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Analysis of Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s The Yellow Wall-Paper

By NASRULLAH MAMBROL on April 28, 2022

First published in New England Magazine in January 1892, and reprinted by Small, Maynard and Company as a chapbook (1899), “The Yellow Wall-Paper” is Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s most famous work. Depicting the nervous breakdown of a young wife and mother, the story is a potent example of psychological realism. Based loosely on Gilman’s own experiences in undergoing the rest cure for neurasthenia, the story documents the psychological torment of her fictional first-person narrator.

The narrator’s husband, John, a physician, prescribes isolation and inactivity as treatment for her illness, a “temporary nervous depression—a slight hysterical tendency” (10). John forbids her to engage in any kind of labor, including writing. Despite his admonitions, however, the narrator records her impressions in a secret diary.

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These diary entries compose the text of the story; they reveal the narrator’s emotional descent. As the story unfolds, it becomes apparent that she is suffering an acute form of postpartum depression, a condition acknowledged neither by John nor by the late-19th-century medical community. So severe is the narrator’s depression that a nursemaid has assumed care of the new baby. Deprived of the freedom to write openly, which she believes would be therapeutic, the narrator gradually shifts her attention to the yellow wallpaper in the attic nursery where she spends her time. The paper both intrigues and repels her; it becomes the medium on which she symbolically inscribes her “text.” Soon she detects a subpattern in the wallpaper that crystallizes into the image of an imprisoned woman attempting to escape. In the penultimate scene, the narrator’s identity merges with that of the entrapped woman, and together they frantically tear the paper from the walls. In an ironic reversal in the final scene, John breaks into the room and, after witnessing the full measure of his wife’s insanity, faints. Significantly, however, he is still blocking his wife, literally and symbolically obstructing her path so that she has to “creep over him every time!” (36).

Critics disagree over the meaning of the story, variously arguing the significance of everything from linguistic cues, to psychoanalytic interpretations, to historiographical readings. While some critics have hailed the narrator as a feminist heroine, others have seen in her a maternal failure coupled with a morbid fear of female sexuality. Some have viewed the story, with its yellow paper, as an exemplar of the silencing of women writers in 19th-century America; others have focused on its gothic elements.

Since the Feminist Press reissued the story in 1973, “The Yellow Wall-Paper” has been widely anthologized and is now firmly assimilated in the American literary body of work.

BIBLIOGRAPHY Gilman, Charlotte Perkins. The Yellow Wall-paper. Boston: Small, Maynard, & Co., 1899. Reprint, Old Westbury, N.Y.: Feminist Press, 1973. Lanser, Susan A. “Feminist Criticism, ‘The Yellow Wallpaper,’ and the Politics of Color in America.” Feminist Studies 15, no. 3 (Fall 1989): 415–441. Shumaker, Conrad. “ ‘Too Terribly Good to Be Printed’: Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s ‘The Yellow Wallpaper.’ ” American Literature 57, no. 4 (1985): 588–599. Veeder, William. “Who Is Jane? The Intricate Feminism of Charlotte Perkins Gilman.” Arizona Quarterly 44, no. 3 (1988): 40–79.

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Analysis of 'The Yellow Wallpaper' by C. Perkins Gilman

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Like Kate Chopin's " The Story of an Hour ," Charlotte Perkins Gilman's " The Yellow Wallpaper " is a mainstay of feminist literary study. First published in 1892, the story takes the form of secret journal entries written by a woman who is supposed to be recovering from what her husband, a physician, calls a nervous condition.

This haunting psychological horror story chronicles the narrator's descent into madness, or perhaps into the paranormal, or perhaps—depending on your interpretation—into freedom. The result is a story as chilling as anything by Edgar Allan Poe or Stephen King .

Recovery Through Infantilization

The protagonist's husband, John, does not take her illness seriously. Nor does he take her seriously. He prescribes, among other things, a "rest cure," in which she is confined to their summer home, mostly to her bedroom.

The woman is discouraged from doing anything intellectual, even though she believes some "excitement and change" would do her good. She is allowed very little company—certainly not from the "stimulating" people she most wishes to see. Even her writing must happen in secret.

In short, John treats her like a child. He calls her diminutive names like "blessed little goose" and "little girl." He makes all decisions for her and isolates her from the things she cares about.

Even her bedroom is not the one she wanted; instead, it's a room that appears to have once been a nursery, emphasizing her return to infancy. Its "windows are barred for little children," showing again that she is being treated as a child—as well as a prisoner.

John's actions are couched in concern for the woman, a position that she initially seems to believe herself. "He is very careful and loving," she writes in her journal, "and hardly lets me stir without special direction." Her words also sound as if she is merely parroting what she's been told, though phrases like "hardly lets me stir" seem to harbor a veiled complaint.

Fact Versus Fancy

John dismisses anything that hints of emotion or irrationality—what he calls "fancy." For instance, when the narrator says that the wallpaper in her bedroom disturbs her, he informs her that she is letting the wallpaper "get the better of her" and refuses to remove it.

John doesn't simply dismiss things he finds fanciful though; he also uses the charge of "fancy" to dismiss anything he doesn't like. In other words, if he doesn't want to accept something, he simply declares that it is irrational.

When the narrator tries to have a "reasonable talk" with him about her situation, she is so distraught that she is reduced to tears. Instead of interpreting her tears as evidence of her suffering, he takes them as evidence that she is irrational and can't be trusted to make decisions for herself.

As part of his infantilization of her, he speaks to her as if she is a whimsical child, imagining her own illness. "Bless her little heart!" he says. "She shall be as sick as she pleases!" He does not want to acknowledge that her problems are real, so he silences her.

The only way the narrator could appear rational to John would be to become satisfied with her situation, which means there is no way for her to express concerns or ask for changes.

In her journal, the narrator writes:

"John does not know how much I really suffer. He knows there is no reason to suffer, and that satisfies him."

John can't imagine anything outside his own judgment. So when he determines that the narrator's life is satisfactory, he imagines that the fault lies with her perception. It never occurs to him that her situation might really need improvement.

The Wallpaper

The nursery walls are covered in putrid yellow wallpaper with a confused, eerie pattern. The narrator is horrified by it.

She studies the incomprehensible pattern in the wallpaper, determined to make sense of it. But rather than making sense of it, she begins to identify a second pattern—that of a woman creeping furtively behind the first pattern, which acts as a prison for her.

The first pattern of the wallpaper can be seen as the societal expectations that hold women, like the narrator, captive. Her recovery will be measured by how cheerfully she resumes her domestic duties as wife and mother, and her desire to do anything else—like write—is something that would interfere with that recovery.

Though the narrator studies and studies the pattern in the wallpaper, it never makes any sense to her. Similarly, no matter how hard she tries to recover, the terms of her recovery—embracing her domestic role—never make sense to her, either.

The creeping woman can represent both victimization by the societal norms and resistance to them.

This creeping woman also gives a clue about why the first pattern is so troubling and ugly. It seems to be peppered with distorted heads with bulging eyes—the heads of other creeping women who were strangled by the pattern when they tried to escape it. That is, women who couldn't survive when they tried to resist cultural norms. Gilman writes that "nobody could climb through that pattern—it strangles so."

Becoming a Creeping Woman

Eventually, the narrator becomes a creeping woman herself. The first indication is when she says, rather startlingly, "I always lock the door when I creep by daylight." Later, the narrator and the creeping woman work together to pull off the wallpaper.

The narrator also writes, "[T]here are so many of those creeping women, and they creep so fast," implying that the narrator is only one of many.

That her shoulder "just fits" into the groove on the wall is sometimes interpreted to mean that she has been the one ripping the paper and creeping around the room all along. But it could also be interpreted as an assertion that her situation is no different from that of many other women. In this interpretation, "The Yellow Wallpaper" becomes not just a story about one woman's madness, but a maddening system.

At one point, the narrator observes the creeping women from her window and asks, "I wonder if they all come out of that wallpaper as I did?"

Her coming out of the wallpaper—her freedom—coincides with a descent into mad behavior: ripping off the paper, locking herself in her room, even biting the immovable bed. That is, her freedom comes when she finally reveals her beliefs and behavior to those around her and stops hiding.

The final scene—in which John faints and the narrator continues to creep around the room, stepping over him every time—is disturbing but also triumphant. Now John is the one who is weak and sickly, and the narrator is the one who finally gets to determine the rules of her own existence. She is finally convinced that he only "pretended to be loving and kind." After being consistently infantilized by his comments, she turns the tables on him by addressing him condescendingly, if only in her mind, as "young man."

John refused to remove the wallpaper, and in the end, the narrator used it as her escape. 

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Understanding The Yellow Wallpaper: Summary and Analysis

General Education

Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s classic short story, "The Yellow Wallpaper" tells the story of a young woman’s gradual descent into psychosis. " The Yellow Wallpaper" is often cited as an early feminist work that predates a woman’s right to vote in the United States. The author was involved in first-wave feminism, and her other works questioned the origins of the subjugation of women, particularly in marriage. "

The Yellow Wallpaper" is a widely read work that asks difficult questions about the role of women, particularly regarding their mental health and right to autonomy and self-identity. We’ll go over The Yellow Wallpaper summary, themes and symbols, The Yellow Wallpaper analysis, and some important information about the author.

"The Yellow Wallpaper" Summary

"The Yellow Wallpaper" details the deterioration of a woman's mental health while she is on a "rest cure" on a rented summer country estate with her family. Her obsession with the yellow wallpaper in her bedroom marks her descent into psychosis from her depression throughout the story.

The narrator of "The Yellow Wallpaper" begins the story by discussing her move to a beautiful estate for the summer. Her husband, John, is also her doctor , and the move is meant in part to help the narrator overcome her “illness,” which she explains as nervous depression, or nervousness, following the birth of their baby. John’s sister, Jennie, also lives with them and works as their housekeeper.

Though her husband believes she will get better with rest and by not worrying about anything, the narrator has an active imagination and likes to write . He discourages her wonder about the house, and dismisses her interests. She mentions her baby more than once, though there is a nurse that cares for the baby, and the narrator herself is too nervous to provide care.

The narrator and her husband move into a large room that has ugly, yellow wallpaper that the narrator criticizes. She asks her husband if they can change rooms and move downstairs, and he rejects her. The more she stays in the room, the more the narrator’s fascination with the hideous wallpaper grows.

After hosting family for July 4th, the narrator expresses feeling even worse and more exhausted. She struggles to do daily activities, and her mental state is deteriorating. John encourages her to rest more, and the narrator hides her writing from him because he disapproves.

In the time between July 4th and their departure, the narrator is seemingly driven insane by the yellow wallpaper ; she sleeps all day and stays up all night to stare at it, believing that it comes alive, and the patterns change and move. Then, she begins to believe that there is a woman in the wallpaper who alters the patterns and is watching her.

A few weeks before their departure, John stays overnight in town and the narrator wants to sleep in the room by herself so she can stare at the wallpaper uninterrupted. She locks out Jennie and believes that she can see the woman in the wallpaper . John returns and frantically tries to be let in, and the narrator refuses; John is able to enter the room and finds the narrator crawling on the floor. She claims that the woman in the wallpaper has finally exited, and John faints, much to her surprise.

Background on "The Yellow Wallpaper"

The author, Charlotte Perkins Gilman, was a lecturer for social reform, and her beliefs and philosophy play an important part in the creation of "The Yellow Wallpaper," as well as the themes and symbolism in the story. "The Yellow Wallpaper" also influenced later feminist writers.

Charlotte Perkins Gilman

Charlotte Perkins Gilman, known as Charlotte Perkins Stetsman while she was married to her first husband, was born in Hartford, CT in 1860. Young Charlotte was observed as being bright, but her mother wasn’t interested in her education, and Charlotte spent lots of time in the library.

Charlotte married Charles Stetsman in 1884, and her daughter was born in 1885. She suffered from serious postpartum depression after giving birth to their daughter, Katharine. Her battle with postpartum depression and the doctors she dealt with during her illness inspired her to write "The Yellow Wallpaper."

The couple separated in 1888, the year that Perkins Gilman wrote her first book, Art Gems for the Home and Fireside. She later wrote "The Yellow Wallpaper" in 1890, while she was in a relationship with Adeline Knapp, and living apart from her legal husband. "The Yellow Wallpaper" was published in 1892, and in 1893 she published a book of satirical poetry , In This Our World, which gained her fame.

