Themes and symbols in "The Yellow Wallpaper"

Themes and symbols in “The Yellow Wallpaper”

The main theme of the “The Yellow Wallpaper” that the author is trying to give is that the doctor’s wife was treated really poorly by her husband.  He locked her in a room in his mansion in the middle of the country.  She was not allowed to be social, write, or do anything really.  He locked her in the room since he didn’t even think she had an illness that all she needed was rest, which turn out for the worst considering she went crazy and she even chewed on her bed at one point.  Back in the 1800s, woman didn’t have many rights if any and doctors believed isolating someone while allowing them to do nothing heeled.  They were viewed the same as children.  In the story “The Yellow Wallpaper” there are many objects that symbolize different things.  Symbols in the story were used to show the woman’s thoughts and how she was being treated.  For example, the moving wallpaper symbols how the woman was having issues mentally from being captive for so long.  The woman said that the moon light shines on the wallpaper making look as if it was moving and she later in the story convinced that someone was in the wallpaper.  The person in the wallpaper symbolizes the woman and how she is trapped in a room away from the city in which she loves.  The woman’s husband is a doctor and he thinks keeping her captive will heal her over time but he actually is causing her to go nuts.  The husband represents the walls because he is keeping his wife captive just like the person stuck in the wallpaper.  The wallpaper design included vines as if the wallpaper was forming a cage.  The vine design symbols a cage and the woman symbolizes an animal that is trapped in that cage.  She mentions creeping women outside but she won’t be out there because there is rope holding her back and the rope symbolizes her husband holding her back just as the walls.