The Yellow Wallpaper And Metaphors Used In The Story

“The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman gains its most critical attention for symbolism and gender roles merely for women in the 1900’s. The focus on distractions that becomes obsessions can show how a woman's innermost realm of mind, will, and emotion can be capped down by society's ways of gender roles causing detrimental situations even to this day. “The Yellow Wallpaper” presented numerous examples of gender en-quality, conformity, and lack of ownership throughout the passage. Which leads two of the characters to a state of mental illness, which was frowned upon and wasn’t properly treated in the 1900s.

The story followed a married woman during the 1900s whose mental illness gets the best of her. As much of her days were spent being cared for by her husband it often left her alone in a room where life came from a wallpaper. As the wallpaper starts to take a life of its own, you'll begin to see the woman character has lost its life as if the wallpaper was trading places with her within the story.

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In her journal, the woman writes: 'John does not know how much I really suffer. He knows there is no reason to suffer, and that satisfies him.' It appears it never occurs to her husband john how dehumanizing the situation can be, but only how much the situation can be better if you just let it, morally blaming it on the woman's perspective and her view of life. Timely the woman begins to get even more discouraged, by doing anything that is not her husband's decision first even for the things that she deeply cares about.

The idea of conformity from the woman projects that women aren't superior to men. Which leads to her consciously blaming herself for not being able to cope with the wallpaper that her husband deemed ok. Also, with presenting solutions to her husband that might have helped the situation, once reiterated her husband didn’t see them fit. Not being heard and respected demonstrates the struggle for women in the 1900’s. Feelings of being trapped by your loved ones confine the women, even almost like a child. Being secondary to the men of the household was the normality and was seen as natural. By refusing to accept the woman's mind as independent and an individual factor her dear husband aggravates the situation more, confiding her to an outbreak and outburst of mental illness.

As the story goes on the women's illness takes, even more, turns rapidly. Becoming a product of her own environment, and no longer being herself mentally. Constant isolation and depression drive her to complete insanity, and eventually into believing she and the so-called wallpaper have now traded places. In her journal, the woman writes: “I’ve got out at last, despite you and Jane! And I’ve pulled off most of the paper, so you can’t put me back!'. It would lead you to believe the old imprisoned woman is now on the outside looking in, with complete victory for “The yellow paper”. Yet it wasn’t the woman who would now have to creep over her husband who has now seen that the woman has completely gone mad. Women of ambition in the 1900’s challenges the very core of the story. While the woman was seen vulnerable and expressed confidence that contradicts what the norm would be for the female role would put them at risk for mental illness. When actuality the woman's perspective was never heard, her thoughts, her ideas were being misconstrued and her intellect would never match the men in society.

The freedom that was given at the end was a fight for all women. Believing that her husband despite trying to believe that the husband had her best interest at hand. The husband was the only one who asked her to remain in the room from her baby and friends and family. That alone creates ambition for the woman to break of freedom. The woman wanted free thoughts, being able to express herself and be creative. In the end, both the women and her husband both lose because they are trapped in fixed gender roles. Without limitations to social standards or her husband choking love. Even the woman not gaining freedom in a normal way, it was still enough freedom just for the moment.

In conclusion, 'The Yellow paper” depicted society norms at a time where it made the woman seem crazy. Her surroundings and struggle for freedom were causing her all these problems after all. As we observe fixed gender roles through the easy, we can clearly be shown the time and era for women. Society's oppressive nature crippled mental illness for women causing a lack of self-belief, ownership, and conformity. Women were underappreciated, not allowed to have a voice, isolated, and dehumanized. Taking only simple steps of true love from the husband. Perhaps could have saved the woman from mental illness. We must remember mental illness shouldn't play any role when it comes to gender, but as you can see you have a long way to go before women of the 1900s could make situations better for themselves.