Discusses the importance of setting and symbolism in this story by Charlotte Perkins Gilman.
In the story, “The Yellow Wallpaper”, the narrator descends into madness, and within this madness, she realizes the truth and gains intellectual freedom. The paper examines how Gilman effectively combines the setting, the symbolism of the wallpaper, and the existence of madness in the story.
“The narrator eventually realizes the source of her uneasiness by staring at the yellow wallpaper. She stares at the patterns of the wallpaper and focuses entirely on understanding the patterns. With this excessive focus, she is actually looking beyond the obvious features and into what lies behind the obvious. It is this ability to see behind the obvious that allows her to see that she is trapped by her role in society.”