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Janely Cintron Professor Angie Jacobs ENC 1102 4/17/14 Women Struggles Examined in Charlotte Perkins Gilmans The Yellow Wallpaper In the 19th century, women in general were subjugated to following orders from their spouses as well as being able to maintain a family. This situation has resulted in women oppression in all aspects of society and culture, in this case psychologically. In the short story, The Yellow Wallpaper, a woman who is being brought to an old home for summer vacation, starts to express her creativity and imagination through a journal; however, her excessive imagination drives her to soon become obsessed with a rooms peculiar yellow wallpaper and does not cease until unmasking the supposed truth behind the wallpaper. According to Kathleen Wilson, this passive woman who appears to be suffering from a nervous depression diagnosed by her physician who is also her husband is actually in conflict with her husband and herself as well. Charlotte Perkins Gilmans The Yellow Wallpaper, while depicting a story of a woman who becomes insane after being locked in a room with a horrid wallpaper, also, exposes the emotions and mental state of the character caused by her husbands repression. All in all, the definition of a wallpaper is a paper with decorative patterns used to cover up a wall. Therefore, the yellow wallpaper serves as a symbol in the story by representing the narrators state of mind and bottled up emotions being covered and flushed out in her journal. The conflict the main character of the story feels pertains to her husband not letting her get out of the house, by believing that all she needs is bed rest and a sedentary lifestyle. When in reality, having her exiled from society worsens her dilemma. The story also ties in with the feminist

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theory of psychological, political, social oppression, and equality of both sexes; moreover, how her husbands domination also worsens her dilemma.