How it has bars on the windows, a gate at the top of the stairs, scratches on the walls and a nailed-down bed. Gilman also uses the yellow wallpaper in the nursery to symbolically represent Jane's mental illness. Yellow typically represents illness, death and decay. In the story the yellow begins to infect her as stated by Jennie, John's sister, who said, "Then she said that the paper stained everything it touched, that she found yellow smears on all my clothes" (Gilman 11) . Later, Jane discovers the woman behind the wallpaper, who only she can see. This woman symbolizes herself in that she is stuck with her mental illness and confined to her home, just as the "woman" is confined to the wallpaper. She writes: "So I told him that I really wasn't making any money here, and that I would like him to take me away." (Gilman 9); she feels trapped in the house just like the woman behind the wallpaper, and she begins to feel as if that woman is her. So when she finally eliminates the yellow wallpaper, she (as a trapped woman or hallucination) feels as if she has been liberated and has a new freedom by John and Jane (herself). In her fragile mental state, Jane has switched places with the trapped woman (who is the hallucination released). The new Jane feels triumphant and then creeps up on John, which in a way symbolizes the freedom she so desperately wants." "I