The color yellow has many different meanings. It can bring hope and happiness, but it can also bring cowardice and deception. The shade of yellow tells the whole story. Beautiful, bright shades usually denote cheerfulness or joy, but they can also have a touch of danger. Dull and dull shades generally denote prudence, decadence, illness and jealousy. Dull, dull yellow sets the scene for this dramatic story. The story "The Yellow Wallpaper", written by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, has many symbolic nuances throughout the story, but none as great as the yellow wallpaper, a symbol of the main character's sanity as well as its entrapment both physical and mental. John physically traps her in this room by making her feel like an insignificant little child: "It's as airy and comfortable a room as anyone could wish for, and, of course, I wouldn't be stupid enough to make him uncomfortable." feel comfortable just for a moment. whim” (514). He makes her believe that it is the best room for her to feel good. The yellow wallpaper also traps her. The journal traps her in the room where she feels like she cannot and will not get better unless she can get out and return to the real world. However, she cannot go out because her eyes cannot leave the pattern of the wallpaper and therefore she cannot rest. Her eyes follow the pattern from day to day and she can never find the end result and her mind won't let her leave the journal until she has scrutinized everything. Her mind begins to imagine the woman who is trapped and she cannot let this woman be trapped as she is. As his mental state fades and the woman appears behind bars, the narrator feels like they are trapped together. This is a symbol of her being trapped in a cage; the play... middle of paper... he triumphs over himself and his oppression anyway: “'I got through it at last,' I said, 'in spite of you and Jane. And I took most of the paper out, so you can't put me back!' Now why should this man have passed out? But he did, and right in front of the wall, so I had to slide over it every time! (524). This action of her “crawling” over him shows that even though she has been mentally and physically oppressed by John, she ultimately triumphs over him. Everyone has their limits when it comes to mental health and most prefer to stay inside, but sometimes there are those who are just pushed a little too far and cross the line. Works Cited Gilman, Charlotte Perkins. “The yellow wallpaper.” The Norton Introduction to Literature: Ninth Shorter Edition. Ed. Alison Booth, J. Paul Hunter, and Kelly J. Mays. New York: WW Norton & Company, 2006. 513-524. Print.