In "The Yellow Wallpaper," Gilman shows that the American principle
of liberty did not apply to all Americans in the late nineteenth and
early twentieth century. Specifically it shows that this principle was
not given to women. In "The Yellow Wallpaper," Gilman shows that
American society at the time was oppressive toward women and
that it was dangerous for women to fight back. She establishes a
female narrator that is oppressed literally and symbolically by the
men in her life and the society she lives in. This oppression causes
the narrator, who is suffering from what is probably a post-partum
depression, to sink lower and lower into the depths of insanity. Her
cries for help go unheeded by her husband and she eventually loses
sanity completely. On a symbolic level, this failure of the narrator to
survive in the face of societal oppression can be seen as a warning
to society. Gilman was warning the men of society that they could
not continue to deny......
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