The Yellow Wallpaper

            The story called “The Yellow Wallpaper” has a much bigger meaning than just a mentally insane woman living in a creepy house. The wallpaper has to different patterns inside of it that have symbolic meaning. The first pattern is a woman or many women. The second pattern is bars. The two patterns symbolize how society viewed women. Women were supposed to be the ones who had children, raised the children, and took care of the house like chores. The wallpaper is saying that women were trapped by the stereotype of society. The ending also shows proof of this stereotype. When she talks about tying the woman up with the rope if she escaped from the wall shows that even if a woman is lucky enough to escape from a “woman’s duty,” she will not survive because there were no opportunities for women in the workforce. The ending of the story isn’t clear, but I believe that she hung herself. She couldn’t escape the pressure and stereotype that the world placed on women. She took matters into her own hands in order for her to find freedom. Her husband John treated her like a child and she wanted to have control of her life and death was the only answer. The last sentence is very hard to figure out, but if she hung herself, her body would have kept on swinging over her husband’s fainted body. Her body would creep over him, setting herself free.