Eventually, Perkins Gilman got officially divorced from Stetsman, and ended her relationship with Knapp. She married her cousin, Houghton Gilman, and claimed to be satisfied in the marriage .

Perkins Gilman made a living as a lecturer on women’s issues, labor issues, and social reform . She toured Europe and the U.S. as a lecturer, and founded her own magazine, The Forerunner.

Publication

"The Yellow Wallpaper" was first published in January 1892 in New England Magazine.

During Perkins Gilman's lifetime, the role of women in American society was heavily restricted both socially and legally. At the time of its publication, women were still twenty-six years away from gaining the right to vote .

This viewpoint on women as childish and weak meant that they were discouraged from having any control over their lives. Women were encouraged or forced to defer to their husband’s opinions in all aspects of life , including financially, socially, and medically. Writing itself was revolutionary, since it would create a sense of identity, and was thought to be too much for the naturally fragile women.

Women's health was a particularly misunderstood area of medicine, as women were viewed as nervous, hysterical beings, and were discouraged from doing anything to further “upset” them. The prevailing wisdom of the day was that rest would cure hysteria, when in reality the constant boredom and lack of purpose likely worsened depression .

Perkins Gilman used her own experience in her first marriage and postpartum depression as inspiration for The Yellow Wallpaper, and illustrates how a woman’s lack of autonomy is detrimental to her mental health.

Upon its publication, Perkins Gilman sent a copy of "The Yellow Wallpaper" to the doctor who prescribed her the rest cure for her postpartum depression.

"The Yellow Wallpaper" Characters

Though there are only a few characters in the story, they each have an important role. While the story is about the narrator’s mental deterioration, the relationships in her life are essential for understanding why and how she got to this point.

The Narrator

The narrator of the story is a young, upper-middle-class woman. She is imaginative and a natural writer, though she is discouraged from exploring this part of herself. She is a new mother and is thought to have “hysterical tendencies” or suffer from nervousness. Her name may be Jane but it is unclear.

John is the narrator’s husband and her physician. He restricts her activity as a part of her treatment. John is extremely practical, and belittles the narrator's imagination and feelings . He seems to care about her well-being, but believes he knows what is best for her and doesn't allow her input.

Jennie is John’s sister, who works as a housekeeper for the couple. Jennie seems concerned for the narrator, as indicated by her offer to sleep in the yellow wallpapered room with her. Jennie seems content with her domestic role .

Main Themes of "The Yellow Wallpaper"

From what we know about the author of this story and from interpreting the text, there are a few themes that are clear from a "Yellow Wallpaper" analysis. "The Yellow Wallpaper" was a serious piece of literature that addressed themes pertinent to women.

Women's Role in Marriage

Women were expected to be subordinate to their husbands and completely obedient, as well as take on strictly domestic roles inside the home . Upper middle class women, like the narrator, may go for long periods of time without even leaving the home. The story reveals that this arrangement had the effect of committing women to a state of naïveté, dependence, and ignorance.

John assumes he has the right to determine what’s best for his wife, and this authority is never questioned. He belittles her concerns, both concrete and the ones that arise as a result of her depression , and is said so brush her off and “laugh at her” when she speaks through, “this is to be expected in marriage” He doesn’t take her concerns seriously, and makes all the decisions about both of their lives.

As such, she has no say in anything in her life, including her own health, and finds herself unable to even protest.

Perkins Gilman, like many others, clearly disagreed with this state of things, and aimed to show the detrimental effects that came to women as a result of their lack of autonomy.

Identity and Self-Expression

Throughout the story, the narrator is discouraged from doing the things she wants to do and the things that come naturally to her, like writing. On more than one occasion, she hurries to put her journal away because John is approaching .

She also forces herself to act as though she’s happy and satisfied, to give the illusion that she is recovering, which is worse. She wants to be a good wife, according to the way the role is laid out for her, but struggles to conform especially with so little to actually do.

The narrator is forced into silence and submission through the rest cure, and desperately needs an intellectual and emotional outlet . However, she is not granted one and it is clear that this arrangement takes a toll.

The Rest Cure

The rest cure was commonly prescribed during this period of history for women who were “nervous.” Perkins Gilman has strong opinions about the merits of the rest cure , having been prescribed it herself. John’s insistence on the narrator getting “air” constantly, and his insistence that she do nothing that requires mental or physical stimulation is clearly detrimental.

The narrator is also discouraged from doing activities, whether they are domestic- like cleaning or caring for her baby- in addition to things like reading, writing, and exploring the grounds of the house. She is stifled and confined both physically and mentally, which only adds to her condition .

Perkins Gilman damns the rest cure in this story, by showing the detrimental effects on women, and posing that women need mental and physical stimulation to be healthy, and need to be free to make their own decisions over health and their lives.

The Yellow Wallpaper Analysis: Symbols and Symbolism

Symbols are a way for the author to give the story meaning, and provide clues as to the themes and characters. There are two major symbols in "The Yellow Wallpaper."

The Yellow Wallpaper

This is of course the most important symbol in the story. The narrator is immediately fascinated and disgusted by the yellow wallpaper, and her understanding and interpretation fluctuates and intensifies throughout the story.

The narrator, because she doesn’t have anything else to think about or other mental stimulation, turns to the yellow wallpaper as something to analyze and interpret. The pattern eventually comes into focus as bars, and then she sees a woman inside the pattern . This represents feeling trapped.

At the end of the story, the narrator believes that the woman has come out of the wallpaper. This indicates that the narrator has finally merged fully into her psychosis , and become one with the house and domesticated discontent.

Though Jennie doesn’t have a major role in the story, she does present a foil to the narrator. Jennie is John’s sister and their housekeeper, and she is content, or so the narrator believes, to live a domestic life. Though she does often express her appreciation for Jennie’s presence in her home, she is clearly made to feel guilty by Jennie’s ability to run the household unencumbered .

Irony in The Yellow Wallpaper

"The Yellow Wallpaper" makes good use of dramatic and situational irony. Dramatic literary device in which the reader knows or understands things that the characters do not. Situational irony is when the character’s actions are meant to do one thing, but actually do another. Here are a few examples.

For example, when the narrator first enters the room with the yellow wallpaper, she believes it to be a nursery . However, the reader can clearly see that the room could have just as easily been used to contain a mentally unstable person.

The best example of situational irony is the way that John continues to prescribe the rest-cure, which worsens the narrator's state significantly. He encourages her to lie down after meals and sleep more, which causes her to be awake and alert at night, when she has time to sit and evaluate the wallpaper.

The Yellow Wallpaper Summary

"The Yellow Wallpaper" is one of the defining works of feminist literature. Writing about a woman’s health, mental or physical, was considered a radical act at the time that Perkins Gilman wrote this short story. Writing at all about the lives of women was considered at best, frivolous, and at worst dangerous. When you take a look at The Yellow Wallpaper analysis, the story is an important look into the role of women in marriage and society, and it will likely be a mainstay in the feminist literary canon.

What's Next?

Looking for more expert guides on literary classics? Read our guides on The Cask of Amontillado and The Great Gatsby .

Need important and interesting quotes? Check out these 18 To Kill a Mockingbird Quotes and 9 Great Mark Twain Quotes .

For help analyzing literature and writing essays , read our expert guide on imagery , literary elements , and writing an argumentative essay .

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Carrie holds a Bachelors in Writing, Literature, and Publishing from Emerson College, and is currently pursuing an MFA. She worked in book publishing for several years, and believes that books can open up new worlds. She loves reading, the outdoors, and learning about new things.

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“The Yellow Wallpaper” and Women’s Pain

Charlotte Gilman wrote her famous short story in response to her own experience having her pain belittled and misunderstood by a male physician.

The woman is ill, but nobody believes her. She sits in a room with yellow wallpaper, unable to convince the men around her that her suffering is real. “You see he does not believe I am sick!” she writes of her doctor husband.

That cry, uttered by the unnamed protagonist of Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s 1892 short story “The Yellow Wallpaper,” could just as well be that of Abby Norman, author of Ask Me About My Uterus , or Porochista Khakpour, author of Sick . Both memoirs, published this year, focus on women whose physical symptoms are downplayed and disbelieved. And both carry uncomfortable echoes of Gilman’s creepy story.

The tale, which follows its protagonist’s slow descent into madness as she gradually discerns a woman trapped inside the yellow wallpaper of her sickroom, has long been heralded as a feminist masterpiece, a cry against the silencing patriarchy. But literary scholar Jane F. Thrailkill warns against looking too hard for those meanings in the text . Instead, she focuses on Gilman’s own insistence that medical gender distinctions hurt female patients.

“The Yellow Wallpaper” comes from Gilman’s own struggle with a “nervous disorder,” a depression for which she was treated by a physician named S. Weir Mitchell. It was a new diagnosis at the time, and when physicians treated women with complaints for which they could find no obvious source, they turned to new diagnostic techniques and treatments.

Mitchell was entirely interested in the body, not what women had to say about their own symptoms. His signature “rest cure” relied on severe restriction of the body. Patients were kept completely isolated, fed rich, creamy foods and forbidden to do any kind of activity, from reading a book to going on a walk. “Complete submission to the authority of the physician” and enforced rest were seen as part of the cure.

But Mitchell was no women’s specialist. In fact, writes Thrailkill, he honed his medical skills during the Civil War, treating soldiers who became “hysterical” or developed symptoms like phantom limbs after amputations, surgeries, and traumatic battles. As a result, Gilman was treated with what Thrailkill calls “a model of disease articulated through experience with male bodies.” Mitchell likened the strain of the nineteenth-century home to that of war and his female patients to vampires who sucked the life out of everyone around them.

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Gilman bucked hard against her treatment and Mitchell’s misogynistic reign. Nonetheless, notes Thrailkill, she shared some of his views. Like Mitchell, Gilman believed that psychological conditions were physical ones. But she used that belief to push for equality both in medical treatment and in life. Women’s brains are no different than men’s, she argued, and women should be able to sidestep a stifling home life in favor of a professional career.

Today, it’s more common for women to document their pain through memoir as opposed to fiction. Books like Sick and Ask Me About My Uterus  insist on gender parity in medicine, while also situating women’s pain within a patriarchy that stifles and silences. Thrailkill encourages readers to try reading “ The Yellow Wallpaper” literally. Gilman, she writes, wanted the story to shock readers—specifically, her own doctor—into changing their treatment of women.

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Home — Essay Samples — Literature — The Yellow Wallpaper — Literary Analysis: The Yellow Wallpaper

Literary Analysis: The Yellow Wallpaper

• Categories: The Yellow Wallpaper

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Words: 542 |

Published: Jan 30, 2024

Words: 542 | Page: 1 | 3 min read

Table of contents

Plot summary, analysis of the narrator's descent into madness, exploration of the symbolism of the wallpaper, examination of the theme of gender inequality, discussion of the use of setting to enhance the story.

• Gilman, C. P. (1892). The Yellow Wallpaper.
• Korb, R. (2018). The Yellow Wallpaper Study Guide. Retrieved from https://www.coursehero.com/lit/The-Yellow-Wallpaper/
• Wilson, S. (2019). The Yellow Wallpaper Analysis. Retrieved from https://www.gradesaver.com/the-yellow-wallpaper/study-guide/summary

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“The Yellow Wallpaper” by Charlotte Perkins Gilman: A Critical Analysis

“The Yellow Wallpaper” by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, first published in 1892 in the New England Magazine, was later included in a collection of Gilman’s works called In This Our World in 1893.

Introduction: “The Yellow Wallpaper” by Charlotte Perkins Gilman

Table of Contents

“The Yellow Wallpaper” by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, first published in 1892 in the New England Magazine , was later included in a collection of Gilman’s works called In This Our World in 1893. The story features a narrator who is struggling with what her husband believes is a nervous disorder, and he has taken her to a rented summer home where she is forbidden from working or stimulating herself in any way. The narrator becomes increasingly obsessed with the yellow wallpaper in her room, which she despises, and begins to see a woman trapped inside its pattern. The story is a powerful critique of the patriarchal medical profession and the oppression of women during the late 19th century. Its features include a first-person narrative, symbolism, and a sense of claustrophobia and desperation that builds towards a tragic conclusion.

