The Yellow Wallpaper is of a woman, a new mother, who has been brought to a country house for a "rest-cure" (upon medical advice) by her husband; he selects for her the room with the yellow wallpaper, the nursery, in which the "windows are barred for little children" and the bed has been nailed to the floor. Forbidden to write and think, the narrator is subjected to the enforced idleness of mind and body, thus causing her to become increasingly dysfunctional. She obsesses about the yellow wallpaper, in which she sees frightful patterns and an imprisoned female figure trying to emerge. As the ...

• Word Count: 432
• Approx Pages: 2
• Grade Level: High School

... a few different elements of the setting that contributes to the story. The central symbol is the yellow wallpaper, I believe Gilman was trying to use the woman stuck in the wallpaper to symbolize the social position women played in society at the time. Gilman tries to show how women felt trapped and needed to "creep" when men were not looking. This also ran parallel to the narrator's life in the fact that the narrator felt trapped under he ... husband's care and felt the need to ... ...

• Word Count: 337
• Approx Pages: 1
• Grade Level: High School