the wallpaper represents the structure of family, medicine, and tradition in which the narrator finds herself trapped. Wallpaper is domestic and humble, and Gilman skillfully uses this nightmarish, hideous paper as a symbol of the domestic life that traps so many women.
The yellow wallpaper's pattern symbolizes the confinement of the narrator. It traps the narrator's thoughts as she is increasingly fascinated by its paths, and follows them with her eyes at the expense of doing anything else.
