Charlotte Perkins Gilman The 1892 gothic horror novella "The Yellow Wallpaper" traces the mental decline of a woman as she undergoes a "rest cure." This captivating story illustrates the protagonist's stifling plight in a patriarchal society. Her husband, John, a doctor, has taken the narrator, a new mother, to a rented country house for the summer so she can recover from postpartum psychosis. He isolates her in a child's bedroom upstairs, a room with barred windows, a nailed bed and obnoxious yellow wallpaper, and forbids her from writing, in accordance with the philosophy of "rest cure." Although the constraints placed on the protagonist prove repressive, they lead her to an intriguing and dangerous obsession with "yellow wallpaper" that leads her to triumph over societal oppression and constraints within her marriage, him conferring a heroic identity. The writer conveys all this through his ingenious use of the image of "yellow wallpaper", which functions as part of the setting, an object correlation with the physical and mental repression of the narrator, and finally as a symbol of his life . one critic: “The subjection of women arose in prehistoric times, when men first monopolized all social activities and women were confined to motherhood and domestic chores” (Degler 178). In the 19th century, these societal traditions were still imposed on women. Quawas confirms this assertion when she states: "In the 19th century, women, as agents of moral influence, [were] expected to maintain the domestic sphere as a haven of peace and purity for their husbands to return [ at home] every evening” (A. A New Woman’s Journey into Madness). Because of these expectations, the protagonist is a power... middle of paper ... paper » Gilman clearly illustrates through the use of symbols, images, and characters to show how women were treated in a society patriarchal. The writer seems to have a semi-melancholic mood throughout the story. Gilman clearly shows how the stifling plight of the narrator who was kept in solitary confinement becomes provocative and she gains a deeper understanding of her life and her role in society. The woman in the wallpaper represents not only the narrator's divided self, but also all women who are too held back and bound by a society that considers them incapable of thriving. Through her preoccupation with “yellow wallpaper,” she descends into madness, which ultimately allows her to triumph over marital and societal constraints. The author therefore demonstrates that to obtain freedom, one suffers enormously before the change is accomplished...