Gilman uses such figurative language as imagery, similes, and personification. She does it to portray a woman who is out of touch with reality. The author aims to link her readers with the character.
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Imagery is sensory language. It is used to describe physical qualities of objects and surroundings. Gilman writes about the wallpaper using imagery. “The color is repellant, almost revolting; a smoldering, unclean yellow, strangely faded by the slow-turning sunlight.” There are many adjectives and adverbs. They show not only the details of the physical state of the wallpaper. It is about the emotions of the narrator. She feels disgust and anger in her room.
A simile is a figure of speech that compares one object to another. Gilman describes the wallpaper patterns using it. “The outside pattern is a florid arabesque, reminding one of a fungus. If you can imagine a toadstool in joints, an interminable string of toadstools, budding and sprouting in endless convolutions.” The comparison is between the wallpaper and poisonous mushrooms (“toadstool in joints”). It describes the awful imagery. The author wants us to feel and see what the woman does. The details form negative connections in the mind of a reader.
Personification gives human-like qualities to a non-living object. There is an example of this in the story. “It slaps you in the face, knocks you down, and tramples upon you. It is like a bad dream.” The author uses it to show how weak the woman becomes. She tells about the torture and physical actions of violence. The wallpaper gains human qualities. Bonus point – the last sentence “it is like a bad dream” is a simile!