The Submission of Women in Yellow Wallpaper In the nineteenth century, women in literature were often depicted as submissive to men. Literature of the period often characterized women as oppressed by society, as well as by the male influences in their lives. The yellow background presents the tragic story of a woman's descent into depression and madness. Gilman once wrote: "The subordination of women will end only when women lead the struggle for their own autonomy, thus liberating man and themselves, because man suffers from the distortions that come with domination, just as women are marked from the submission imposed on them". (Lane 5). The yellow wallpaper brilliantly illustrates this philosophy. The narrator's worsening mental health is reflected in the characteristics of the house she is trapped in and her husband, while trying to protect her, is actually destroying it. The narrator of the story goes with her doctor/husband to stay in a colonial villa for the summer. Home should be a place where she can recover from severe postpartum depression. She loves her baby, but knows she is unable to take care of him. "It is fortunate that Mary is so good with the child. Such a dear child! Yet I cannot be with him, he makes me so nervous" (Gilman 642). The symbolism used by Gilman is somewhat deviated from the conventional one. A house usually symbolizes security. In this story the opposite is true. The protagonist, whose name we will never know, feels trapped within the walls of her home, as does her mental illness. The windows of her room, which normally symbolize a sense of freedom, are barred and holding her back (Biedermann 179, 382). From the beginning the reader finds himself... in the center of the paper... of the background. . . "(Gilman 647).BibliographyAnderson, Daniel. *http://cwrl.utexas.edu/~daniel/amlit/wallpaper/whywrote/htm* Why did I write "The Yellow Wallpaper"? As it appeared in the October issue of The Forerunner, 1913." 1996. (September 19, 1998) Biedermann, Hans, ed. Theworth Dictionary of Symbolism. Cumberland House: Hertfordshire, 1996Cunningham, Iain and Holmes, Douglass. "Sensory descriptions in the yellow background." 1977.http://englishwww.ucla.edu/individuals/mcgraw/wallpaper/senses.htm* (19 September 1998). Gilman, Charlotte Perkins. "The yellow background." Women's Work: An Anthology of American Literature. Ed. Barbara Perkins, Robyn Warhol and George Perkins. New York: McGraw-Hill, Inc., 1994. 640-650.Lane, Ann J. To Herland and Beyond: The Life and Work of Charlotte Perkins Gilman. New York: Pantheon Books, 1990.