The Yellow Wall-Paper - Symoblism

The Yellow Wall-paper is a perfect example of symbolism. It portrays many different symbolic features. Towards the beginning of the story they narrator writes about how she was forced to a place that she did not want to be. It is not just the house but the bedroom she is staying in. The bedroom was once a nursery and even though the narrator wanted to sleep in the bedroom downstairs her husband forced her to sleep in the upstairs bedroom. The bedroom beginning upstairs symbolizes one of a witch locking away a princess in a high tower cutting her off from civilization. The nursery part of the bedroom symbolizes how the husband thinks of his wife as she loses her mind he has to watch over her the way a mother has to watch over a child.

Next you have her own thoughts that she is trapped inside. In the beginning the narrator writes about how her husband and his sister talk to her as if they are trying to help and she keeps quite just like the nice little house wife she is supposed to be; however, near the end she writes about how she sees straight through their act and once she is alone in the room she will be able to set the woman in the wall-paper free. This symbolizes her transformation of a held in modern housewife to finally being set free. When the narrator writes about how her husband the physician gives her the medicine it symbolizes that even though he is a “professional” he still cannot fix what is wrong with his own family even with all the medicine and treatment he may give her.

Near the end the symbolism starts to unfold and the reader becomes very aware of what the narrator is going through. With her husband locking her in the upstairs bedroom she begins watching the walls and seeing them move. Obviously this is a symbol of how much this “trip” has made an effect on her recovery process it has not helped one bit but it has made it much worse now that she is seeing the wall-paper move. She writes very much about the poor woman trapped behind the wall-paper and how she creeps along during the day but at night she shakes the bars on the pattern to be set free. This symbolizes how she may appear sane during the day however once the sun drops and the moon glows through her sanity is long gone.  In the end of the story the narrator is in the midst of tearing down the wall-paper when she realizes not only has she locked herself in a bedroom with no furniture to stand on but she has thrown the key out. She cannot reach the rest of the wall-paper and this symbolizes how no matter how much she struggles she will not be able to be completely free from the life she lives. When she finally tears down the wall-paper and lets the woman in the paper free she begins to creep around the room making sure her shoulder touches perfectly in every corner this shows that she has been set free from the world she is living in but she has been defeated by her own mind.