During the day, the narrator writes that the woman trapped in the wallpaper is motionless and immobile. As moonlight strikes the wall, however, the woman begins to move or, perhaps more accurately, to creep. During the day, she sleeps; at night she lies awake, alert, and invested in the intellectual activity that she must suppress during the day while her husband is watching. See Setting for a complete discussion. Some critics argue this represents repressed female sexuality, probably because a bed is where people have sex, and chains are a repressive measure.
Parents Home Homeschool College Resources. Study Guide. The most obvious motif in the story is the wallpaper, it takes centre stage and could even be described as a character in itself. The s in America was a time of great change, it was the turn of the century and although the standard of living had increased because of the Industrial Revolution , the standard rights for women were still primitive compared to life now. Women were not even allowed to vote in every state in America until when they changed the 19th amendment to include women, and Charlotte Perkins Gilman was an influential writer who went some way in helping to make this happen.
And as, to my thinking, this tendency is unphysiological, and likely if indulged to lead to some unfortunate results. Essentially the predominant feeling in society was that women should stick to being mothers and wives and resist the temptation to over exert themselves physically and mentally. This is the exact same opinion of Weir Mitchell , who temporarily treated Charlotte. The creeping woman who eventually finds her way out of the paper, is symbolic of the narrator in the story finally breaking free from the constraints of society.
The narrators madness is the only option for her to find freedom. It is a dull yet lurid orange in some places, a sickly sulphur tint in others. One of the reasons the narrator descends into madness is because she has no outlet for her creativity and only finds an outlet through the one thing that John refuses to remove from the room.
The house is a typical motif of the gothic genre, symbolising terror and darkness and is used to aid the reader into these feelings of tension and discomfort. This is only further emphasised when the narrator describes the nursery that she is to use as her bedroom:. It was a nursery first and then playroom and gymnasium, I should judge; for the windows are barred for little children, and there are rings and things in the walls.
Manuscript page 8. Notice how Charlotte Perkins Gilman includes bars on the windows and rings in the wall, reminding one more of an asylum or prison rather than a nursery. The bedroom being represented like a prison only further emphasises the gothic symbolism as well as a lack of freedom for the narrator, she is not even allowed to take the room that she wants downstairs. Take a look at this trailer for The Yellow Wallpaper short film.
It is a modern take on the story but can aid your understanding of setting by seeing a visual adaptation, see how the film makers have portrayed the house and the room to be in keeping with the gothic genre. Wallpaper is domestic and humble, and Gilman skillfully uses this nightmarish, hideous paper as a symbol of the domestic life that traps so many women.
The story illustrates that women should be treated as intelligent partners in devising a cure for their own mental illness, not treated as children. Yellow is for happiness, hope and spontaneity Yellow is the color of the sun, smiley faces and sunflowers. The creeping figure in the wallpaper represents the narrator. When John curbs her creativity and writing, the narrator takes it upon herself to make some sense of the wallpaper. Over time, as her insanity deepens, she identifies completely with this woman and believes that she, too, is trapped within the wallpaper.
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