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THE YELLOW WALLPAPER In the story, The Yellow Wallpaper, the wallpaper is a central symbol of the repercussions a woman faces in the care of a man. The narrator, being female, is suffering from a temporary depression. She states right from the beginning that John is a physician, and perhaps (I would not say it to a living soul, of course, but this is dead paper and a great relief to my mind) perhaps that is the one reason I do not get well faster. She obviously loves her husband and trusts him but has some underlying feeling that maybe his prescription of total bed rest is not working for her.
The story mentions that she has an older brother who is also a physician and concurs with her husbands theory, thus leaving her no choice but to subject herself to this torment of being totally alone in this room with the yellow wallpaper. She stares at this wallpaper for hours on end and thinks she sees a woman behind the paper. I didnt realize for a long time what the thing was that showed behind, that dim sub-pattern, but now I am quite sure it is a woman. She becomes obsessed with discovering what is behind that pattern and what it is doing. I dont want to leave now until I have found it out. The narrator with absolutely nothing else to do is reduced to staring endlessly at a pattern in wallpaper, thus creating some image that she feels is necessary to find out.
Perhaps to save her own sanity? Once the narrator determines that the image is in fact a woman struggling to become free, she somehow aligns herself with the woman. In the story she mentions that she often sees the woman creeping outside. I see her in that long shaded lane, creeping up and down.
I see her in those dark grape arbors, creeping all around the garden. I dont blame her a bit. It must be very humiliating to be caught creeping by daylight! I always lock the door when I creep by daylight.
I cant do it at night, for I know John would suspect something at once. This shows the narrator seeing herself in the woman and when she sees the woman creeping outside, she sees herself. When she creeps outside she locks the door. She is afraid her husband will take away the only comfort she had known since she was subjected to this rest cure. The wallpaper is a constant reminder to what her husband has inflicted to her. She continues to pursue this obsessive project of getting the woman out.
The narrator wants the woman to be free of the paper but does not want to let her go. The woman is her sanity; I dont want to go out, and I dont want to have anybody come in, till John comes. I want to astonish him. Ive got a rope up here that even Jennie did not find. If that woman does get out, and tries to get away, I can tie her! After peeling all the paper within her reach in hopes of getting the woman out, she states, I am getting angry enough to do something desperate.
To jump out of the window would be admirable exercise, but the bars are too strong even to try. Besides I wouldnt do it. Of course not. I know well enough that a step like that is improper and might be misconstrued. The narrator appears to have no knowledge that this very obsession might be misconstrued as well. As if everything is fine in her world as long as she gets this woman out.
She goes on to say, I dont like to look out of the windows even there are so many those creeping women, and they creep so fast. I wonder if they all come out of that wallpaper as I did? I suppose I shall have to get back behind the pattern when it comes night, and that is so hard! It seems she has released the woman and it is indeed herself.
As if she enjoys being out and doing as she likes but at night her husband will be around and she mustnt creep around her husband. He might find her mad. But at last she finds the courage to confront her husband and stand up for herself. What is the matter? he cried.
For Gods sake, what are you doing! I kept on creeping just the same, but I looked at him over my shoulder. Ive got out at last, said I, in spite of you and Jane. And Ive pulled off most of the paper, so you cant put me back! Now why should that man have fainted? But he did, and right across my path by the wall, so that I had to creep over him every time!
The symbolic yellow wallpaper has now brought us back to show the repercussions that the care of her all knowing husband has inflicted upon her. She had been a product of a society that puts woman in the lowest segment, but she triumphs over her husband as well as herself in freeing her soul. Now she creeps openly because of the yellow wallpaper.
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Research essay sample on Husband Has Inflicted Sees The Woman Creeping Wallpaper
