The color yellow has many different meanings. It can bring hope and happiness, but it can also bring cowardice and deceit. The shade of yellow tells the whole story. Bright and beautiful hues usually denote cheerfulness or joy, but can also have a hint of danger. Dull, dark shades usually denote caution, decay, illness and jealousy. Dull and dirty yellow is the backdrop to this dramatic story. The story "The Yellow Wallpaper", written by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, has many symbolic undertones throughout the story, but none as great as the yellow wallpaper which is a symbol of the main character's sanity and his entrapment both physical and mental. John physically traps her in this room by his actions designed to make her feel like an insignificant child: "It is as airy and comfortable a room as anyone could desire, and, of course, I would not be so foolish as to make him uncomfortable for just a moment" whim ” (514). He tricks her into believing that this is the best room for her to recover. Even the yellow wallpaper traps her. The paper locks her in the room where she feels she cannot and will not get better unless she can get out and return to the real world. However, he can't go out because his eyes can't leave the pattern on the wallpaper, so he can't rest. Her eyes follow the pattern day by day and she can never find the end result and her mind won't let her leave the paper until she's looked at everything. His mind begins to imagine the trapped woman and he cannot let that woman be trapped as she is. When his mental state fades and the woman appears behind bars, the narrator feels as if they are trapped together. This is symbolic of her being trapped in a cage; the room… middle of paper… still triumphs over him and his oppression: “'I've come out of it at last,' I said, 'in spite of you and Jane. And I took out most of the paper, so you can't put me back!' Now, why would that man faint? But he did it, and right in front of the wall, so that I had to crawl over him every time! (524). This action of her “crawling” over him shows that even though she had been mentally and physically oppressed by John, she ultimately triumphs over him. Everyone has their own limits of sanity and most prefer to stay within the limits, but sometimes there are those who push themselves a little too far and crawl over the edge. Works Cited Gilman, Charlotte Perkins. "The yellow wallpaper." Norton's Introduction to Literature: Ninth Shorter Edition. Eds. Alison Booth, J. Paul Hunter, and Kelly J. Mays. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 2006. 513-524. Press.