Main Events in “The Yellow Wallpaper” by Charlotte Perkins Gilman

• Introduction to the Setting and Characters
• The narrator, along with her husband John, secure a colonial mansion for the summer.
• John, a physician, dismisses the narrator’s illness as mere nervous depression.
• Description of the Mansion
• The mansion is isolated, with a beautiful but eerie garden, and has been empty for years.
• The narrator senses something strange about the house.
• Initial Observations and Discomfort
• The narrator expresses dislike for their room, especially the ghastly yellow wallpaper.
• She feels trapped by John’s control over her schedule and activities.
• Analysis of the Wallpaper
• The wallpaper is described as revolting, with a pattern that changes in the light.
• The narrator starts to see a woman trapped behind the pattern and becomes fixated on it.
• Deterioration of the Narrator’s Mental State
• The narrator’s mental state deteriorates as she becomes obsessed with the wallpaper.
• She feels increasingly isolated and begins to distrust John and the housekeeper, Jennie.
• Attempts to Confront John
• The narrator tries to communicate her distress to John, but he dismisses her concerns.
• She becomes fearful of John and suspects he may be affected by the wallpaper as well.
• Discovery and Liberation
• The narrator discovers a woman creeping behind the wallpaper and believes she must free her.
• She peels off the wallpaper in a fit of liberation and decides to confront John.
• Climax and Resolution
• The narrator locks herself in the room, determined to confront John when he returns.
• She feels triumphant in her act of defiance and eagerly awaits John’s reaction.

Literary Devices in “The Yellow Wallpaper” by Charlotte Perkins Gilman

Characterization in “The Yellow Wallpaper” by Charlotte Perkins Gilman

Major characters.

• The Narrator: An unnamed woman with a rich inner life and intellectual curiosity. She suffers from what her physician husband John diagnoses as “temporary nervous depression” or “a slight hysterical tendency.” John dismisses her concerns about her mental health and the unsettling effect of the yellow wallpaper, which she feels is contributing to her condition. Confined to the upstairs nursery for a supposed “rest cure,” the narrator becomes increasingly frustrated and isolated. With limited outlets for her thoughts and feelings, the yellow wallpaper becomes an all-consuming obsession.
• John: The narrator’s husband and a physician. John dismisses his wife’s concerns about her health and the unsettling effect of the wallpaper. He believes he is taking the best course of action by enforcing “rest” and disregarding her anxieties. John’s controlling and dismissive behavior contributes to the narrator’s mental decline.

Minor Characters

• John’s Brother: Another physician who readily agrees with John’s diagnosis of the narrator’s condition, demonstrating the limitations of the medical field at the time.
• Mary: The baby’s caretaker. The narrator seems to find comfort and trust in Mary’s kindness and competence.
• Baby: The narrator and John’s child. The narrator expresses relief that the baby does not have to occupy the room with the yellow wallpaper.
• Mother & Nellie: John’s mother and sister who visit the narrator for a week. Their presence likely restricts the narrator’s freedom and reinforces John’s control.
• Jennie: The maid who helps take care of the narrator. The narrator becomes suspicious of Jennie’s behavior in relation to the wallpaper, hinting at the narrator’s growing paranoia.
• Cousin Henry & Julia: The narrator’s relatives whom she expresses a desire to visit. John discourages this visit, further isolating the narrator and suggesting his desire to maintain complete control over her.

Major Themes in “The Yellow Wallpaper” by Charlotte Perkins Gilman

• The Suffocating Effects of Patriarchy : The story critiques the limitations placed on women in 19th-century society. The narrator’s unnamed state reflects her lack of agency. John, her husband and physician, dismisses her concerns about her health and confines her to a room with the justification of a “rest cure,” a common but harmful treatment for women’s “nervous conditions” at the time. This enforced idleness fuels her descent into madness, highlighting the societal expectation for women to be passive and submissive.
• Confinement and the Loss of Self: The yellow wallpaper becomes a symbol of the narrator’s entrapment. Initially, she describes it as “gross, uneven paper” with “odor of stale dead wood” (emphasis added). As her mental state deteriorates, the wallpaper takes on a life of its own, with its “repellent” yellow color and strange pattern seeming to crawl and pulsate. The narrator’s obsession with peeling back the layers of the wallpaper reflects her desperate attempt to break free from her confined existence.
• The Power of Imagination and Perception: The story explores the blurring lines between reality and perception. John dismisses the narrator’s anxieties about the wallpaper as mere “fancy,” but the reader experiences the story through her increasingly unreliable narration. As the lines between reality and delusion blur, the wallpaper transforms into a monstrous entity that the narrator feels compelled to liberate. This raises questions about the validity of female experience and the power of a stifled imagination to manifest as madness.
• The Thin Line Between Sanity and Madness: The story explores the descent into madness through the narrator’s journal entries. Initially, she expresses frustration with her situation and a longing for intellectual stimulation. Over time, her entries become fragmented and cryptic, reflecting her deteriorating mental state. The ending, where the narrator believes she has freed a woman trapped behind the wallpaper, leaves the reader questioning whether she has achieved liberation or succumbed entirely to madness.

Writing Style in “The Yellow Wallpaper” by Charlotte Perkins Gilman

• Introspective Narrative Voice:
• Example: “I am sitting here at the window now, up in this atrocious nursery, and there is nothing to hinder my writing as much as I please, save lack of strength.”
• Fragmented Prose Reflecting Mental State:
• Example: “The front pattern does move, and no wonder! The woman behind shakes it!”
• Vivid and Descriptive Language:
• Example: “The color is repellent, almost revolting; a smouldering unclean yellow, strangely faded by the slow-turning sunlight.”
• Symbolism and Allegory:
• Example: The wallpaper itself symbolizes the oppressive societal constraints placed upon women during the 19th century, while the protagonist’s obsession with it serves as an allegory for her own mental imprisonment.
• Exploration of Gender Roles:
• Example: The protagonist’s confinement to the nursery and her husband’s dismissal of her desires to write reflect the restrictive gender roles of the time, highlighting the lack of autonomy afforded to women.
• Representation of Mental Illness:
• Example: The protagonist’s gradual descent into psychosis, as evidenced by her fixation on the wallpaper and eventual hallucinations, provides a poignant portrayal of mental illness and its impact on individuals.
• Engagement with Themes of Autonomy:
• Example: The protagonist’s struggle to assert her own agency and autonomy in the face of her husband’s control and societal expectations underscores the theme of personal liberation.

Literary Theories and Interpretation of “The Yellow Wallpaper” by Charlotte Perkins Gilman

Topics, Questions, and Thesis Statements about “The Yellow Wallpaper” by Charlotte Perkins Gilman

Short Questions/Answers about/on “The Yellow Wallpaper” by Charlotte Perkins Gilman

• Who is the real prisoner in the story, and why?
• While the narrator is physically confined to the upstairs room, the story argues that John, her husband, is the one truly imprisoned. John clings to outdated medical practices and societal expectations, limiting his own intellectual and emotional growth. The narrator, on the other hand, embraces a more fluid and imaginative reality at the story’s end, even if it appears to be madness.
• (Reference: John enforces the “rest cure” despite the narrator’s objections. The narrator, by the end, seems to find a strange liberation in her delusion.)
• Does the yellow wallpaper actually have a hidden pattern, or is it a figment of the narrator’s imagination?
• The story cleverly leaves this ambiguous. The narrator initially describes the wallpaper as having a “tortuous effect on the eye” but later becomes fixated on a hidden pattern that seems to creep and crawl. John dismisses it as her imagination. The lack of a definitive answer allows the reader to explore themes of perception, sanity, and the limitations of relying solely on a patriarchal viewpoint.
• (Reference: The narrator describes the wallpaper as “un-patterned” but later becomes convinced of a hidden pattern.)
• Is the ending a victory or a descent into madness?
• The narrator’s triumphant declaration of finally freeing a woman trapped behind the wallpaper can be interpreted in two ways. On one hand, it suggests a complete break from reality. However, it can also be seen as a symbolic victory. The narrator, by embracing her unconventional perspective, finds a way to challenge the oppressive forces represented by the yellow wallpaper and John’s controlling behavior.
• (Reference: The ending has the narrator creeping around the room, believing she has freed a woman trapped behind the wallpaper.)

Literary Works Similar to “The Yellow Wallpaper” by Charlotte Perkins Gilman

• “ The Tell-Tale Heart ” by Edgar Allan Poe – Like “The Yellow Wallpaper,” this short story delves into the psyche of its unreliable narrator, exploring themes of madness and obsession.
• “ The Lottery ” by Shirley Jackson – While not directly addressing mental health, “The Lottery” similarly examines the oppressive nature of societal norms and the consequences of blindly adhering to tradition.
• “ The Metamorphosis ” by Franz Kafka – This novella, like “The Yellow Wallpaper,” explores themes of alienation and the individual’s struggle against oppressive forces, albeit through a different lens of existentialism.
• “ A Rose for Emily ” by William Faulkner – Faulkner’s story, much like Gilman’s, delves into the psychological complexities of its protagonist, exploring themes of isolation, decay, and the impact of societal expectations.
• “ The Birthmark ” by Nathaniel Hawthorne – This short story, while focusing more on science and the pursuit of perfection, shares themes of obsession and the consequences of trying to control nature, similar to the themes found in “The Yellow Wallpaper.”

Suggested Readings about/on “The Yellow Wallpaper” by Charlotte Perkins Gilman

• Gilman, Charlotte Perkins. The Yellow Wallpaper and Other Writings. Edited by Catherine Golden, Broadview Press, 2007.
• Showalter, Elaine. The Yellow Wallpaper : Women, Madness, and the Gothic. Cornell University Press, 1981.
• Herndl, Diane Price. “The Writing Cure: Charlotte Perkins Gilman, Anna O., and ‘Hysterical’ Writing.” NWSA Journal , vol. 1, no. 1, 1988, pp. 52–74. JSTOR , http://www.jstor.org/stable/4315866. Accessed 1 May 2024.
• Gilman, Charlotte Perkins. The Yellow Wallpaper . The Victorian Web . [electronic text] https://crea.ujaen.es/bitstream/10953.1/10476/1/Garca_Jaenes_Mara_Jos_TFG_Estudios_Ingleses.pdf

Representative Quotations from “The Yellow Wallpaper” by Charlotte Perkins Gilman

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Charlotte Gilman’s The Yellow Wallpaper: Themes & Symbols Essay

• To find inspiration for your paper and overcome writer’s block
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Introduction

The yellow wallpaper: themes, the yellow wallpaper: symbolism.

“The Yellow Wallpaper” by Charlotte Perkins Gilman is an intriguing story of a sick woman, Charlotte Perkins, confined in a room for treatment by her husband, a physician.

Charlotte is suffering from neurasthenia. Cared by his overprotective physician husband, but instead treats the care and concern as unfair for confinement and a twenty-four hours bed rest prescription. Charlotte’s sickness makes her realize that nobody can listen to her ideas; she resorts to writing secretly in her daily journals as a way of expressing her compliments to somebody.

On a few occasions is she allowed visiting other people. Those she visits are her husband’s suggestion, who are generally usual close family relatives, those she suggests her husband turns them down. There is an apparent misunderstanding of care, love, and concern between the patient and the physician.

The fact that the patient is the physician’s wife ought to portray a picture of mutual agreements and understandings rather than subjecting one’s decision to the other with a reason for care and protection. A small inclination to the husband’s decisions is better, but a usual put off to charlotte’s ideas causes misunderstanding. However, she pursues the wallpaper, finding to get a clear clue of what is affecting them all, especially her husband, the sister in law.

With the nervous breakdown, all the ideas and suggestions that charlotte comes up with, with a view of a positive response, are against his husband’s final decision “…. there is something strange about the house — I can feel it. I even said so to John one… but he said what I felt was a draught, and …” (Gilman, 2001, p.2). The husband is thinking out of prejudice, which is the real cause of misunderstandings in the context.

Although the misunderstandings brought about by the idea that she might be suffering from brain disorders, it does not mean that she is wrong all the time. She comments that even the reader succumbs to when she says, “I disagree with their ideas. I believe that congenial work, with excitement and change, would do me good” (Gilman, 2001, p.1). With such a sickness, one can show care by undertaking suitable work with the patient, but the husbands see it as very wrong.

The physician portrayed with a domineering character has shown negligence in her wife’s psychological support. That is from the misinformation of how sick Charlotte is. She believes that she is not very ill. Yet, her husband knows she is in a critical condition that does not allow her to think or give compliments “… but John says the very worst thing I can do is to think about my condition, and I confess it always makes me feel bad” (Gilman, 2001, p.1).

