Free At Last

A detailed Summary of Free At Last

When a reader first reads The Yellow Wallpaper it appears to be a story of a young woman suffering from post pardum depression that slowly ends in the total loss of reality. However, understanding that Charlotte Perkins Gilman was an early feminist, and her writings share a common theme that women do not have an equal human status in society, the story takes on a whole new meaning. The author's creative use of symbolism in The Yellow Wallpaper allows the reader an inside look of a young woman's struggle to free herself from society's "norm". The author's use of setting and symbolism perfectly represents the male dominant society in the Victorian era that believed a women's place was in the home. The author carefully constructed her sentences and symbols to produce a picture of arrogant and creepy male oppression.

The story opens with the young woman describing the house as a "colonial mansion, a hereditary estate, I would say a haunted house, and reach the height of romantic felicity-but that would be asking too much of fate!" (168). The author uses this symbolism to describe the different roles a woman played. The colonial mansion describes her as a wife and a hereditary estate that of a mother. The haunted

The young woman comes to the realization that "If only that top pattern could be gotten off from the under one! I mean to try it, little by little" (179). She slowly gains the courage to tear way from male dominance and live the kind of life she wants by pulling of the paper. She begins to tear away at the paper piece by piece gaining confidence with each piece removed. The young woman "...peeled off all the paper I could reach standing on the floor. It sticks horribly and the pattern just enjoys it" (222). It would not be easy to break through the barrier since men would not so easy give in to equality. Bits of paper still remained and although she made great strides in freeing herself from the dominance of her husband there was still work to be done in terms of true social and economic equality and that it will not be easy to break the dominance that men have enjoyed for so long.

The young woman also states that there is a kind of sub-pattern and "in the places where it isn't faded and where the sun is just so-I can see a strange, provoking formless sort of figure, that seems to skulk about that silly and conspicuous front design" (173). "By daylight she is subdued, quiet. I fancy it is the pattern that keeps her so still" (176). The formless figure represents women who are forced to the background, a mere shadow of men, by male dominance. It was not deemed proper for a woman to be openly individualistic

Some common words found in the essay are:
Yellow Wallpaper, Perkins Gilman, male dominance, , hereditary estate, husband society, yellow wallpaper, height romantic, haunted house, easy break, colonial mansion, paper begins, effects male,

Approximate Word count = 967
Approximate Pages = 4 (250 words per page double spaced)

Category: English