The Yellow Wallpaper

While reading Gilman's "The Yellow Wallpaper" it is very interesting how the narrator becomes to enthralled with this wallpaper. Ordinarily, people don't stop to think about most things around them. Most of us take wallpaper patterns and colors for granted. Yet in her altered state of mind, it becomes an obsession to her. She has nothing elso to do all day but "rest" and simply stare at this pattern. No wonder she doesn't seem to get better in mind! This confusing wallpaper is consuming her life, and strangling the life out of her. I think this wallpaper is much more than wallpaper, it is symbolic of society and its rules. You can't seem to understand why society has certain rules, that's just the way it is. It's like this wallpaper that she can't figure out, it is just too complex to understand. And after staring at it for so long, she sees a woman trapped in the wallpaper. At this time, women were definitely trapped by society and rules. They had strict roles that they had to abide by and had little freedom. But they were trying to break free from the bars that were imprisoning them. They were trying to free themselves from all the rules and laws that prevented them from being equal to men, like the "woman" in the wallpaper is trying to free herself from the pattern.