The misunderstanding is portrayed again when Charlotte is awake all night long. Her husband does not talk to her most of the time. He thinks she will be stressed and worsen her situation. On the other hand, Charlotte has always longed for days when they will have some excellent talks and discussions with her husband. When she tries to bring up a topic to shift houses, she is put off with an excuse that it was not the time for such a discussion. She goes back to bed but does not sleep. Rather she stares at the moonlight (Gilman, 2001, p.8).

Gilman has given well-elaborated insights on the meaning of the Yellow Wall-Paper. “She has done this in a slow yet steady pace to release the metaphors that are a clue to the Yellow Wallpaper as a symbol of her husband’s authority and dominance” (Gwynn & Zani, 2007, p.71). It just begins with the main character’s fascination with the ugliness of the Yellow Wall-Paper. The use of imagery has been well-tuned to bring out the aspect that is feminism.

While one might argue that too much use of this has made the story complex and hard to understand, it has helped bring home the intended agenda. “One of the images found in the paper tends to change with different lighting” (Gwynn & Zani, 2007, p.71). It aims to depict her husband as inconsistent in handling matters, especially those that directly affect her.

The plot and characters in the story confirm that the misunderstanding is caused by the misinformation of the patient’s real status. This is also affected by the fear of his attention to involve her in anything other than the treatment. No wonder Charlotte goes after her pursuit secretly, to get the creeping woman. If she attempted to reveal to anyone, then she could not realize it. She even keeps her daily journal secretly for the same reason.

The use of the first-person narration has worked well in bringing home the main theme. It evokes the reader’s emotions to empathize the following thesis: the husband’s love misunderstood for confinement in the room and care mistaken for deterrence from involvement in other activities and thoughts that may worsen the condition.

Gilman, C. (2001). The Yellow Wall-paper. Ragged Edge Online. Retrieved from http://www.raggededgemagazine.com/0701/0701lostclass1.htm

Gwynn, R.S., & Zani, S.J. (2007). Inside literature: Reading, responding, arguing. New York: Pearson Longman.

• Summary & Analysis
• Themes & Symbols
• Quotes Explained
• Questions & Answers
• Charlotte Perkins Gilman: Biography
• Tobias Wolff’s Old School
• Short Story's Elements and Character Development
• “The Yellow Wallpaper” by Charlotte Perkins Gilman Literature Analysis
• Male Chauvinism in "The Yellow Wallpaper" by Charlotte Perkins Gilman
• Conflict in ‘The Yellow Wallpaper’ by C. Perkins Gilman
• Pleasures of Eating by Wendell Berry
• "Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close" by Jonathan Safran Foer
• Nickel and Dimed
• "The New Gay Teenager" by Ritch Savin Williams
• Hawthorne's "Young Goodman Brown": Cynicism or Meliorism?
• Chicago (A-D)
• Chicago (N-B)

IvyPanda. (2019, February 20). Charlotte Gilman's The Yellow Wallpaper: Themes & Symbols. https://ivypanda.com/essays/the-yellow-wallpaper-by-charlotte-gilman/

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IvyPanda . 2019. "Charlotte Gilman's The Yellow Wallpaper: Themes & Symbols." February 20, 2019. https://ivypanda.com/essays/the-yellow-wallpaper-by-charlotte-gilman/.

1. IvyPanda . "Charlotte Gilman's The Yellow Wallpaper: Themes & Symbols." February 20, 2019. https://ivypanda.com/essays/the-yellow-wallpaper-by-charlotte-gilman/.

Bibliography

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The Symbolism of ‘The Yellow Wallpaper’ Explained

By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University)

‘The Yellow Wallpaper’ is an 1892 short story by the American writer Charlotte Perkins Gilman. A powerful study of mental illness and the inhuman treatments administered in its name, the story succeeds largely because of its potent symbolism. Let’s take a look at some of the key symbols in the tale.

We have summarised the plot of the story and analysed it in detail in a separate post .

But let’s briefly summarise the plot of the story here, as a reminder: the narrator and her husband John, a doctor, have come to stay at a large country house. As the story develops, we realise that the woman’s husband has brought her to the house in order to try to cure her of her mental illness. His proposed (well, enforced ) treatment is to lock his wife away from everyone except him, and to withhold everything from her that might excite her.

It becomes clear, as the story develops, that depriving the female narrator of anything to occupy her mind is making her mental illness worse, not better. The narrator outlines to us how she sometimes sits for hours in her room, tracing the patterns in the yellow wallpaper on the walls of her room.

She then tells us she thinks she can see a woman ‘stooping down and creeping about behind that pattern.’ She becomes obsessed with the wallpaper as her mental state deteriorates, before eventually locking herself within the room and crawling around on the floor.

The Mansion.

‘ The Yellow Wallpaper ’ begins with the idea that we are about to read a haunted house story, a Gothic tale, a piece of horror. Such stories were a staple of late nineteenth-century magazines and enjoyed huge popularity.

And why else, wonders the story’s female narrator, would the house be available so cheaply unless it was haunted? And why had it remained unoccupied for so long? This is how many haunted house tales begin, so we are deliberately placed on this track, but it will turn out to be the wrong track.

But as we read on, we realise that the ‘haunting’ is not supernatural but psychological: the narrator of Gilman’s story contains her own demons within her mind, and her husband’s ‘treatment’ actually accentuates and intensifies these.

‘The Yellow Wallpaper’ has the structure and style of a diary. This is in keeping with what the female narrator tells us: that she can only write down her experiences when her husband John is not around, because he forbids her to write because he thinks it will overexcite her. The whole story thus has the air of a secret text, with the narrator confiding in us – indeed, the reader is her only confidant.

But it also has the effect of shifting the narrative tense: from the usual past tense to the more unusual present tense. This has benefits in that it creates the sense of a continuous narrative, and events unfolding as we read them.

The Husband.

The narrator’s husband, John, is a doctor, but he is a world away from the ‘mad doctor’ trope found in Gothic texts, especially those influenced by Mary Shelley’s 1818 novel Frankenstein and Robert Louis Stevenson’s 1886 novella Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde .

John’s greatest flaw is not his inherent evil but his dogged devotion to the prevailing scientific opinion of the day. His danger to his wife is not in being some eccentric or power-hungry outlier, but in holding too fast to the medical orthodoxy of the time. He believes that incarcerating his wife alone away from her family – even her own children – will make her better.

Gilman uses suggestive symbolism to dramatise the complex relationship between husband and wife in the story. Take that final dramatic scene where John is about to break down the door to his wife’s chamber with an axe. So far, so ‘mad axeman found in countless horror stories and fairy tales’, with shades of Bluebeard , that wife-killer from European folk history.

But this narrative is complicated by the fact that John has come to save his wife from herself, while she – having locked herself away in the room in order to protect her husband and family from the strange women she believes are behind the yellow wallpaper in the room – believes she is protecting him.

Of course, her madness has been made worse by John’s treatment of her in the first place, but he believes he is acting in her own interests. The symbolism of the axe here, and the husband being prepared to break down the door to his wife’s bedroom, is layered and complex.

The Nursery.

It is significant that the room in which the narrator is incarcerated is the old nursery in the large house. The narrator tells us that there are bars on the windows to protect little children from hurting themselves, although ‘bars’ here also symbolise the narrator’s de facto imprisonment in the room.

The fact that the room was once a nursery and then, the narrator deduces, a ‘gymnasium’ is loaded with significance. The room thus symbolises the narrator’s own childlike state as she is treated like a naughty child by her husband and locked away in her room. The reference to a gymnasium is ironic, since a gymnasium is a room for exercise, but the room actually worsens the narrator’s health.

The Yellow Wallpaper.

The most powerful symbol in the story is the yellow wallpaper itself. But it is also, perhaps, the most ambiguous symbol in the story, because it can invite at least two very different interpretations.

The first interpretation views the yellow wallpaper as an outward and visible symbol of the narrator’s own internal state of mind. Her disordered mental state leads her to see all manner of figures in the paper’s patterns. Human beings have evolved to look for patterns as a survival mechanism, but here the narrator’s pattern-hunting is her undoing.

At one point, she mentions a ‘particularly irritating’ pattern which ‘you can only see it in certain lights, and not clearly then’. This closely ties the paper’s patterns with the narrator’s shifting moods and highlights the subjective nature of what she sees (or thinks she sees) in the wallpaper.

However, given the kinds of shapes the narrator describes seeing in the wallpaper, a second interpretation is possible. This one is more firmly focused on the story’s feminist message, and sees the shapes in the wallpaper as symbols of female oppression at the time the story was written. For example, the narrator describes detecting a figure ‘like a woman stooping down and creeping about behind that pattern.’

Indeed, the word ‘creeping’ (and its accompanying adjective, ‘creepy’, which seems doubly apt here) recurs numerous times throughout this short story. It implies that the narrator sees a version of herself – and all oppressed women – within the wallpaper, having to tread carefully around others, unable to be fully themselves. The verb ‘stooping’ also suggests bearing the weight of some kind of burden.

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Literary Analysis of “The Yellow Wallpaper”, Essay Example

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Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s, “The Yellow Wallpaper” is a seemingly personal account of female oppression during the 19 th century. At that time in history women were commonly seen as possessions or property, rather than an equal partner to their spouse. The story details the narrator’s journey as she explains many details about the people and places that surround her, which are very symbolic for a number of themes. Not only are relationships and society restrictive, but she also finds that her house and bedroom are particularly repressive to her physical being as well as her emotional growth. This paper will explore the various symbolic meanings found in Gilman’s story and also relate that to the oppressive nature of women during that time in history. The narrator identifies her feelings of oppression and imprisonment in her marriage just as the “woman behind the wallpaper” does; both women are looking for a way out, but unable to escape the physical restraints placed on them.

A Summer Retreat For Nervous Depression

The story begins with the account of both the house and grounds that the narrator and her husband will be staying at for a summer retreat. She is very expressive with her descriptions, but she spends much of her time explaining how she believes that there is something off or “queer” about the house and grounds. Once inside the house she begins to imagine and even describes the patterns in the wallpaper and walls of the home. The negative energy that she uses to explain could be from her being diagnosed with “nervous depression” by her husband, who is also a doctor. She states that she is prescribed “phosphates and tonics….and absolutely forbidden to work until I am well again (Gilman 1). In order to better understand the narrator and her feelings, one must understand the viewpoint and beliefs about women during this time. At this point in history, women that suffered from mood swings or other emotions were often to be said to be crazy or have depression that should be treated with rest and restricted activity. This is exactly what the narrator is supposed to do, rest, stay in her bedroom and is explicitly forbidden to write or express her thoughts. Her creative expression kept in her journal is considered badly John and she is forced to hide her journal from him as well as and others that enter the home.

One of the most symbolic meanings of the story is the restriction of the narrator’s ability to write in her journal or express her thoughts. This suggests that her thoughts and feelings are not important to her husband, John or anyone for that matter. She relates to the reader that John suggests that her writing is simply neurotic worry and that it is not good for her treatment. Her treatment of course is rest and staying out of the way of her husband for the most part, which causes her to see herself as a burden (Gilman 3). At this time in history mental illness was poorly understood and those afflicted were often locked away or isolated from others. It was believed, just like the narrator states that the afflicted individual must take control of their emotions and make the necessary changes. Women were often treated like children in the respect that they needed to be guided and were unable to make decisions for themselves. To further this train of thought, John commonly referred to his wife in the story as a “blessed little goose” and even a little girl (Gilman 7). While it seems that John is giving his wife pet names, these are more symbolic of a person that is unable to care for themselves or is childlike, which was consistent with the beliefs of the time.

Not only was he attempting to control his wife through their marriage, but he was also a doctor that could prescribe “treatment” for her, which further restricted her.

