Charlotte Perkins Gilman was alive from 1860 to 1935 and was a woman's activist along with the author of "The Yellow Wallpaper." Being alive during this time period, she experienced the unequal rights between women and men. Gilman looked at a specific element of women: the views on the inner self and the outer self, and used examples to explain this in the short story. Gilman lived during a time of fighting for women's rights, and she shows how women felt through this short story. In the late 1800s, there was both an inner and outer view on women, and it is seen in "The Yellow Wallpaper" through symbols such as the window, the main character's lack of a job, and the woman behind the paper.

In the short story, the open and closed window is an important symbol. The beginning of the story starts out and the main character is pictured sitting by the window and observing. She can see a garden, paths, trees, and the bay. Everything she sees is natural and good for the world; she uses words in her description like "lovely" and "beautiful" (Gilman, 211). This is important, because she too, starts out good. She sees the environment in a different way in the beginning then she does at the end. Her perspective changes as the story progresses though. The main character can still notice these positive aspects in nature even through the barred windows. Windows that are enclosed with bars usually gives the reader a negative connotation, yet it doesn't seem to affect her until the end of the story. Looking in from the outside barred windows can represent something that is trapped on the inside. This is significant towards the end of the story, because the main character feels trapped. While her husband and his sister thought she was doing better living in this room, she really was not. The husband, John, thinks that his wife is doing well and the only thing she did not like was the wallpaper. His view on her was completely askew from how she really felt psychologically. It is ironic in this story too, because John is a physician who is suppose to help her and know what is best for her. This shows the reader that men thought differently of women, and they really did not know what women thought about. This is important, because it tells the reader that John thought his wife was only unhappy because of the wallpaper, not because she felt trapped. One reason to show she felt trapped was by explaining the image of the barred up window. As the story progresses and the main character becomes more insane, she starts to see images out the windows that do not really exist. She sees a woman outside the window quite often "on that long road under the trees, creeping along, and when a carriage comes she hides under blackberry vines," which explains to the reader that she longs to be outside of the window instead of trapped indoors (Gilman, 218). However, the woman who is outside hides away, because even if she is free she still has to hide in the shadows for she does not have the same rights as the men. The windows in the bedroom serve as good examples of how the main character changes throughout the story, and the husband thinks she is changing for the better proving he really knows nothing about her.

The main character in the story is sick in the way that she is depressed and always nervous. Similarly, Gilman also had a nervous condition, so it was easy for her to portray the main character so well with the same symptoms ("Feminist"). The two of them were at the house in hopes it would make her illness better, and for John and his sister to look out for her. While men thought they knew what was best for women during this time period by keeping them in the house and not giving them rights, it was not the case with John and his wife ("Women's"). According to John, he thought his wife would get well faster if she did not work or write, stayed at the house all day, and got plenty of rest. This shows the reader that he really did not know what was best for his wife, because she thought, "congenial work, with excitement and change, would do [her] good" (Gilman, 209). In reality, working and staying busy or doing something one enjoys does help cure any depression or nervousness, because it helps one get his mind off whatever is bothering him deep down. During the late nineteenth century, men did not believe women should be working at all because women should be financially dependent on their husbands ("Women's"). Women's thoughts were completely different from what men thought women should be spending their time with. The husband, John, and many other men during this time period did not believe the women should have jobs, but the main character disagrees and thinks it would be beneficial. Because the main character in the story has an illness, her husband prefers her to not work even more than the typical husband and wife situation in the nineteenth century. Part of the reason why she has an illness is because she is afraid of how her husband would react if he found out she was writing. Her husband is a large part of why the main character is sick. She always mentions how she has to hide her writings and that her husband, "hates to have [her] write a word" (Gilman, 210). Because she has a fear of what her husband would do, it reflects back to how she is always nervous. If she had her own rights and could obtain a job, or if men understood how women felt on the inside she would not be as sick or depressed as she is in the house.

Finally, the room the main character lives in is significant in showing that women's emotions are different on the inside than what the feelings they outwardly portray. In the beginning, the main character just starts out hating the room, mainly because of the ugly wallpaper that is applied to the wall. However, as the main character is left each day with nothing to do, she begins to analyze every specific aspect of the room. The main part she studies is the yellow wallpaper. She started out just noticing little designs and features that make patterns in the wallpaper itself and then it progressed further. Within the designs, she noticed "two bulbous eyes" and a "broken neck" that stuck out to her the most (Gilman, 212). The more she observed the wallpaper the more eyes she saw. While she appears to be going crazy in this part of the story, it is just the beginning. Another basic observation about the wallpaper is that it is torn and ripped off the wall in various spots. After being in the room for days and nights she notices how different types of lights affect the wallpaper and its color; sunlight brings out more of the design and moonlight or twilight brings out bars and a clear face behind them in the wallpaper. Once she began to notice a distinct face in the wallpaper, she was on her downward spiral. The woman behind the wallpaper at night was trapped and trying to get out. This relates back to the main character who felt trapped in her relationship and was trying to set herself free and have her own rights. Her husband and the rest of the men of this time did not know this is how women felt. During the day time, the woman she saw behind the wallpaper was outside her window and free, but at night she was back behind the bars just like the main character is stuck behind the barred windows in the house and trapped from the restrictions her husband placed on her. The rest of the story is about how the woman behind the wallpaper is trying to escape, and it is in comparison with the main character. At the end, the main character finally does let herself free by tearing off all of the wallpaper. The ripped up wallpaper represented the woman behind the wall being set free. The tearing of the wallpaper down was her setting herself loose, too ("Feminist"). Her husband had no idea she was this bad because men never truly know how a woman is feeling or thinking unless they ask. By narrating this story in first person, the main character can tell the readers what she is thinking about the wallpaper, and the audience can see that John had no idea of her feelings. 

Gilman wrote "The Yellow Wallpaper" as short story that represents the women during that time period in a single woman who becomes insane. Because she related her current life to the story, the main character is a piece of the author. Gilman put her own personal thoughts and feelings into this character. The story shows how the relationship between the inner self of a woman and the outward thoughts from the rest of the world differ entirely. The symbols like the window, lack of a job, and the wallpaper are important in conveying the differences with the main character's thoughts and her husbands.

