The Yellow Wallpaper: Symbolism

The subject that I have chosen is symbolism. Many things throughout the story have a symbolic meaning. One of which is a symbol revealed closer to the end of the story, but first on my list, and is really more a list of its own.

The 'joint-symbol' that I am talking about is the barred window, nailed down bed, the caretaker and limited, to no, freedom. All of these things, including an empty room, represent a mental institution. This can only be a symbol because the story clearly states that it is just a house in the countryside. The symbol of the mental institution is used because, on a literal level, the narrator is losing sanity with every moment that passes. Early on, hints are thrown to indicate that something is keeping the narrator from leaving her room, but until the end of the story there is no certainty. 

Another symbol used was the narrator's notebook. The notebook was symbolic because it represented the way the narrator thought. The way that the narrator guarded the notebook and protected it from "prying eyes" was symbolic of the way that women, at that time (1892), thought. By this I mean that women during the time period kept their thoughts to themselves, afraid that if they allowed someone else to know, that they would face "social persecution." This could mean anything from being looked down upon by her own spouse and children, to getting poorer treatment in public places. So when her notebook was taken away, she was a representation of how women of the time felt. Since she couldn't convey her thoughts of feelings to anyone else, she had to tuck them away, and this drove her to insanity.

Wait, wait, wait. I just remembered that the notebook wasn't the only thing that helped drive her to insanity. The other thing that caused it was the yellow wallpaper. The yellow wallpaper is the title of the story, the narrator's biggest problem, and a metaphor for the society that kept women a few steps (more like a stairwell) behind men. For these reasons, the yellow wallpaper is the most significant symbol of any symbol in the entire story. The yellow wallpaper is what has the narrator on edge from the moment that she finds her room in her rental home, the moment she "breaks free of the wallpaper" (this is in quotations because she eventually leads herself to believe that she is trapped inside the wallpaper.) The wallpaper, on a literary level, helps to illustrate how crazy the narrator is supposed to be, but on another level it helps to illustrate the fact that the narrator feels like the wallpaper is just like her husband, or society, and keeps her contained. The entire time the narrator feels that way, and the feeling does not go away, but only intensifies as the story progresses. Eventually the narrator has had enough of her oppressor, her husband or anti-women's rights society, and tears right through the wallpaper, signifying her liberation.