The Underneath: Symbolism

What could that really mean? Is there a deeper meaning? These are the thoughts that went through my head as I tried to comprehend the deeper meaning of The Yellow Wallpaper. Jane becomes more and more obsessed with the yellow wallpaper throughout the story. She started out hating it and ended up becoming so obsessed, she felt the need to rub against it constantly up to the point where she was yellow and smelled like it. Gilman used her personal intentions through Jane's story. The story says, "I always lock the door when I creep by daylight"(9). Also, the story says,"I see her on that long road under the trees, creeping along, and when a carriage comes she hides under the blackberry vines" (9). In the daytime men would be working and woman would be home doing their duties they were responsible for. However, "creeping" is just a symbol of an activity that brings a woman happiness. For Jane, it's rubbing against the wallpaper, but for other woman it is going for walks outside and when the woman would see a carriage (with men) she would hide in fear. Later in the story, Jane pulls off the paper. "'And I've pulled off most of the paper, so you can't put me back!' Now why should that man have fainted? But he did, and right across my path by the wall, so that I had to creep over him every time!" (11).  When Jane is yelling to John, this is symbolism meaning that she is out and free and there is no going back. Earlier in the story, when Jane talked about getting all the paper down before she left, that was symbolism meaning she needed to be free before she left the house therefore reaching her goal at the conclusion. John fainted which could have really meant to Gilman, was that all of the men's power over woman was gone. Then when Jane continued to creep, (do what made her happy) she stepped over John which meant she didn't need men and they were no longer dominant. 

Symbolism: he practice of representing things by symbols, or of investigating things with a symbolic meaning or character.

http://m.dictionary.com/definition/symbolism This source helped me understand what symbolism meant. 

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Yellow_Wallpaper This source helped me realize and understand different things in the story that were symbolism that I didn't notice.