The Wallpaper Yellow

Immediately after I had finished the short story I was a bit taken aback, because, in a general sense, the story is quite peculiar. Of course the strong oddness of the work is possibly a combination of its occurring in a different time period, and the fact that the central character's mental stability is questionable. Undoubtedly, a large factor in the overall odd nature of the story, was the relationship between the main character and her husband. As the story progresses two separate accounts of the husband and wife's relationship emerge, and eventually even the one account diverges. Of course course the first version of the relationship's nature is provided by the main character, in her early calm, and conciliatory state. She remarks that her husband loves her very much, and in his prognosis of her condition has only sought the best situation for her. Contrarily, the second account is that of the reader, who develops a more lucid interpretation from the facts. The husband has locked the main character in a room by herself, with the command to do nothing all day, for a lengthy stretch of time. He will not let her talk to him about it, or even right about how she feels. What's more is that she can see no one, for her husband asserts that contact with "stimulating" people would be bad for her in her current state. Whether this whole set of occurrences appears as add to the reader due to a new more modern general sense of medical knowledge that has clearly grown since the story's time or otherwise, there is a definitive connotation that in actuality the main character and her husband don't have a great relationship. The intentions of the husband in the marriage can be debated, but I feel that he is certainly leaving his wife to her own devices instead of aiding her. The third account of the relationship is given again by the main character, except in this account she has sort of "lost it." A previously hidden animosity towards her husband emerges, and in the instance with hiding the key and that collection of events, she's quite nearly making an attempt at a sort of retaliation in my mind. As a result of this and other circumstances, the relationship isn't a positive one. The husband is overbearing and overprotective as with a dim-witted child, however, he doesn't offer any aid directly. The yellow wallpaper is a very interesting example of a dynamic literary symbol. Initially, I feel that the yellow wallpaper is a physical representation of the main character's mental state. Consider, for instance, she notices only a few blemishes on the stuff until she gradually finds even more flaws, and ultimately ends by ripping it up entirely. The destruction of the wallpaper directly coordinates to the gradual deterioration of the woman's grip on reality. However, with the appearance of the woman behind the yellow paper the symbol takes on a new form. At the time of the woman's appearance behind the wallpaper, the wallpaper becomes a link to general oppressiveness and entrapment, suggested by the fact that it ultimately appears to the main character as bars. Additionally, the imagined woman is basically a projection of the main character's conceptualization of herself, in her current predicament. This can be inferred because there is concise instant in the story where she stops referring to the person formerly behind the paper in the third person, and instead refers to herself as the escaped woman. From the diminutive and unassuming connotation I received from the title, "The Yellow Wallpaper," I could never have assumed that the story would turn out like it did. In the end Gilman has left readers with a stark representation of the effect of confinement and a husband's effect on his wife, all in the scaffolding of an allegory for the oppression endured by women, and the inevitable escape from their bonds despite circumstance.