Bars on the Windows

The narrator was locked away on the second floor and her husband and sister in law, Jennie and a nanny were her caregivers. Her food is brought to her and the nanny tends to her child, while Jennie is said to be the perfect housekeeper. There is no reason for her to leave her room, as she is to rest and not engage in any work. The room that she is placed in is described as being lit by the sun and spacious, but she details that it may have been where children stayed.  The manner by which she describes leads the reader to believe that it is a nursery, as the windows are barred and there are rings and things in the wall (Gilman 2). She explains that there are bars on the windows, which likely were placed there because of the children that the room was used for. The symbolic bars on the window noted by the narrator represent the feeling of being held against her will with no escape. On one side she was faced with a repressive husband that refuses to hear her concerns and the only other way out was secured with bars. She sees her marriage and surroundings as a prison, bars on the windows and being confined to a room where her actions are dictated by others. She is not free to move about or engage in any activity under the pretext that it would worsen her condition. Ironically, depression is said to improve with a persons increased activity level, which is another form of symbolic oppression in the story and in society in general during that time period.

Women’s Oppression

At one point in the story she states that she likes to fantasize about people walking on the walkway or grounds of the estate, however is discouraged by her husband. This represents the disregard for her imagination or creative thought process. This can also be seen in his disregard for her writing as she states, “he hates to have me write a word” (Gilman 2).  A woman’s ability or right to work is an expression of herself and this story represents the way that it was stunted. Instead the only job that a woman was capable of was taking care of her family, and in this story that had even been taken from the narrator. It was the woman’s job to engage in domestic care of both the children and spouse, not work outside the home or have income of her own. Society placed many restrictive beliefs on females, giving them little freedom or rights as a citizen. During this time in history, women that divorced their husbands or did not obey them were considered second class citizens. In some cases they were not allowed to engage in society as they had broken the sacred code of marriage. In a sense the narrators physical being is trapped in her room, however her emotional being is trapped through the inability to write, work, care for her children or even explain her medical condition.

The Patterned Wallpaper

The narrator describes the wallpaper as yellow with a revolting and hideous pattern (Gilman 2). She sees bulbous images and what she describes as broken necks in the papers design. She asks her husband to change rooms; however he says that it is the best room for her recovery. Drawing from the fact that it was a child’s nursery one could make the comparison again that she is being treated like a child. Some of the wallpaper according to the narrator is already been picked or torn. Through the story, she begins to see figures behind the wallpaper that she believes is a woman who is trapped. This shadow or trapped woman is described as, “dim shapes that get clearer every day” (Gilman 10).

In the beginning, the narrator, was only able to see odd patterns, however not the females that she believes to be trapped. She says that the woman stays behind the bars as they bind her. The woman is silent or still during the day, however when night comes the woman rattles the bars that entrap her inside the wall or behind the wallpaper itself. Her beliefs about this woman can be seen as her own mental illness or struggle with being oppressed by her husband and society as well. She claims that this woman creeps and greatly desires to be set free from the constraints of the wallpaper.

Just as the narrator is hiding her journal and inner thoughts from her husband, the woman behind the wallpaper hides in the sunlight, but moves under the moonlight. This signifies the hiding of the female presence, but only expressing herself when no one is looking. Throughout the story, the narrator becomes more obsessed with the wallpaper, the figures and movement of the pattern. This is her only source of entertainment and she begins to identify with the woman that is trapped. As the story moves along and she becomes even more depressed, she begins to make plans to free the woman. Her goal is to do so within two days, which is their scheduled departure date from the house. She begins picking and tearing at the wallpaper to not only free the woman she sees, but also as a source of taking her own control (Gilman 11). She is defying her husband, as he certainly would not approve of her actions or thoughts. As she tears the wallpaper she hears shrieks, but is intent on allowing the woman to go free. During the time that she is peeling the paper, she contemplates jumping out the window, but is unable to because there are bars on the windows. She also notes that she is afraid of all the other women creeping outside. Some may feel that the narrator has been driven mad by the wallpaper at this point, however it seems that the meaning is that of her final decision not to care what her husband thinks. She is following what she feels and standing up for her own freedom by releasing the woman behind the wallpaper. When her husband learns of her actions, he breaks his way into the room and then faints at the sight of what she has done. He, of course believes that she has gone completely mad and faints. The story ends with the narrator creeping around the perimeter of the room, even stepping over his body in the process (Gilman 12). Again her stepping over his body is symbolic that she is no longer under his control, even though she has likely suffered a nervous breakdown and has lost her mind.

In conclusion, Gilman’s story is that of a personal account from a female’s perspective. The narrator comes to identify with the women in the wallpaper that she imagines. Of course these delusions are due to her illness, which is most likely related to depression and post-partum, as there is a baby referenced in the story. Medical conditions were not understood and the general consensus of the time was to use natural remedies coupled with rest. Those that suffered from depression or other mental disorders would likely be separated from the general community as they simply didn’t know what else to do with them. Along with the narrator suffering from depression, she was also a victim of historical oppression. During this time, women were seen as less than equal and not allowed to express opinions or take an active role in decision making. Their place was in a domestic role and nothing more. While some might say that the wallpaper drove the narrator crazy, others might see it as an escape from an oppressive reality in the only manner that she could control; her own thoughts and bizarre actions!

Works Cited

Gilman, Charlotte. “The Yellow Wallpaper, by Charlotte Perkins Gilman; The Yellow Wallpaper Page 1.” Page By Page Books. Read Classic Books Online, Free. . N.p., n.d. Web. 27 Sept. 2011. <http://www.pagebypagebooks

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The Yellow Wallpaper

Charlotte perkins gilman.

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Mental Illness and its Treatment

Reading the series of diary entries that make up the story, the reader is in a privileged position to witness the narrator’s evolving and accelerating descent into madness, foreshadowed by her mounting paranoia and obsession with the mysterious figure behind the pattern of the yellow wallpaper.

As the portrayal of a woman’s gradual mental breakdown, The Yellow Wallpaper offers the reader a window into the perception and treatment of mental illness in the late nineteenth…

Gender Roles and Domestic Life

Alongside its exploration of mental illness, The Yellow Wallpaper offers a critique of traditional gender roles as they were defined during the late nineteenth century, the time in which the story is set and was written. Charlotte Perkins Gilman was a prominent feminist, who rejected the trappings of traditional domestic life and published extensively about the role of women in society, and saw the gender roles of the time as horribly stifling.

The story’s family…

Outward Appearance vs. Inner Life

Another major theme in the story lies in the contradiction between outward appearance and inner life.

The story’s form, in a series of diary entries, gives the reader a glimpse into its writer’s inner life. This, in turn, allows us to watch as the narrator’s husband misinterprets her condition, and as she begins to consciously deceive both him and Jennie . Our privileged view into the narrator’s mind leads to an appreciation of the sarcasm …

Self-Expression, Miscommunication, and Misunderstanding

Alongside questions of gender and mental illness in “The Yellow Wallpaper” is the simple story of a woman who is unable fully to express herself, or to find someone who will listen.

The narrator’s sense that the act of writing, which she has been forbidden to do, is exactly what she needs to feel better suggests this stifled self-expression. Since she is unable to communicate with her husband, this diary becomes a secret outlet for…

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The Yellow Wallpaper

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It is very seldom that mere ordinary people like John and myself secure ancestral halls for the summer.

A colonial mansion, a hereditary estate, I would say a haunted house, and reach the height of romantic felicity—but that would be asking too much of fate!

Still I will proudly declare that there is something queer about it.

Else, why should it be let so cheaply? And why have stood so long untenanted?

John laughs at me, of course, but one expects that in marriage.

John is practical in the extreme. He has no patience with faith, an intense horror of superstition, and he scoffs openly at any talk of things not to be felt and seen and put down in figures.

John is a physician, and PERHAPS—(I would not say it to a living soul, of course, but this is dead paper and a great relief to my mind)—PERHAPS that is one reason I do not get well faster.

You see he does not believe I am sick!

And what can one do?

If a physician of high standing, and one's own husband, assures friends and relatives that there is really nothing the matter with one but temporary nervous depression—a slight hysterical tendency—what is one to do?

My brother is also a physician, and also of high standing, and he says the same thing.

So I take phosphates or phosphites—whichever it is, and tonics, and journeys, and air, and exercise, and am absolutely forbidden to "work" until I am well again.

Personally, I disagree with their ideas.

Personally, I believe that congenial work, with excitement and change, would do me good.

But what is one to do?

I did write for a while in spite of them; but it DOES exhaust me a good deal—having to be so sly about it, or else meet with heavy opposition.

I sometimes fancy that in my condition if I had less opposition and more society and stimulus—but John says the very worst thing I can do is to think about my condition, and I confess it always makes me feel bad.

So I will let it alone and talk about the house.

The most beautiful place! It is quite alone, standing well back from the road, quite three miles from the village. It makes me think of English places that you read about, for there are hedges and walls and gates that lock, and lots of separate little houses for the gardeners and people.

There is a DELICIOUS garden! I never saw such a garden—large and shady, full of box-bordered paths, and lined with long grape-covered arbors with seats under them.

There were greenhouses, too, but they are all broken now.

There was some legal trouble, I believe, something about the heirs and coheirs; anyhow, the place has been empty for years.

That spoils my ghostliness, I am afraid, but I don't care—there is something strange about the house—I can feel it.

I even said so to John one moonlight evening, but he said what I felt was a DRAUGHT, and shut the window.

I get unreasonably angry with John sometimes. I'm sure I never used to be so sensitive. I think it is due to this nervous condition.

But John says if I feel so, I shall neglect proper self-control; so I take pains to control myself—before him, at least, and that makes me very tired.

I don't like our room a bit. I wanted one downstairs that opened on the piazza and had roses all over the window, and such pretty old-fashioned chintz hangings! but John would not hear of it.

He said there was only one window and not room for two beds, and no near room for him if he took another.

He is very careful and loving, and hardly lets me stir without special direction.

I have a schedule prescription for each hour in the day; he takes all care from me, and so I feel basely ungrateful not to value it more.

He said we came here solely on my account, that I was to have perfect rest and all the air I could get. "Your exercise depends on your strength, my dear," said he, "and your food somewhat on your appetite; but air you can absorb all the time." So we took the nursery at the top of the house.

It is a big, airy room, the whole floor nearly, with windows that look all ways, and air and sunshine galore. It was nursery first and then playroom and gymnasium, I should judge; for the windows are barred for little children, and there are rings and things in the walls.

The paint and paper look as if a boys' school had used it. It is stripped off—the paper—in great patches all around the head of my bed, about as far as I can reach, and in a great place on the other side of the room low down. I never saw a worse paper in my life.

One of those sprawling flamboyant patterns committing every artistic sin.

It is dull enough to confuse the eye in following, pronounced enough to constantly irritate and provoke study, and when you follow the lame uncertain curves for a little distance they suddenly commit suicide—plunge off at outrageous angles, destroy themselves in unheard of contradictions.

The color is repellent, almost revolting; a smouldering unclean yellow, strangely faded by the slow-turning sunlight.

It is a dull yet lurid orange in some places, a sickly sulphur tint in others.

No wonder the children hated it! I should hate it myself if I had to live in this room long.

There comes John, and I must put this away,—he hates to have me write a word.

We have been here two weeks, and I haven't felt like writing before, since that first day.

I am sitting by the window now, up in this atrocious nursery, and there is nothing to hinder my writing as much as I please, save lack of strength.

John is away all day, and even some nights when his cases are serious.

I am glad my case is not serious!

But these nervous troubles are dreadfully depressing.

John does not know how much I really suffer. He knows there is no REASON to suffer, and that satisfies him.

Of course it is only nervousness. It does weigh on me so not to do my duty in any way!

I meant to be such a help to John, such a real rest and comfort, and here I am a comparative burden already!

Nobody would believe what an effort it is to do what little I am able,—to dress and entertain, and order things.

It is fortunate Mary is so good with the baby. Such a dear baby!

And yet I CANNOT be with him, it makes me so nervous.

I suppose John never was nervous in his life. He laughs at me so about this wall-paper!

At first he meant to repaper the room, but afterwards he said that I was letting it get the better of me, and that nothing was worse for a nervous patient than to give way to such fancies.

He said that after the wall-paper was changed it would be the heavy bedstead, and then the barred windows, and then that gate at the head of the stairs, and so on.

"You know the place is doing you good," he said, "and really, dear, I don't care to renovate the house just for a three months' rental."

"Then do let us go downstairs," I said, "there are such pretty rooms there."

Then he took me in his arms and called me a blessed little goose, and said he would go down to the cellar, if I wished, and have it whitewashed into the bargain.

But he is right enough about the beds and windows and things.

It is an airy and comfortable room as any one need wish, and, of course, I would not be so silly as to make him uncomfortable just for a whim.

