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Society s Wallpaper The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman is an interpretation how women are oppressed by males in society. Gilman attempts to reveal this oppression through her use of male imposed confinement. One woman s struggle with both mental and physical confinement, represents the greater battles between women and men. Confinement represents classic male oppression and the woman represents all women and their struggle to break free from male dominance.
The significance of the confinement is seen in both the vivid descriptions which symbolize the male dominance and the woman s subsequent reaction to this incarceration. The yellow wallpaper paints a distinct picture of confinement in both the physical and symbolic sense. Physically the house itself serves to lead to feelings of isolation. It represents the classic institution, that part of society which attempts to constrain the individual.
The house is an isolated estate set back from the road outside of town. It is surrounded by walls and a gate, ensuring complete isolation. Within the mansion the narrator is relegated to the attic, shut in a nursery complete with rings and things in the walls and a bed nailed to the floor. It is in this nursery that the narrator slowly slips into insanity. Within the confines of this dungeon-like room the woman gradually is subjected to male oppression symbolic of that which occurs within society. Symbolically the narrator being confined to the room by her husband is representative of the ideals in society at the time.
The 19 th Century was a time in which males were afforded a dominance over women, a time when women were nothing more than subservience. By confining his wife to the nursery John exercised this dominance over his wife. He exemplified the dominance men had over women, the ability to ensure a woman s dependence on a man through exerting the power provided to him merely based on sex. Through his diagnosing her with a temporary nervous depression- a slight hysterical tendency, John demeans his wife, oppressing her to the place men felt women belonged. While confined however, the narrator through the yellow wallpaper is able to symbolically begin to break free from the shackles of a male dominated society.
While she is not able to escape completely in the end as her insanity dominates her, she does begin the process. A process which likewise began within society during this time, although it still has not been completed. The yellow wallpaper which dominates the nursery torments the woman. It is in effect another symbol of the male dominance in society and their confinement of women to subservient roles. As the narrator stares at the wallpaper day in and day out as she sits in physical confinement she begins to see images within the wallpaper. These images are in essence a window into society, a temporary opportunity to see the oppressive society in its truest light.
Within the pattern the narrator sees bars and a woman behind them as well as multiple other figures and even eyes. The woman she sees behind the bars is representative of herself and women as a whole within society. It is in the tearing down of the wallpaper that she begins to show signs of rebellion. The narrator shows this rebellion this breaking free from oppression when she proclaims to John, I ve got out at last, in-spite of you and Jane. And I ve pulled off most of the paper, so you can t put me back. In this one statement she summarizes the symbolism throughout the story.
She has broken free of the male dominated society even if just for a moment and she has through tearing the paper down began to tear down the walls of female oppression that exist to this day. She broke free from the confinement that suffocated her and for a moment showed society its greatest flaw, inequality.
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