The Yellow Wallpaper

Yin Yang

Does anyone know if The Yellow Wallpaper has any relationship with Yin Yang?

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Last updated by tracey l #96417
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i think this is an interesting theory, but looking closely at the descriptions from the narrator I cannot find enough evidence to support that the simple shapes of Yin Yang are evident in the paper. She says-

I know a little of the principle of design, and I know this thing was not arranged on any laws of radiation, or alternation, or repetition, or symmetry, or anything else that I ever heard of.

It is repeated, of course, by the breadths, but not otherwise.

Looked at in one way each breadth stands alone, the bloated curves and flourishes--a kind of "debased Romanesque" with delirium tremens--go waddling up and down in isolated columns of fatuity.

But, on the other hand, they connect diagonally, and the sprawling outlines run off in great slanting waves of optic horror, like a lot of wallowing seaweeds in full chase.

The narrator is an intelligent and educated woman and would have been able to identify and recognise such a symbol.

Source(s)

'The Yellow Wallpaper' - Charlotte Perkins Gilman