The Yellow Wallpaper Literary Analysis Essay

Literary Analysis Charlotte Perkins Gilman, a visionary for gender equality, managed to create consciousness about social inequalities by narrating and incorporating her personal experiences in “The Yellow Wallpaper.” For instance, the story is about the importance of self-expression, women’s struggle in society and the narrator’s relationship with the yellow wallpaper, which provided women the ability to interpret the story in different ways. In Gilman’s short story, she displayed her frustration about women’s role in society by expressing her opposition over this issue in her writing. For example, in the phrase “Personally, I disagree with their ideas” (Gilman 677), and “Personally, I believe that congenial work, with excitement and change,
In “The Yellow Wallpaper,” the narrator was disturbed with the wallpaper, but then became fixated with wallpaper as she sees a woman trapped in the yellow wallpaper, to which the narrator relates to her own struggle. In the story the narrator was clearly unhappy, losing her grip and the meaning of her life. The barred windows in her room were a symbol of her imprisonment as the women trapped in the yellow wallpaper represented her oppression from society. Suicidal thoughts came to her mind as she managed to tie up a rope up in the ceiling and jumping out the windows was a thought, but due to suicide not being well-accepted in society one can assume that the narrator did not try to take her life away. The suicidal thoughts and losing touch with reality in the story were a sign in the author’s lost battle with cancer and the only solution was to take her life away. In order to break away the narrator must lose herself to understand herself. “I’ve got out at last,” said I, “in spite of you and Jane. And I have Pulled off most of the paper, so you can put me back!” (Gilman 687). Therefore, the narrator was no longer a stranger in society and found freedom from her