I'm really getting quite fond of the big room, all but that horrid paper.

Out of one window I can see the garden, those mysterious deepshaded arbors, the riotous old-fashioned flowers, and bushes and gnarly trees.

Out of another I get a lovely view of the bay and a little private wharf belonging to the estate. There is a beautiful shaded lane that runs down there from the house. I always fancy I see people walking in these numerous paths and arbors, but John has cautioned me not to give way to fancy in the least. He says that with my imaginative power and habit of story-making, a nervous weakness like mine is sure to lead to all manner of excited fancies, and that I ought to use my will and good sense to check the tendency. So I try.

I think sometimes that if I were only well enough to write a little it would relieve the press of ideas and rest me.

But I find I get pretty tired when I try.

It is so discouraging not to have any advice and companionship about my work. When I get really well, John says we will ask Cousin Henry and Julia down for a long visit; but he says he would as soon put fireworks in my pillow-case as to let me have those stimulating people about now.

I wish I could get well faster.

But I must not think about that. This paper looks to me as if it KNEW what a vicious influence it had!

There is a recurrent spot where the pattern lolls like a broken neck and two bulbous eyes stare at you upside down.

I get positively angry with the impertinence of it and the everlastingness. Up and down and sideways they crawl, and those absurd, unblinking eyes are everywhere. There is one place where two breadths didn't match, and the eyes go all up and down the line, one a little higher than the other.

I never saw so much expression in an inanimate thing before, and we all know how much expression they have! I used to lie awake as a child and get more entertainment and terror out of blank walls and plain furniture than most children could find in a toy store.

I remember what a kindly wink the knobs of our big, old bureau used to have, and there was one chair that always seemed like a strong friend.

I used to feel that if any of the other things looked too fierce I could always hop into that chair and be safe.

The furniture in this room is no worse than inharmonious, however, for we had to bring it all from downstairs. I suppose when this was used as a playroom they had to take the nursery things out, and no wonder! I never saw such ravages as the children have made here.

The wall-paper, as I said before, is torn off in spots, and it sticketh closer than a brother—they must have had perseverance as well as hatred.

Then the floor is scratched and gouged and splintered, the plaster itself is dug out here and there, and this great heavy bed which is all we found in the room, looks as if it had been through the wars.

But I don't mind it a bit—only the paper.

There comes John's sister. Such a dear girl as she is, and so careful of me! I must not let her find me writing.

She is a perfect and enthusiastic housekeeper, and hopes for no better profession. I verily believe she thinks it is the writing which made me sick!

But I can write when she is out, and see her a long way off from these windows.

There is one that commands the road, a lovely shaded winding road, and one that just looks off over the country. A lovely country, too, full of great elms and velvet meadows.

This wall-paper has a kind of sub-pattern in a different shade, a particularly irritating one, for you can only see it in certain lights, and not clearly then.

But in the places where it isn't faded and where the sun is just so—I can see a strange, provoking, formless sort of figure, that seems to skulk about behind that silly and conspicuous front design.

There's sister on the stairs!

Well, the Fourth of July is over! The people are gone and I am tired out. John thought it might do me good to see a little company, so we just had mother and Nellie and the children down for a week.

Of course I didn't do a thing. Jennie sees to everything now.

But it tired me all the same.

John says if I don't pick up faster he shall send me to Weir Mitchell in the fall.

But I don't want to go there at all. I had a friend who was in his hands once, and she says he is just like John and my brother, only more so!

Besides, it is such an undertaking to go so far.

I don't feel as if it was worth while to turn my hand over for anything, and I'm getting dreadfully fretful and querulous.

I cry at nothing, and cry most of the time.

Of course I don't when John is here, or anybody else, but when I am alone.

And I am alone a good deal just now. John is kept in town very often by serious cases, and Jennie is good and lets me alone when I want her to.

So I walk a little in the garden or down that lovely lane, sit on the porch under the roses, and lie down up here a good deal.

I'm getting really fond of the room in spite of the wall-paper. Perhaps BECAUSE of the wall-paper.

It dwells in my mind so!

I lie here on this great immovable bed—it is nailed down, I believe—and follow that pattern about by the hour. It is as good as gymnastics, I assure you. I start, we'll say, at the bottom, down in the corner over there where it has not been touched, and I determine for the thousandth time that I WILL follow that pointless pattern to some sort of a conclusion.

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 whole thing goes horizontally, too, at least it seems so, and I exhaust myself in trying to distinguish the order of its going in that direction.

They have used a horizontal breadth for a frieze, and that adds wonderfully to the confusion.

There is one end of the room where it is almost intact, and there, when the crosslights fade and the low sun shines directly upon it, I can almost fancy radiation after all,—the interminable grotesques seem to form around a common centre and rush off in headlong plunges of equal distraction.

It makes me tired to follow it. I will take a nap I guess.

I don't know why I should write this.

I don't want to.

I don't feel able.

And I know John would think it absurd. But I MUST say what I feel and think in some way—it is such a relief!

But the effort is getting to be greater than the relief.

Half the time now I am awfully lazy, and lie down ever so much.

John says I musn't lose my strength, and has me take cod liver oil and lots of tonics and things, to say nothing of ale and wine and rare meat.

Dear John! He loves me very dearly, and hates to have me sick. I tried to have a real earnest reasonable talk with him the other day, and tell him how I wish he would let me go and make a visit to Cousin Henry and Julia.

But he said I wasn't able to go, nor able to stand it after I got there; and I did not make out a very good case for myself, for I was crying before I had finished.

It is getting to be a great effort for me to think straight. Just this nervous weakness I suppose.

And dear John gathered me up in his arms, and just carried me upstairs and laid me on the bed, and sat by me and read to me till it tired my head.

He said I was his darling and his comfort and all he had, and that I must take care of myself for his sake, and keep well.

He says no one but myself can help me out of it, that I must use my will and self-control and not let any silly fancies run away with me.

There's one comfort, the baby is well and happy, and does not have to occupy this nursery with the horrid wall-paper.

If we had not used it, that blessed child would have! What a fortunate escape! Why, I wouldn't have a child of mine, an impressionable little thing, live in such a room for worlds.

I never thought of it before, but it is lucky that John kept me here after all, I can stand it so much easier than a baby, you see.

Of course I never mention it to them any more—I am too wise,—but I keep watch of it all the same.

There are things in that paper that nobody knows but me, or ever will.

Behind that outside pattern the dim shapes get clearer every day.

It is always the same shape, only very numerous.

And it is like a woman stooping down and creeping about behind that pattern. I don't like it a bit. I wonder—I begin to think—I wish John would take me away from here!

It is so hard to talk with John about my case, because he is so wise, and because he loves me so.

But I tried it last night.

It was moonlight. The moon shines in all around just as the sun does.

I hate to see it sometimes, it creeps so slowly, and always comes in by one window or another.

John was asleep and I hated to waken him, so I kept still and watched the moonlight on that undulating wall-paper till I felt creepy.

The faint figure behind seemed to shake the pattern, just as if she wanted to get out.

I got up softly and went to feel and see if the paper DID move, and when I came back John was awake.

"What is it, little girl?" he said. "Don't go walking about like that—you'll get cold."

I though it was a good time to talk, so I told him that I really was not gaining here, and that I wished he would take me away.

"Why darling!" said he, "our lease will be up in three weeks, and I can't see how to leave before.

"The repairs are not done at home, and I cannot possibly leave town just now. Of course if you were in any danger, I could and would, but you really are better, dear, whether you can see it or not. I am a doctor, dear, and I know. You are gaining flesh and color, your appetite is better, I feel really much easier about you."

"I don't weigh a bit more," said I, "nor as much; and my appetite may be better in the evening when you are here, but it is worse in the morning when you are away!"

"Bless her little heart!" said he with a big hug, "she shall be as sick as she pleases! But now let's improve the shining hours by going to sleep, and talk about it in the morning!"

"And you won't go away?" I asked gloomily.

"Why, how can I, dear? It is only three weeks more and then we will take a nice little trip of a few days while Jennie is getting the house ready. Really dear you are better!"

"Better in body perhaps—" I began, and stopped short, for he sat up straight and looked at me with such a stern, reproachful look that I could not say another word.

"My darling," said he, "I beg of you, for my sake and for our child's sake, as well as for your own, that you will never for one instant let that idea enter your mind! There is nothing so dangerous, so fascinating, to a temperament like yours. It is a false and foolish fancy. Can you not trust me as a physician when I tell you so?"

So of course I said no more on that score, and we went to sleep before long. He thought I was asleep first, but I wasn't, and lay there for hours trying to decide whether that front pattern and the back pattern really did move together or separately.

On a pattern like this, by daylight, there is a lack of sequence, a defiance of law, that is a constant irritant to a normal mind.

The color is hideous enough, and unreliable enough, and infuriating enough, but the pattern is torturing.

You think you have mastered it, but just as you get well underway in following, it turns a back-somersault and there you are. It slaps you in the face, knocks you down, and tramples upon you. It is like a bad dream.

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—why, that is something like it.

That is, sometimes!

There is one marked peculiarity about this paper, a thing nobody seems to notice but myself, and that is that it changes as the light changes.

When the sun shoots in through the east window—I always watch for that first long, straight ray—it changes so quickly that I never can quite believe it.

That is why I watch it always.

By moonlight—the moon shines in all night when there is a moon—I wouldn't know it was the same paper.

At night in any kind of light, in twilight, candle light, lamplight, and worst of all by moonlight, it becomes bars! The outside pattern I mean, and the woman behind it is as plain as can be.

I didn't realize for a long time what the thing was that showed behind, that dim sub-pattern, but now I am quite sure it is a woman.

By daylight she is subdued, quiet. I fancy it is the pattern that keeps her so still. It is so puzzling. It keeps me quiet by the hour.

I lie down ever so much now. John says it is good for me, and to sleep all I can.

Indeed he started the habit by making me lie down for an hour after each meal.

It is a very bad habit I am convinced, for you see I don't sleep.

And that cultivates deceit, for I don't tell them I'm awake—O no!

The fact is I am getting a little afraid of John.

He seems very queer sometimes, and even Jennie has an inexplicable look.

It strikes me occasionally, just as a scientific hypothesis,—that perhaps it is the paper!

I have watched John when he did not know I was looking, and come into the room suddenly on the most innocent excuses, and I've caught him several times LOOKING AT THE PAPER! And Jennie too. I caught Jennie with her hand on it once.

She didn't know I was in the room, and when I asked her in a quiet, a very quiet voice, with the most restrained manner possible, what she was doing with the paper—she turned around as if she had been caught stealing, and looked quite angry—asked me why I should frighten her so!

Then she said that the paper stained everything it touched, that she had found yellow smooches on all my clothes and John's, and she wished we would be more careful!

Did not that sound innocent? But I know she was studying that pattern, and I am determined that nobody shall find it out but myself!

Life is very much more exciting now than it used to be. You see I have something more to expect, to look forward to, to watch. I really do eat better, and am more quiet than I was.

John is so pleased to see me improve! He laughed a little the other day, and said I seemed to be flourishing in spite of my wall-paper.

I turned it off with a laugh. I had no intention of telling him it was BECAUSE of the wall-paper—he would make fun of me. He might even want to take me away.

I don't want to leave now until I have found it out. There is a week more, and I think that will be enough.

I'm feeling ever so much better! I don't sleep much at night, for it is so interesting to watch developments; but I sleep a good deal in the daytime.

In the daytime it is tiresome and perplexing.

There are always new shoots on the fungus, and new shades of yellow all over it. I cannot keep count of them, though I have tried conscientiously.

It is the strangest yellow, that wall-paper! It makes me think of all the yellow things I ever saw—not beautiful ones like buttercups, but old foul, bad yellow things.

But there is something else about that paper—the smell! I noticed it the moment we came into the room, but with so much air and sun it was not bad. Now we have had a week of fog and rain, and whether the windows are open or not, the smell is here.

It creeps all over the house.

I find it hovering in the dining-room, skulking in the parlor, hiding in the hall, lying in wait for me on the stairs.

It gets into my hair.

Even when I go to ride, if I turn my head suddenly and surprise it—there is that smell!

Such a peculiar odor, too! I have spent hours in trying to analyze it, to find what it smelled like.

It is not bad—at first, and very gentle, but quite the subtlest, most enduring odor I ever met.

In this damp weather it is awful, I wake up in the night and find it hanging over me.

