the very worst thing I can do is to think about my condition, and I confess it always makes me feel bad’. In this scenario the writer is revealing how men are opposing equality in the society. The writer also illustrates how women struggles to deprive from the restrictive bond imposed by men, but men oppress them and put into force the idea that women are inferior. The writer supports this attitude by stating that ‘but John says the very worst thing I can do is to think about my condition’.
The writer has also used a symbol of windows that portrays the depiction and the prospects of the female sex, and how these prospects were restricted and limited by male during 19th and 20th century. The first view of the windows is described by the writer as ‘I can see the garden, those mysterious deep-shaded arbor, the riotous old-fashioned flowers, and bushes and gnarly trees’ (p.835). In this text, the word “garden” represents the society, and the word “mysterious” indicates the undiscovered possibilities that women possess. She continues to describe in the same page ‘a lovely view of the bay’ and a ‘private wharf belonging to the estate’. The bay represents the unexplored territory that women cannot reach, and the private estate reveals the portion of the society that is limited for women. The view of ‘people walking in the numerous paths and arbors’, depicts how women see the men’s actions and realize that they are in a position to achieve those tasks.
Conclusion
Although Charlotte Gilman has used various symbols in her story, the mentioned symbols are the core symbols that reveal clearly how women are oppressed by men, and their enduring struggle to overcome the oppression. As disused in the paper, the yellow wallpaper, the idea of staying at a summer house, and the descriptions of the two windows are the main symbols supporting the theme of woman’s suffrage. The writer however realizes that those acts undertaken by men can also be undertaken by women. The writer argues that if she can be able to performed actions done by men, men and women should be placed in the same level of competence.
Works Cited
Gilman, Charlotte P. The Yellow Wallpaper. New York: Feminist Press, 1973. Print.
