There’s quite a lot of symbolism in The Yellow Wallpaper.

First, and most obviously, is the wallpaper itself. At first, the wallpaper is simply ugly and unpleasant: the narrator describes the tone of the color as “strang[e]” and “old, foul, [and] bad.” (p. 654) It has a peculiar smell that permeates the house, though no one but her seems to notice but her. However, as time goes on, she starts to see that there are women crawling around behind the cage-like pattern, imprisoned in the paper.

It’s clear that the wallpaper is a symbol of how trapped the narrator feels by her domestic obligations. At the time of publication (1892) women were expected to have children and tend to the home, even if they wanted something different for themselves. The narrator feels trapped by the societally defined role for women of the time period, similarly to how the women are trapped in the prison of the wallpaper.

The second symbol in the story is John, the narrator’s husband. Describing him, the narrator writes, “John is practical in the extreme. He has no patience with faith, an intense horror of superstition, and he scoffs openly at any talk of things not to be felt and seen and put down in figures.” (p. 647) He is the narrator’s physician, as well, and is clearly meant to be a counterpoint to his “hysterical” wife (p. 658).

John’s character is meant to represent the influence of the patriarchy in women’s lives. He doesn’t try to understand her perspective and her difficulty in caring for her newborn son. His word trumps hers, even when she “disagree[s] with [his] ideas” and his treatment plan (p. 648). He is, with his expertise, able to confine her to a single room for recovery, even though that is exactly the opposite of what the narrator would prefer. John and the narrator’s interactions throughout the text consistently work to highlight the power dynamics at play between men and women in society at large.