It used to disturb me at first. I thought seriously of burning the house—to reach the smell.

But now I am used to it. The only thing I can think of that it is like is the COLOR of the paper! A yellow smell.

There is a very funny mark on this wall, low down, near the mopboard. A streak that runs round the room. It goes behind every piece of furniture, except the bed, a long, straight, even SMOOCH, as if it had been rubbed over and over.

I wonder how it was done and who did it, and what they did it for. Round and round and round—round and round and round—it makes me dizzy!

I really have discovered something at last.

Through watching so much at night, when it changes so, I have finally found out.

The front pattern DOES move—and no wonder! The woman behind shakes it!

Sometimes I think there are a great many women behind, and sometimes only one, and she crawls around fast, and her crawling shakes it all over.

Then in the very bright spots she keeps still, and in the very shady spots she just takes hold of the bars and shakes them hard.

And she is all the time trying to climb through. But nobody could climb through that pattern—it strangles so; I think that is why it has so many heads.

They get through, and then the pattern strangles them off and turns them upside down, and makes their eyes white!

If those heads were covered or taken off it would not be half so bad.

I think that woman gets out in the daytime!

And I'll tell you why—privately—I've seen her!

I can see her out of every one of my windows!

It is the same woman, I know, for she is always creeping, and most women do not creep by daylight.

I see her on that long road under the trees, creeping along, and when a carriage comes she hides under the blackberry vines.

I don't blame her a bit. It must be very humiliating to be caught creeping by daylight!

I always lock the door when I creep by daylight. I can't do it at night, for I know John would suspect something at once.

And John is so queer now, that I don't want to irritate him. I wish he would take another room! Besides, I don't want anybody to get that woman out at night but myself.

I often wonder if I could see her out of all the windows at once.

But, turn as fast as I can, I can only see out of one at one time.

And though I always see her, she MAY be able to creep faster than I can turn!

I have watched her sometimes away off in the open country, creeping as fast as a cloud shadow in a high wind.

If only that top pattern could be gotten off from the under one! I mean to try it, little by little.

I have found out another funny thing, but I shan't tell it this time! It does not do to trust people too much.

There are only two more days to get this paper off, and I believe John is beginning to notice. I don't like the look in his eyes.

And I heard him ask Jennie a lot of professional questions about me. She had a very good report to give.

She said I slept a good deal in the daytime.

John knows I don't sleep very well at night, for all I'm so quiet!

He asked me all sorts of questions, too, and pretended to be very loving and kind.

As if I couldn't see through him!

Still, I don't wonder he acts so, sleeping under this paper for three months.

It only interests me, but I feel sure John and Jennie are secretly affected by it.

Hurrah! This is the last day, but it is enough. John is to stay in town over night, and won't be out until this evening.

Jennie wanted to sleep with me—the sly thing! but I told her I should undoubtedly rest better for a night all alone.

That was clever, for really I wasn't alone a bit! As soon as it was moonlight and that poor thing began to crawl and shake the pattern, I got up and ran to help her.

I pulled and she shook, I shook and she pulled, and before morning we had peeled off yards of that paper.

A strip about as high as my head and half around the room.

And then when the sun came and that awful pattern began to laugh at me, I declared I would finish it to-day!

We go away to-morrow, and they are moving all my furniture down again to leave things as they were before.

Jennie looked at the wall in amazement, but I told her merrily that I did it out of pure spite at the vicious thing.

She laughed and said she wouldn't mind doing it herself, but I must not get tired.

How she betrayed herself that time!

But I am here, and no person touches this paper but me—not ALIVE!

She tried to get me out of the room—it was too patent! But I said it was so quiet and empty and clean now that I believed I would lie down again and sleep all I could; and not to wake me even for dinner—I would call when I woke.

So now she is gone, and the servants are gone, and the things are gone, and there is nothing left but that great bedstead nailed down, with the canvas mattress we found on it.

We shall sleep downstairs to-night, and take the boat home to-morrow.

I quite enjoy the room, now it is bare again.

How those children did tear about here!

This bedstead is fairly gnawed!

But I must get to work.

I have locked the door and thrown the key down into the front path.

I don't want to go out, and I don't want to have anybody come in, till John comes.

I want to astonish him.

I've got a rope up here that even Jennie did not find. If that woman does get out, and tries to get away, I can tie her!

But I forgot I could not reach far without anything to stand on!

This bed will NOT move!

I tried to lift and push it until I was lame, and then I got so angry I bit off a little piece at one corner—but it hurt my teeth.

Then I peeled off all the paper I could reach standing on the floor. It sticks horribly and the pattern just enjoys it! All those strangled heads and bulbous eyes and waddling fungus growths just shriek with derision!

I am getting angry enough to do something desperate. To jump out of the window would be admirable exercise, but the bars are too strong even to try.

Besides I wouldn't do it. Of course not. I know well enough that a step like that is improper and might be misconstrued.

I don't like to LOOK out of the windows even—there are so many of those creeping women, and they creep so fast.

I wonder if they all come out of that wall-paper as I did?

But I am securely fastened now by my well-hidden rope—you don't get ME out in the road there!

I suppose I shall have to get back behind the pattern when it comes night, and that is hard!

It is so pleasant to be out in this great room and creep around as I please!

I don't want to go outside. I won't, even if Jennie asks me to.

For outside you have to creep on the ground, and everything is green instead of yellow.

But here I can creep smoothly on the floor, and my shoulder just fits in that long smooch around the wall, so I cannot lose my way.

Why there's John at the door!

It is no use, young man, you can't open it!

How he does call and pound!

Now he's crying for an axe.

It would be a shame to break down that beautiful door!

"John dear!" said I in the gentlest voice, "the key is down by the front steps, under a plantain leaf!"

That silenced him for a few moments.

Then he said—very quietly indeed, "Open the door, my darling!"

"I can't," said I. "The key is down by the front door under a plantain leaf!"

And then I said it again, several times, very gently and slowly, and said it so often that he had to go and see, and he got it of course, and came in. He stopped short by the door.

"What is the matter?" he cried. "For God's sake, what are you doing!"

I kept on creeping just the same, but I looked at him over my shoulder.

"I've got out at last," said I, "in spite of you and Jane. And I've pulled off most of the paper, so you can't put me back!"

Now why should that man have fainted? But he did, and right across my path by the wall, so that I had to creep over him every time!

A tone of resignation; presentation of marriage as predictable and somewhat unsupportive.

Gilman ends “The Yellow Wallpaper” on an ambiguous note. Readers can only guess what becomes of John and the narrator. Literary critics generally agree that if the story were to proceed further, the narrator would be sent to a mental hospital. Instead of receiving proper treatment, she would likely continue to live in confinement and isolation, her illness only becoming more and more aggravated.

Some literary critics may claim that, even in her stupor, the narrator adheres to female Victorian ideals by calling out to her husband in the “gentlest voice.” However, other critics may argue that by defiantly tearing down the wallpaper and calling out to her husband in a gentle voice, she is actually mocking Victorian ideals and subverting how society should view women.

Due to the narrative structure of the short story, readers cannot fully see the narrator’s behavior from an outside vantage point. Instead they glean information from within the narrator’s personal perspective. She frequently employs the words “to creep” and “to crawl,” allowing readers to imagine how the narrator anomalistically moves around the room.

Even in her hallucination, the narrator cannot escape the Victorian ideals enforced on women. She briefly considers jumping out of the window but realizes that doing so would be an indecent act, incongruent with societal norms. Despite her best attempts to tear the wallpaper away in an act of defiance, she fails to fully relinquish herself from the patriarchal oppression so deeply ingrained in Victorian society.

The word “derision” refers to the act of mocking or ridiculing. The narrator returns to the imagery she employed previously and states that these grotesque figures “shriek with derision”—a phrase which suggests that the wallpaper’s monsters laugh maniacally and torment her. The imagery of the phrase illustrates the sheer and utter terror the wallpaper induces in the narrator.

The parallel structure and use of the pronouns “I” and “she” confuse and unite the narrator and her mirror image. As one performs one task, the other follows suit. Demonstrated through the use of the pronoun “we,” the two—or rather, one—peel off the wallpaper.

Here, Gilman creates a symbolic moment in which the narrator’s mirror image shakes the bars of the window. The mirror image—whom readers should now recognize as the narrator herself—attempts to break free from her confinement in the nursery. She wishes to break free from this room, and on a larger thematic scale, the bonds of patriarchy and marriage.

Although the narrator claims not to know, readers should recognize that the narrator is responsible for the “funny mark” on the lower portions of the wall. As she creeps around the room in her frenzied state, she forms a streak or “smooch” along the wall. The narrator states that she has become very dizzy—presumably from circling the room. The repetitive use of the word “round” demonstrates how frequently she has circled the room and how unhinged she has become.

Through personification—using words like “hovering,” “skulking,” and “hiding”—the narrator demonstrates how the odor seems to linger all throughout the house. The narrator does not realize however that this odor is the smell of decay. The smell follows her because it emanates from her body.

When readers think of the color yellow, they might picture “buttercups,” sunlight, or other bright, pleasant images. However, here Gilman subverts the meaning of yellow, instead associating it with sickness, decay, and death. The narrator does not explicitly delineate all the “bad yellow things,” but readers can likely imagine some of the grotesque things she might be envisioning.

At the time of Gilman’s writing, the word “smooch” referred to a stain or smudge. As the narrator tears away and peels at the wall, the yellow stain from the wallpaper transfers onto her clothes. The narrator believes that Jennie is touching the wallpaper to get a closer look at it and fails to realize that Jennie is actually more concerned with her strange and obsessive behavior.

Ironically employing scientific jargon, the narrator sublty mocks her husband’s superiority. Here, she turns his “wisdom” on its head, running her own scientific experiment and observing her husband’s strange behavior.

The word “toadstool” is another word for poisonous mushroom. Here, the narrator asks readers to “imagine a toadstool in joints”—many mushrooms growing together to form a labyrinth of fungi. The simile likens the pattern on the wallpaper to the serpentine winding of a string of mushrooms.

Through a combination of second-person narration, personification, and simile, the narrator conveys how the wallpaper tortures her. With the second-person point of view, readers can understand firsthand the sort of mental unhinging the narrator experiences at each glance. Through personification, readers can grasp the figurative violence the wallpaper inflicts on the narrator as it “slaps,” “knocks,” and “tramples” her. Finally, the last phrase—the simile that likens the wallpaper to a nightmare—demonstrates the anxiety and unease it causes her.

The adjectives “stern” and “reproachful” mean harsh and disapproving, respectively. After the narrator’s second failed attempt to stand up for herself, John shoots her such a powerful look of disapproval that she immediately quiets down. This moment highlights the power John has over his wife to acquiesce and oppress her.

In an effort to establish his credibility and superiority over his wife, John asserts that since he is a doctor, he knows better than she. Readers should note the irony as he states that the narrator is getting better when she is clearly only getting worse. The narrator tries to stand up for herself, but John patronizingly quiets her again, saying “Bless her little heart!”

Throughout the 19th and 20th centuries, talking about mental illness—especially regarding women—was taboo in many cultures. At the time, postpartum depression was not recognized as a legitimate mental health issue. It was especially difficult to diagnose women who displayed affection for their babies but still exhibited symptoms of depression and exhaustion. Today, research has help shed light on this mental health condition and it is generally understood that such behavior is very common among women who suffer from postpartum depression.

In another instance of infantilization, John coddles the narrator and lays her down to rest. Notice the irony as John asks the narrator to take care of herself, when in fact his very treatment of her—his prescriptions, his isolating her, and his complete oppression of her every choice—has caused her to descend into madness.

The narrator finds herself in a bind. On the one hand, she feels guilty for indulging in writing, a practice her husband hasn’t prescribed; on the other, writing is the one activity that offers her a sense of autonomy and freedom of expression. Without the ability to write and to express herself in the face of the stifling oppression of her husband, she might easily lose her voice. Despite her fear of getting caught, the narrator continues to write, recognizing that this solitary practice is her only source of power.

Although most of the short story is structured into a series of one- or two-sentence paragraphs, this sequence of sentences stands out specifically for its briefness. This sequence of curt sentences encapsulates the narrator’s state of mind. Her raving “fancies” have left her mind exhausted and her body depleted.

