The Yellow Wallpaper Analysis

What Does The Wallpaper Symbolise In 'The Yellow Wallpaper'?

'The Yellow Wallpaper' is a short story written by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, who in her lifetime produced many short stories, novels, essays and poetry. She was born in 1860 in Connecticut, USA and was brought up by a single mother. After giving birth to her daughter Katherine in 1884 she fell into a deep, post-natal depression and was told to go on the 'rest cure'. This is a period spent in inactivity with the intention of improving one's physical or mental health. While it did arise her depression, this 'cure' almost drove Gilman mad. She wrote 'The Yellow Wallpaper' in 1892 to show the horrors of the 'rest cure'. In the story, the narrator (Jane) and her physician husband
At first the narrator sees the wallpaper as just an unpleasant decoration with a horrid pattern. However, as the story goes on she starts to see what appears to be a sub-pattern behind the main pattern. This later comes to view as a woman who seems to be trying to escape the
The woman in the sub-pattern is trapped in an unfair society which she cannot escape. When the narrator starts to peel it off the wall, the wallpaper “sticks horribly and the pattern enjoys it!”. This could refer to the strict rules of Victorian society and how it had a set routine for all people to follow. “All those strangled heads and bulbous eyes shriek with derision”. This gives the reader a grotesque view on the wallpaper, and therefore society. “those strangled heads” could also show the narrator sees the 'cage' as festooned with the heads of many woman that have tried to escape before, but failed. I believe that the author wrote this to show how the rules of her time were so strict, that it was very difficult for a woman to escape the 'pattern' and become an