Literary Devices in The Yellow Wallpaper Essay

Charlotte Perkins Gilmans The Yellow Wallpaper is a dispirited short story that follows the first person account of a female protagonist who suffers from postpartum depression. The protagonist in The Yellow Wallpaper is having her illness treated by her husband John, who is a physician. Unfortunately, Johns treatment is having a negative effect on his wife. Perkins Gilmans usage of symbolism shows various forms of imagery throughout The Yellow Wallpaper. The protagonists husbands treatment plan along with the environment that the protagonist is forced to live in shows ironic imagery and anguishing imagery, the yellow wallpaper that surrounds the room is used to show jailhouse imagery, and the windows and the bed are used to show confinement imagery.

The treatment strategy that John uses to help cure his patients is considerably ironic and anguishing to visualize. His way of treating a temporary nervous depression is to repress his patient, in this case his own wife, in a room that was previously used as a nursery, a playroom, and a gymnasium. John mentions to his wife several times that it is called rest cure. When a mother has postpartum depression, why would her husband/physician confine her to a room that was beforehand being used as a place devoted to children? Forcing a venerable mother, who is suffering from postpartum depression, to live in a place that used to be occupied as an area for children is disreputable, torturous, and invidious.

The setting of the room that the protagonist is staying in throughout The Yellow Wallpaper is unquestionably ironic. It relentlessly reminds the protagonist of her newborn. Since the protagonist is currently disadvantaged with postpartum depression, being reminded of her child all the time is not helping her mental stability whatsoever. It is interesting that Perkins Gilman chose to organize the uses of the room from the earliest stages of childhood to the later stages. A newborn starts off their life in a nursery where their life is celebrated. As a newborn develops into a toddler, their nursery evolves into a playroom for many years where learning is a main source of the world that revolves around them. As children develop into adolescents, the room changes into a gymnasium that will benefit their health and well being. This effect that Perkins Gilman forces upon the protagonist has an immense feeling of torture. This protagonist, this mother, has had no contact with her infant ever since she entered her rehabilitation. Now she can only think about and visualize her infant and their life together.

The yellow wallpaper is a symbolic reference to jailhouse imagery. Perkins Gilman uses

sombre and gothic diction to describe the protagonists interpretation of the yellow wallpaper

itself.

There is a recurrent spot where the pattern lolls like a broken neck and two bulbous eyes stare at you upside down... One of those sprawling flamboyant pattern committing every artistic sin. It is dull enough to confuse the eye in following, pronounced enough to constantly irritate and provoke study...

The protagonist is consistently staring at the yellow wallpaper as if she were a prisoner staring at the blank walls in jail. The wallpaper has casted a feeling of imprisonment over her.

...and when you follow the lame uncertain curves for a little distance they suddenly commit suicideplunge off at outrageous angles, destroy themselves in unheard of contradictions. This color is repellent, almost revolting; a smouldering unclean yellow, strangely faded by the slow-turning sunlight. It is dull yet lurid orange in some places, a sickly sulphur tint in others.

Since there is nothing for the protagonist to do during the day, her mind begins to hallucinate and wonder as she stares at the yellow wallpaper more and more each day which gives her the image of the recurrent spot that lolls like a broken neck [with] two bulbous eyes [that] stare at you upside down (236). The protagonist is frustrated because she has no way of escaping the room, just like that of a prisoner. The ability to socially interact with others has been stripped from her. This is making her postpartum depression even worse than what it already is. The more time she spends in the room, the more her mood is changing in a negative fashion. The word choice used in this quote sends a vibe to the reader that they definitely do not want to be in a position just like that of the protagonist.

Perkins Gilman uses the windows and the bed in the room to emblematize incarceration imagery. ... for the windows are barred... (235). I lie here on this great immovable bed it is nailed down... (238). The protagonist has absolutely no control over her situation. She is unable to escape. Having the protagonist being unable to escape is represented in a couple of different ways. Firstly, she is unable to escape out of the room that her husband has her placed in. The door of the room is locked from the outside, John has the keys to all of the rooms in the house, and the windows are impassable. Secondly, she is unable to escape out of her current state of mind because she is constantly haunted by the fact that the room was previously used as a nursery which makes the protagonist consistently think about her newly born child. With that in mind, Johns treatment is certainly not contributing to the patients wellness but puncturing the patients wellness drastically as the days go by.

Throughout The Yellow Wallpaper Perkins Gilman uses symbolism in her writing to express many types of imagery. Ironic imagery, anguishing imagery, jailhouse imagery, and incarceration imagery have played out from beginning to end in this story. In Laymens terms, Perkins Gilman has put the protagonist through hell and back. However in the final moments of the story the protagonist overcomes the majority of her issues by gaining some sense of control over her husband, John. Unfortunately the protagonist has yet to overcome her postpartum depression.