Charlotte Perkins Gilman The 1892 gothic horror tale “The Yellow Wallpaper” traces a woman's mental decline as she undergoes a “rest cure.” This gripping story illustrates the protagonist's suffocating plight in a patriarchal society. Her husband, John, a doctor, has taken the narrator, a new mother, to a rented country house for the summer to recover from postpartum psychosis. He isolates her in a small bedroom on the upper floor, a room with barred windows, a nailed-up bed and hateful yellow wallpaper, and forbids her to write, according to the philosophy of the "rest cure". Although the constraints imposed on the protagonist have proven repressive, this leads her to an intriguing and dangerous obsession with "the yellow wallpaper" that causes her to triumph over social oppression and the constraints within her marriage, giving her a heroic identity. The writer conveys all this through her ingenious use of the image of “yellow wallpaper,” which functions as part of the setting, object correlation to the narrator's physical and mental repression, and ultimately as a symbol of his life.Second a critic “The subjugation of women originated in prehistoric times, when males first monopolized all social activities and women were confined to motherhood and domestic duties” (Degler 178). During the 19th century these social traditions were still imposed on women. Quawas confirms this statement when she states: “In the nineteenth century, women, as agents of moral influence, are expected to maintain the domestic sphere as a cheerful and pure refuge to which their husbands can return [home] each evening.” (A A New Woman's Journey into Madness). Because of these expectations, the protagonist is a power… middle of paper… lpaper” Gilman clearly illustrates through the use of symbols, images and characters to show how women were treated in a patriarchal society. The writer seems to have a semi-melancholy mood throughout the story. Gilman clearly shows how the narrator's suffocating situation in solitary confinement becomes provocative and she gains a deeper understanding of her life and role in society. The woman in the background not only represents the narrator's divided self, but all women who are excessively limited and constrained by a society that deems them incapable of self-realization. Because of her preoccupation with “yellow wallpaper” she falls into madness, which ultimately allowed her to triumph over marital and social constraints. Therefore the writer shows that to obtain freedom one suffers immensely before the change is achieved.