To seek a noteworthy life, one must seek self-fulfillment. The female character in The Yellow Wallpaper desires to become more than she can be in life and free herself from oppression so that she can secure the satisfaction of self-actualization. In The Yellow Wallpaper, Charlotte Perkins Stetson builds on the idea that self-actualization is a desired need, yet the means of securing it may not be desired. In other words, the cost of ensuring self-actualization can be arduous and require risks that may be too great for an individual to bear. The author uses elements of character development, symbolism, and themes to portray this dangerous struggle for self-realization that inspires readers on many levels. Stetson's character in The Yellow Wallpaper comes to want more than what his character potentially is. She did not feel fulfilled in her domestic role as wife and mother. This contrasts with her sister-in-law Jennie, who is described as a “perfect and enthusiastic housekeeper, and does not hope for a better profession.” (p.650) While Stetson's character happily relinquishes her domestic duties to Jennie, she is initially passive in her attempt to secure the satisfaction of self-actualization: “I've been writing for a while…. but it exhausts me a lot to have to be so clever about it, otherwise face strong opposition. (p. 648). Secretly writing her diary proves difficult for the protagonist. Her character, mentally weak and fragile and without desirable means of fulfillment, succumbs to everything her doctor/husband says because "what is to be done?" (p. 638) She is forced to accept a "rest cure" for her nervous disorder, even though she intuitively knows that this treatment lies in... middle of paper... in the shadows, hoping that their need for self-realization is stifled. Stetson uses the thematic element to criticize women who fail in their attempts to fulfill themselves simply because the journey is too much to bear. The beauty of Stetson's The Yellow Wallpaper is that even the most doomed and oppressed character can manage to secure self-realization. In the face of seemingly pervasive and inescapable oppression, the story ends with the protagonist's ever-increasing assertion of her creative self. Through elements of character development, symbolism, and theme, the author describes that the means to self-realization is not a desirable process in itself. Readers of Stetson's text are led to think that it is up to them to remove those last "bits of wallpaper that remain on the wall", knowing full well that it could be a dangerous process..