Oppression In The Yellow Wallpaper

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Reflecting their roles in 1892 society, the narrator was portrayed in a position that is dominated by man. In this 1892 period, women were repressed and controlled by their husbands as well as other male influences. In "The Yellow Wallpaper," by Charlotte Gilman, the narrator is oppressed and represents the effect of the oppression of women in society. This effect is created by the use of interesting symbols such as the house, the window, and the wall-paper which facilitate her oppression as well as her self-expression. It is customary to find the symbol of the house as representing a secure place for a woman's transformation and her release of self-expression. However, in this story, the house is not her own and she does not want to be in it. She declares it is "haunted," and that "there is something queer about it." Although she acknowledges the beauty of the house and especially what surrounds it, she constantly…show more content…
As it has the ability to trap her in with its intricacy of pattern that leads her to no satisfying end, bars that hold in and separate the woman in the wall-paper from her. But it also sets her free, as the narrator describes the wall-paper as being the worst thing she has ever seen. "The color is repellant, almost revolting; an unclean yellow, strangely faded by the slow turning sun." She is stuck in this room and the only thing she has that allows her to escape is the wallpaper. She cannot go out, because her husband has taken such control over her activities so all she can do is sit and watch the wallpaper. She says this in her first reference to it that, "I should hate it myself if I had to live in this room long." She becomes absorbed in the patterns of the paper and tries to follow them to an
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