Yellow Wallpaper Symbolism

Symbolism is very important in the short story “The Yellow Wallpaper”. The author uses a lot of symbolism throughout the story, as well as some that involves historical context. A few examples of symbolism that he uses is the lady stuck in the wallpaper throughout the story, the room that the narrator is forced to stay in, and John when he treats her like a child.

Throughout the whole context of “The Yellow Wallpaper” the narrator is constantly looking at the wallpaper in her room and claiming that it is moving. However, one night she sees a lady stuck behind the wallpaper and feels all the urgency to get her out and free her. Seeing the lady stuck behind the wallpaper symbolizes the narrator herself being stuck in the room with no way out. Sometimes the lady in the wallpaper is calm and collected, yet sometimes she shakes and moves which also describes the narrator’s position perfectly. At times the narrator is calm, such as when she is visited by John and Jennie, but at other times when she is alone, she begins to go crazy.

The setting of this short story is a symbol in itself. The room the narrator is forced to stay in is a great symbol of how women felt they were treated in the late 1800’s and early 1900’s. They were constantly told what to do, how to live, where to go, and when to do certain things sometimes to a point where they can’t even handle it anymore. This story represents those feelings of mistreated perfectly. Every single day the narrator experiences that feeling of being trapped and not being able to do what she so desires. The room can also be looked at as symbolizing the feeling of being useless. When women were seen as nothing more than a house wife and someone who should not do anything else besides clean, cook and take care of the kids, there were often times of the feeling of being useless. The narrator definitely feels as if she is of no use and never will be unless she breaks out of the room, or “Wallpaper”.

Constantly throughout the story, John calls the narrator childish names, and treat her in a childish manner. He always calls her little girl, or my little darling, and often refers to her room as a nursery. The fact that he does treat her so much like a child, definitely symbolizes how much women truly meant to men in that time period. They were not really seen as wives and as someone you really loved, they were seen as someone that has to listen to you. Treating her like a child can also represent the fact that women must have been crazy to think that they could do whatever they wanted. At the end when the narrator stands up for herself and rips down the wallpaper saying “I’ve got out at last” she is then portrayed as “crazy” where as in our time, it is perfectly fine to be free.

All of these symbols point back to women’s rights back then and how it was seen that they were crazy to think that they had freedom.