Women have always struggled to gain the attention of men and equality with them. “The Yellow Wallpaper” by Charlotte Perkins Gilman has an overarching theme of female oppression. It is a symbolic literary work because women in the era in which this story was published were treated in much the same way as the narrator was on a daily basis. Male dictatorship over women is rampant in the illness and treatment of the nameless narrator, the story's characters, and the numerous symbols that serve to confine the main character. They all work fluidly together to create a more tangible conclusion. It was necessary to take a stand for women to achieve equality with men. However, in nineteenth-century America, opposing a man was not allowed. This story embodies women slowly gaining trust and appreciation, even understanding. Now obsolete, the rest cure was a notorious panacea for every psychological ailment you could imagine. While some men underwent the treatment, it was mostly women who fell victim to this so-called cure which involved "isolation, massage, immobility and overfeeding" (Wagner-Martin.). This solution implies that someone suffering from mental anxiety would recover after being imprisoned in a bed for several months with very little association from friends or family. Not being able to come and go or converse freely with the outside world would have been difficult enough, but these individuals were “absolutely forbidden” to “work” (Gilman 71). This meant that any classification of creativity or mental strain was prohibited. The limitations placed on the narrator's imagination, by her husband, pushed her into the depths of madness, rather than dragging her out to the brink of stagnant lethargy,... middle of paper... and Color Politics in America. " Feminist Studies 15.3 (Fall 1989): 415-441. Rpt. in twentieth-century literary criticism. vol. 201. Detroit: Gale, 2008. Literature Resource Center. Network. October 18, 2011.Wagner-Martin, Linda. "The Yellow Background: Overview." Reference Guide to Short Fiction. Ed. Noelle Watson. Detroit: St. James Press, 1994. Literature Resource Center. Network. October 18, 2011.Feldstein, Richard. "Reader, Text, and Ambiguous Referentiality in 'The Yellow Wall-Paper.'." The Captive Imagination: A Casebook on "The Yellow Wallpaper." Ed. Caterina d'Oro. New York: Feminist Press, 1992. 307-318. Rpt. in twentieth-century literary criticism. vol. 201. Detroit: Gale, 2008. Literature Resource Center. Network. October 18, 2011.Scott, Firor Anne. Southern Lady from Pedestal to Politics 1830-1930. Virginia: Free University Press of Virginia, 1995. Print.