Yellow Wallpaper Symbolism

The symbolism in 'The Yellow Wallpaper' relates to the women's rights movement that was going on during the time period this story was written in. Women were wanting to have freedom from being the 'domesticated housewife' they thought they had to be for their husbands and children. In the story, the narrator becomes fascinated (at first in a terrified way, but later it became something more) by the wallpaper in the room where she spends most of her time. The pattern on the wallpaper symbolizes bars keeping the woman behind them locked up. The bars keep the woman behind the wallpaper from being free, like the narrator's husband (or even men in general) does to her (and men do to the whole woman population). The woman behind the pattern or 'bars' is symbolizing the narrator (the narrator states later in the story that she is the woman after she has gone insane). She is trapped in the role of being a 'domesticated housewife' that just does things for the good of her husband and family, not for herself; her happiness is placed on the back burner. When the woman behind the bars is jailed, she is viewed to be in her rightful place, just as the narrator of the story is also viewed to be sane by society (or semi sane, depending on how you look at it) and in her rightful place (as a domesticated housewife). Her husband could tell that she (the narrator) was heading down the path of social insanity (becoming free as a woman with rights), so he took her away from all the ruckus of women's rights hoping that she would return to her 'normal' state of being a 'domestic housewife'. His plan backfired though. While she was kept locked in her room, she had plenty of time to think and study the wallpaper. She realized that she would rather be free than to be a prisoner to the bars of the wallpaper pattern, so she ripped them away and set herself free. When the woman behind the bars is freed and out of her rightful place, the narrator becomes insane, symbolizing that women who break free of the 'domesticated housewife' role are viewed by society as 'insane' and out of their niché. The story was written against women's rights. The main purpose of the author writing this short story was to show that women gaining rights turned them insane, that they should not be freed; women should be forever enslaved to the role of being a 'domesticated wife' in order to serve man because men provide and take care of the women. Basically, the author is trying to make a point that women will be crazy if given rights and women should not even want rights because they should want to just please the men for being so caring and such (the narrator's husband gave her medicine and 'took care' of her, so she should be grateful, right?); that should be enough to fulfill their lives.