The central symbol is the yellow wallpaper, I believe Gilman was trying to use the woman stuck in the wallpaper to symbolize the social position women played in society at the time. Gilman tries to show how women felt trapped and needed to "creep" when men were not looking. ...
Gilman uses the wallpaper of the room to convey the mental state of the woman being kept in the house. ... In "The Yellow Wallpaper", Gilman writes about how the woman loathed the wallpaper. ... In "The Yellow Wallpaper", Gilman conveyed that love was enough for the woman to not fight back about the room she was in. ... In "The Yellow Wallpaper", the husband wanted nothing but the best for his wife. ... In "The Yellow Wallpaper", the woman in the second layer of the wallpaper was herself. ...
However, these symbols are not as good as the real thing. ... In Charlotte Gilman's "The Yellow Wallpaper," the narrator's only triumph from an oppressive society is to become insane. ... The only place she finds amusement is the hideous yellow wallpaper. ... As she tries to study the wallpaper, she sees her own depressing existence. ... She can only escape by creating her own world, where she is the woman behind the wallpaper. ...
