I believe the room and the yellow wallpaper drove the narrator to insanity but was symbolizing her life. She describes it as a dull yellow wallpaper with a distinct pattern and the room is barred because of previous home owners. After some time she realizes the woman in the wallpaper is behind bars and during the day she is calm and quiet but at night she shakes the bars in attempt to be freed. This may symbolize the narrator’s life because she is staying in a room that is barred and has been telling her husband she does not want to stay there but he does not listen to her. She feels trapped in this room just like the woman in the wallpaper. This can also mean that she wishes to be freed from her condition, or herself. In the beginning of the story she mentions how she believes working in an environment full of excitement and change would do her good but her husband being a physician and thinking he knows best opposes her wishes. She feels trapped because her husband will not let her do anything and ignores anything she may want to do, completely taking away her free will.
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I also think that the wallpaper, even from the very beginning of the story, has a connection to the narrator. She feels trapped just like the woman in the paper and as the woman in the paper develops more traits and more lively, the more weird the narrator starts to act. It’s like they were going through the process of merging until at the end they ultimately become one.