The Yellow Wallpaper Character Analysis

The one thing about the “Yellow Wall Paper” that caught my attention is how Charlotte symbols a woman who is trapped and oppressed by her husband. First, there is the fact that John is a doctor a man of authority which puts him as a man of high standards. Charlotte using the word dead paper symbolize not to be heard which means he doesn’t respect her opinion has woman basically viewing her as a child. I believe John may have been a little controlling as well not wanting her to work stay isolated in a little room looking at the four walls. All she want was to fulfill her wifely duties but couldn’t do to her mental illness.

The second thing that caught my attention is how Charlotte use the wallpaper and house to symbolize she’s dealing with postpartum form losing a child. The fact that she identifies the heirs and co- heirs; any how the place has been empty for years that spoils my ghostliness, I am afraid: co heirs which means joint heir. The house emptiness symbolize the emptiness she felt of losing a child. The term heirs of god emphasizes our relationship to god the father as his children we have “an inheritances that can never perish, spoil fade.

Yellow wallpaper is relevant today because many people can relate to depression. Depression is real. Women are twice likely as men to be diagnosed with depression. People from different background and religion are dealing with depression some or even committing suicide. Depression affects a person’s ability to work, go to school or have relationships with friends and family. Depression is also different from grief over losing a loved one or experiencing sadness after a trauma or difficult event. It is not just a condition that can be willed or washed away. People who have depression cannot just “pull themselves” out of it. Throughout wallpaper Charlotte was dealing with depression confined to a little room isolated from the real world.

I am not certain what the moral is to be taken away from this story, because on the surface seems to me that this story is telling readers that Charlotte was dealing with mental health issues; but I think the message was more than her health issue she wanted the readers to understand how someone can feel trapped in a situation and finally breaking free that’s what the wallpaper represented. Her breaking free from the very things that was causing her to lose one’s self.

Cite this page