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 h

and dominated. "No wonder the children hated it! I should hate it myself if I had to live in this room long" (170). In other words, no wonder most women hated marriage and even though she loved her husband, she herself would come to hate it if she continued to allow her husband to suppress her creativity.

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 and to do so they had to skulk or lurk among men. The strangled heads in the paper symbolize women whose careers and goals have been choked by male dominance.

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

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

Approximate Word count = 928
Approximate Pages = 4 (250 words per page double spaced)

Category: English