What is the meaning of The Yellow Wallpaper?

The yellow wallpaper in “The Yellow Wallpaper” is a symbol of society and patriarchy. It is ugly, faded, and torn in some spots, and a figure of a woman is trapped in the paper. It symbolizes women, or the woman in the story, being trapped within the constraints of a patriarchal society.

What happened in The Yellow Wallpaper?

“The Yellow Wallpaper” details the deterioration of a woman’s mental health while she is on a “rest cure” on a rented summer country estate with her family. Her obsession with the yellow wallpaper in her bedroom marks her descent into psychosis from her depression throughout the story.

Who is the woman in the wallpaper in The Yellow Wallpaper?

In ‘The Yellow Wallpaper,’ Charlotte Perkins Gilman uses the character of Jane to describe the adverse effects of the rest cure. This woman, who goes unnamed for most of the story, is suffering from a mental illness. Most likely, she is suffering from postpartum depression.

What mental illness does the narrator in The Yellow Wallpaper have?

Gilman’s short story is a straightforward one. The narrator is brought by her physician husband to a summer retreat in the countryside to recover from her “temporary nervous depression – a slight hysterical tendency”.

What does the wallpaper symbolize?

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.

What is the irony in The Yellow Wallpaper?

Dramatic irony is used extensively in “The Yellow Wallpaper.” For example, when the narrator first describes the bedroom John has chosen for them, she attributes the room’s bizarre features—the “rings and things” in the walls, the nailed-down furniture, the bars on the windows, and the torn wallpaper—to the fact that …

Does the narrator hang herself in The Yellow Wallpaper?

(Shumaker 589) The author leaves the ending subject to interpretation by the reader. My interpretation of the ending is that the narrator hangs herself at the end of the story when John finds her. This is one of the things John wanted to prevent from happening.

Is The Yellow Wallpaper a happy ending?

The ending of “The Yellow Wallpaper” doesn’t have a happy ending because the author never mentions if the narrator gets her sanity back eventually and she also doesn’t mention other important details that would show that she gets liberated.

Who does the narrator see hiding in the wallpaper?

When the narrator finally identifies herself with the woman trapped in the wallpaper, she is able to see that other women are forced to creep and hide behind the domestic “patterns” of their lives, and that she herself is the one in need of rescue.

What does the woman trapped behind the wallpaper represent?

The woman behind the pattern was an image of herself—she has been the one “stooping and creeping.” Further, she knows that there are many women just like her, so many that she is afraid to look at them.

Why does Jane go insane in The Yellow Wallpaper?

Due to her isolation in the yellow room, her brain is consumed with the color and her senses become entangled with the smell. The narrator’s confinement is what ultimately drives her insane. After staring at the print for such long hours, she comes to believe that there is a woman lurking within the wallpaper.

Why did the husband faint in The Yellow Wallpaper?

The reason for John to faint at the end of the story is his shock provoked by the wife’s mental state. He prescribes the “rest therapy” to eliminate any distressing events that could worsen his wife’s depression.