The Yellow Wallpaper Symbolism

            The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Gillman is oozing with symbolism.  A main form of symbolism begins in the title.  The YELLOW Wallpaper.  The word “yellow” symbolizes oppression.  Merriam-Webster dictionary states that oppression is an “unjust or cruel exercise of authority or power”.  The definition also seems fitting for John, the narrator’s wife.  Coincidence?  I think not.  The color of the wallpaper symbolizes John.  Yellow, for the way John treats her:  He keeps her locked in the room because she cannot do anything about it.  The more she asks to see her cousins, the less he allows her to leave the room.  This is a very unjust exercise of authority.  John is the patria

rch in the house; therefore, even if the narrator was sane, she would be expected to follow John’s rule.   Another form of symbolism in the paper is the women she sees in a dim lighting inside the wallpaper.  This is a symbol for the narrator herself.  As the woman begins to be freed by the peeling of the wallpaper, the narrator becomes freer to be insane.  The woman is trapped in the wallpaper such as the narrator is trapped by John. 

            It is also not a coincidence that part of what makes the wall paper so dreadful is the pattern.  The pattern in the wallpaper symbolizes the pattern of everyday life.  The pattern of “the norm” restricts what is acceptable in society.  The Yellow Wallpaper was written in the late 1800s when feminism was at a relative high point.  The pattern in society was that men are the true leaders and women were there to cook, clean, and make babies.  The narrator was disgusted by the pattern because she did not believe John had the right to hold her back.  She tried to break free from John and break free from the pattern, but he continued to shower over her and out rule her word.  She decided that the pattern is made up of a woman behind bars.  The bars of the pattern symbolize the bars of society and how the narrator is trying to break free from the bars of society that hold her back.  Charlotte Gillman’s use of symbolism in the story effectively demonstrates the hardships of a women in the late 1800s.