“Grotesques” are depictions of mythical creatures, often used as architectural decorations. The grotesque-like caricatures in the wallpaper converge through a disordered interplay of horizontal, vertical, and diagonal lines—then suddenly disperse “in headlong plunges.” In the narrator’s mind, the images in the wallpaper become more and more turbulent, then suddenly disappear as maddeningly as they appeared.

The word “frieze” is a term in classical architecture for the space between the architrave and the cornice, above the columns in the upper horizontal portions of a building. Along with the diagonal breadths, the horizontal breadths add to the mayhem of the wallpaper. In total, the narrator envisions the maddening interplay of the vertical “columns of fatuity,” the diagonal breaths “of wallowing seaweed,” and the horizontal breadths in the frieze.

The word “fatuity” means foolishness and idiocy. To illustrate the chaotic nature of the breadths of the wallpaper, the narrator personifies them as waddling, or clumsily walking, up and down along the wall. They move in tremulous patterns and in “isolated columns of fatuity,” a phrase which suggests that the breadths move idiotically and illogically.

The adjectives “fretful” and “querulous” mean restless and whining, respectively. As the story progresses, the narrator’s mental state deteriorates further. Her husband fails to provide her with accurate treatment and stifles her only creative outlet. As a result, she descends into madness, going so far as to imagine someone hiding behind the wallpaper.

Here, the narrator begins to imagine seeing another person behind the wallpaper—someone she characterizes in grotesque language. In grotesque decorative art, human and natural forms transmute into ugly, distorted, and absurd shapes. As the narrator peers into the wallpaper, she sees a human whose image is grotesque, distorted, and malformed.

The noun “impertinence” refers to the state of being rude, ill-mannered, or unrestrained by the bounds of good taste. By describing the wallpaper as something that is impertinent, the narrator suggests that it is offensive, jarring, and does not belong in this room.

Through personification, Gilman writes that the wallpaper looked as if it were mocking her. One spot on the wallpaper takes on the appearance of a face, as if two eyes attached to a loosely tethered neck were staring her down. The wallpaper takes on increasingly more grotesque imagery, as these eyes appear to move and crawl along the wall.

The short story brings up issues over the compatibility of imagination and realism. The narrator, a writer, often “fancies” the happenings of the world around her. John, in contrast, is a man of science and does not divulge in “story-making.” There is a clear dichotomy between how the two individuals cope with their surroundings—the narrator does so through imaginative thinking, and John does so with practical thinking.

The verb “to fancy” means to imagine something, often capricious or delusively. Readers should note that the narrator uses this word, which carries negative connotations, instead of the comparatively neutral “imagine.” Her husband has made her believe that her power of imagination is dangerous, and any that such thinking should be eliminated.

The word “riotous” refers to something that is abundant and exuberant. In contrast to the stifling nature of the nursery, the garden outside is characterized by its untamed and wild abundance. The narrator watches from her secluded room as the flowers, bushes, and trees grow relentlessly—a representation of the dichotomy between her life of confinement and her desire for freedom.

To silence the narrator, John often resorts to coddling her and calling her pet names. Here, he calls her “a blessed little goose” and comforts her like a child. By infantilizing the narrator, John dismisses her pleas to go downstairs. This pattern recurs frequently throughout the story—whenever the narrator raises an opinion, John silences her.

Here, readers encounter the first of only two times the narrator mentions her baby. From these few lines readers can gather the key information that the narrator’s baby is a boy who is cared for by a nursemaid, Mary. As the she states, the narrator does not spend very much time with her son because doing so causes her to become anxious and experience feelings of exhaustion and sadness. Readers can ascertain that her nervous condition may be the result of postpartum depression.

Notice how every element of the nursery room is intended to keep the narrator confined. The bedstead is nailed to the floor, the windows are barred, and the stairs are shut off by a gate. Despite the narrator’s plea to go downstairs, John insists that this confinement serves her some good. The narrator even begins to think so herself.

The adjective “lurid” has a variety of definitions, all of which add to the overall gruesomeness of the yellow wallpaper. In its first definition, “lurid” describes something or someone that causes revulsion; second, it refers to someone or something with a ghastly, pale appearance; and finally, it describes the orange glow of fire when observed through smoke. Although seemingly contradictory, these three definitions demonstrate the changing nature of the wallpaper. At one moment, the wallpaper looks pale and yellow; in the next, it looks as though it is “smouldering”—burning with smoke—and tinted in an orange glow.

To describe the yellow wallpaper, the narrator combines visual and olfactory imagery with consonance. The first technique—visual imagery—is seen through the “unclean yellow” and “orange” that has been “faded by the slow-turning sunlight.” The olfactory imagery arises through her precise diction, specifically the words “sickly sulphur,” which references the pale yellow nonmetallic element that smells noxiously when burned. Finally, the narrator combines the unsavory consonance of both r and s sounds to illustrate the grating nature of the yellow paper. She employs words like “repellent,” “revolting,” “smouldering,” “slow-turning sunlight,” “lurid,” and “sickly sulphur.” When combined, all of these techniques contribute to a sense of corrosion and decay, and evoke the ghastly nature of the yellow wallpaper.

The word “chintz” refers to the calicoes, or the printed cotton fabric, of India. The narrator desires color and animation—revealed through her wish to stay in the downstairs bedroom with the roses and chintz. However, at her husband’s urging, the couple sleeps in the nursery upstairs, which is contrastingly characterized by its dark, Gothic elements.

Notice how Gilman does not attach specific dates to any of the journal entries; rather, each entry follows the next without a break, leaving it up to readers to follow the passage of time as signaled—or not signaled—by the narrator.

“The Yellow Wallpaper” is formatted as the narrator’s journal entries. She takes up writing whenever she needs relief and often writes in the second person, as though she were speaking to a friend. However, her husband disapproves of this practice and chastises her whenever he sees her writing. The narrator, in turn, must write in secret. This circumstance lends her writing a tone of abruptness and curtness. Everything she writes is in one or two sentence increments and she often signs off when she sees her husband approaching. The brisk nature of these sentences demonstrates her anxiety and precariousness. She fears her husband’s “heavy opposition” and must write quickly and furtively. The format of these sentences also demonstrate how she dismisses her own thoughts, just as her husband does. The narrator will start with one thought and never finish it, instead cutting herself short as she begins the following sentence. In other instances, she will abruptly end a sentence by imagining how John would dismiss her.

The narrator’s inability to differentiate between phosphates and phosphites demonstrates her addled state of mind and her inability to make sense of her reality. She employs the literary tool of polysyndeton—the repeated use of conjunctions without commas—to highlight her husband’s ineptitude. Since he is a so-called wise physician, he believes that he will be able to cure his wife. He prescribes her various medications, advises her not to work, and forces her to exercise. None of his instructions cure her; instead, his iron fist stifles her.

The unnamed narrator of the story repeatedly intersperses her journal entries with rhetorical questions. In the first several paragraphs alone, the narrator asks herself, “And what can one do?”, “What is one to do?”, and “But what is one to do?” Using variations of the same refrain, Gilman hints at the narrator’s sense of confinement and her inability to think for herself. Each time she poses this question, the narrator cannot come up with an answer. In this environment—secluded in the nursery of a Gothic home on rest cure—the narrator cannot formulate her thoughts. Thus she is forced to repeatedly ask the same futile questions.

Throughout the story, the narrator descends further into madness. Conversely, the image in the wallpaper becomes clearer. As the moonlight casts its glare onto the windows, the narrator finally perceives in the wallpaper an image of a woman behind bars. By now, readers should understand that the narrator is not seeing another woman but a reflection of herself in the yellow wallpaper. The narrator’s mirror image serves as a symbol for her own repressed self who desires to break free from the bars of forced subservience.

Here, the speaker uses a simile to describe how the diagonal breadths of the wallpaper seem to shift without obeying any known laws of nature. The simile—of breadths like “wallowing seaweeds in full chase”—demonstrates the ever-changing, heedless nature of the wallpaper as it seems to surge and billow.

Notice how John’s refusal to believe his wife is “sick,” or to give credence to her feelings and fears about her condition, affects the narrator’s mental state throughout the story. As he is both her husband and a physician, John’s word carries ultimate authority for the narrator.

Notice how the language John uses when speaking to the narrator reveals the patronizing way in which he treats her. Addressing her as “little girl” bolsters John’s isolation of his wife in a former nursery, his control over almost every aspect of her daily life, and his refusal to take what she says about herself seriously.

Gilman sets the story in a former nursery in order to emphasize the infantilization of the narrator by her husband, John, who chooses this room for her against her will. The barred windows evoke a sinister sense of imprisonment and isolation.

Dr. Silas Weir Mitchell was a real physician who originated the idea of the “rest cure” in the late 1800s, which he prescribed mostly for women—including Gilman herself—who suffered from “nervous disorders.” The rest cure involved a forced period of bed rest, isolation, total dependence on the part of the patient, and often forbade reading and writing.

Gilman personifies the wallpaper through her use of a saying drawn from Proverbs 18:24 in the King James Bible: “A man that hath friends must shew himself friendly: and there is a friend that sticketh closer than a brother.” This biblical allusion illustrates how closely the wallpaper sticks to the wall and how difficult it is to tear away.

Gilman draws on motifs from gothic literature—a popular genre in the 1800s—in her description of the “strange,” isolated, seemingly haunted mansion with its ruined greenhouses, abandoned servants’ cottages, extensive gardens, and mysterious past. Gothic tales often revolved around a troubled heroine narrating her own story while imprisoned in such a setting.

Arabesque art and architecture is characterized by the use of floral imagery in elaborate, interlacing patterns. In that sense, the use of the word "florid" here is redundant, but does indicate that the narrator feels disdain towards the pattern and finds it ugly (as indicated when she likens it to fungus).

Delirium tremens refers to a state of confusion and psychosis generally brought on by withdrawal from alcohol or narcotics. Using this term in relation to the debased Romanesque art suggests that the wallpaper pattern is particularly chaotic and confused.

Romanesque art flourished from approximately 1000 AD to the middle of the 13th Century, when Gothic art became prominent. Romanesque art is characterized by the use of primary colors, flourishes, natural imagery, and architectural patterns. Since religious and Biblical iconography were common is Romanesque art, the description of a "debased" Romanesque suggests an unholy pattern, something that isn't sanctified or harmonious.

While there is something charming about the idea of a young girl's imagination getting the better of her, this line indicates that her mind has always been restless and that her current mental health issues could be part of a larger pattern of troubles.

One of the major themes of "The Yellow Wallpaper" is silence and the way that women's voices are silenced. There's no physical reason for the narrator not to be allowed to write, but under her rest cure, it is prohibited to her. Her husband is very controlling in the enforcement of her treatment, preventing her voice from being heard.

Modern readers will likely recognize this as a sign of infidelity. While the estate's remote location would make travel between patients difficult for John, we can't entirely discount the possibility that the narrator's husband is having an affair.

While Gilman's narrator has been diagnosed with hysteria, that was frequently used as a "catch-all" for a variety of different diagnoses. Most likely, she is suffering from postpartum depression and resultant psychosis. In the late 19th and early 20th century doctors didn't recognize postpartum depression as an illness and didn't take a woman's mental health very seriously, which resulted in many cases of misdiagnosis.

Hysteria was once a very common medical diagnosis ascribed to women who displayed certain unruly habits and behaviors or seemed to be suffering from a nervous condition. Hysteria was thought by the ancient Greeks to be caused by a "wandering womb" and was in the 19th and 20th centuries treated with "massages," many of which were performed with vibrators.

At the time of this story's writing, women suffering from a wide variety of conditions were prescribed "rest cures," which consisted largely of lying in bed and not moving or doing anything. Gilman was very vocal about having written this story to prove the rest cure wrong after her own damaging experience. It was specifically aimed at Dr. Silas Weir Mitchell, a major proponent of the rest cure.

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The Yellow Wallpaper

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The Yellow Wallpaper , short story by Charlotte Perkins Gilman , published in New England Magazine in May 1892 and in book form in 1899. The Yellow Wallpaper , initially interpreted as a Gothic horror tale , was considered the best as well as the least-characteristic work of fiction by Gilman.

An autobiographical account fictionalized in the first person, it describes the gradual emotional and intellectual deterioration of a young wife and mother who, apparently suffering from postpartum depression , undergoes a “rest cure,” involving strict bed rest and a complete absence of mental stimulation, under the care of her male neurologist.