Wednesday, March 19, 2014

Helping The Women be Heard: Symbolism


       When you sink deep into the words that Gilman wrote in “The Yellow Wallpaper”, there is a whole new meaning to everything.  The way she describes the room the protagonist, Jane, stays in or how in depth she goes to talk about the women suffering behind the yellow wallpaper itself.  One person could see this as just writing a short story, but I see more.  “Sometimes I think there are a great many women behind, and sometimes only one, and she crawls around fast, and her crawling shakes it all over.  Then in the very bright spots she keeps still and in the very shady spots she just takes hold of the bars and shakes them hard.” (pg. 9)  But the women she talks about, is perhaps the society Gilman was living in at the time.  Where women were seen as weaker and smaller than men, and their opinions and words were locked inside and ignored by everybody.  These women in the wall are trying to show society that they are more, but they are trapped inside and can’t get out as society does not care.  And the protagonist in the short story wants to help these women stuck in the wallpaper. “As soon as it was moonlight and that poor thing began to crawl and shake the patter, I got up and ran to help her.” Maybe this was Gilman’s way to say, she is trying to help the women of this time be heard.
 http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/symbolism?s=t- this site better helped me understand what I was looking for

 

 
Symbolism:  something represented by a character or meaning in a short story

2 comments:

  1. I like how you said there is a whole new meaning. I agree with you when you say that the women she talks about is the society Gilman was living in. I like how you said the opinions and words of women were locked inside and ignored.

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  2. Amber, I thought your entry was very smooth flowing and it made a lot of sense what you were saying. Your picture was brilliant as well. This made me think of things that i didn't catch before. And i 100% agree with what you were saying in this entry.

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