What's the point of the nursery? Charlotte Gilman's "The Yellow Wallpaper" has many elements in the story that represent things and is used as symbolism. Symbolism is "the practice of representing things by symbols, or of investing things with a symbolic meaning or character" (Dictionary.com). One example of symbolism is the room that the main character is staying in. In the 19th century, the men would treat women like they are less than men. In the story, John frequently calls Jane little girl and treats her as a baby. The room that Jane is staying in was an old nursery. A nursery is a place where people put the child to rest or to stay put. In a nursery, there is commonly a crib for babies to sleep in. A crib has bars to keep the baby in, or in other words, so the baby is trapped. The room that Jane is staying in, has bars on the windows, similar to ones on a crib. This shows how John is keeping, or trapping Jane in the room. "As a nursery (a place designed for children), the room in which the narrator spends her summer days is meant to provide a cheerful, stimulating environment" (Ada Martini). Gilman uses a nursery to show that men are treating women like children and people they are not. She uses it to show how men think women's brains are at a childlike state. By the end of the story, Jane is crawling around like a toddler would do. This shows the negative effect of the nursery and how Gilman is using a nursery to show mens thoughts from in the 19th century. 
Martini, Ada. Literary Analysis the Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman. February 6, 2009. http://www.humanities360.com/index.php/literary-analysis-the-yellow-wallpaper-by-charlotte-perkins-gilman-47254/
This site helped me decide what Gilman was using the nursery to do.
Dictonary.com. Symbolism http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/Symbolism?s=t
This site helped me understand symbolism.
I agree with you when you say that the nursery was symbolizing how women were treated like children. I liked how you went into depth about it, it help make more sense in my mind. I also liked how you added in at the end, the bit about her crawling. It really brings out how much she felt that men thought that they were superior to women. Great job!
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