Charlotte Gilman depicts the life of women in the time period of the late 1800s. The story “The Yellow Wallpaper” represents a much larger picture of life than the story itself. The narrator records a journal and describes how she is essentially treated as a prisoner by her husband. The countless occurrences of oppression afflicted by the narrator’s husband ultimately drive her crazy and cause her to kill him. The story depicts a time period of women’s oppression and outlines the timeline of women’s rights coming into the public eye. The narrator uses metaphors, allegories, and symbolism to depict the struggle women faced during the time of the mid to late 1800s. This paints a picture for what women faced and how difficult it was to bring the idea of women’s struggle into the light and out of normalcy. 

The yellow wallpaper in the story is symbolic to the overpowering jurisdiction men had over women. “It is dull enough to confuse the eye in the following, pronounced enough to constantly irritate and provoke study, and when you follow the lame uncertain curves for a little distance they suddenly commit suicide…” (Gilman). When Gilman states the wallpaper constantly irritates and provokes study she is referring to the authority of men. As most women responded to men during that time period, they clearly recognized a problem, however, they did not question it.  In the beginning of the story the narrator does not think much of the wallpaper, however, as the story carries on she becomes increasingly curious. This symbolizes the lengthy time it took for women to realize the problem they were faced with in their daily lives and convince people of it. “The paint and paper look as if a boys’ school had used it. It is stripped off—the paper—in great patches all around the head of my bed, about as far as I can reach” (Gilman). The narrator is referring to the paper as torn off in order to depict how the issue of women’s mistreatment is finally being exposed to society. The matter of women not having enough independence was “stripped off” or being questioned in society during the mid to late 1800s—the time of and time prior to the publication of the story. Later in the story the narrator states that the wallpaper laughed at her after she peeled off a large strip of the paper. This symbolizes how society reacted to women bringing the topic of women’s mistreatment into the light. “I had no intention of telling him it was because the wallpaper—he would make fun of me” (Gilman). The narrator is representing the idea that if women brought up the issue that men overpowered them they would laugh and discard the idea. The largest hurdle in changing the role of women was exposing the problem and getting people to recognize it. “She laughed and said she wouldn’t mind doing it herself, but I must not get tired. How she betrayed herself at that time” (Gilman). When Jennie is described as betraying herself, the narrator is referring to the fact that Jennie is ignoring the issue of women’s struggles and is literally betraying herself. Jennie discards that there is a real problem and therefore is accepting pain and struggle. Many women during this time period did the same as Jennie, in which they simply endured the struggle and thought of it as normalcy—betraying themselves.

There are countless allegories in the story that represent larger ideas and symbolize the events occurring during the time period of the late 1800s. “It is the same women, I know, for she is always creeping, and most women do not creep by daylight” (Gilman). The creeping woman Gilman describes is women working to change their situation. When the narrator states “most women do not creep by daylight” she is implying how women worked in secrecy when bringing the topic of their struggles into the light of society. “The Yellow Wallpaper” was written in January 1892 and 1893 was the first year that a state made an amendment allowing women to vote. “There are only two more days to get this paper off…” (Gilman). Gilman is referring to the fact that the election is in several months and women must expose the issue quickly in order to receive the right to vote in the upcoming election. The couple is at the house for three months and this correlates to the three months or years women had to receive voting rights to vote in the upcoming election. In the year 1890 NAWSA set out state by state campaigns to obtain voting rights (Imbornoni). The three months the couple is in the house correlates to the years after 1890. The amendment allowing women to vote in a state was a huge landmark change in the setting of women’s rights and treatment. “I’ve got out at last” (Gilman). Gilman is referring to escaping the wallpaper and states that they can’t put her back because she has taken off most of the wallpaper. In correlation the time period, now that women can vote—and the issue is finally recognized by the public—the issue of their mistreatment is going to continue to be discussed and dealt with. Therefore, Gilman is symbolizing how the wallpaper being almost all torn off will not allow her to be put back in it—analogous to women not being able to not be put back under oppression. 

The constant light change in the story depict the issue of women’s mistreatment coming in and out of the light. The issue was only seen during certain times and under certain perspectives. As the light changes continuously in the story, the narrator is conveying the idea of women’s mistreatment being a prominent issue while not being an issue at all. “When the sun shoots in through the east window—I always watch for that first long, straight ray—it changes so quickly that I never can quite believe it” (Gilman). The problem of women’s mistreatment was quickly changing from a problem to not during the late 1800s, hence the light changing so quickly. The narrator tears down the wallpaper at night when there is no light. However, when it is daytime the wallpaper is seen and talked about. This is similar to how women’s rights were brought into the public eye during the late 1800s. Women brought the idea into the light by secrecy (in the dark) and once the issue was seen it rose in the public eye (in the light or daytime).

Charlotte Gilman wrote the yellow wallpaper in order to expose the fight women were put up against. The story “The Yellow Wallpaper” outlines the timeline of women suffrage and struggle during the 1890s. Gilman uses metaphors, symbolism, and allegories to convey her main point and purpose for writing the story. The narrator ultimately kills her husband in the story representing the ending in women’s mistreatment.