Written by Charlotte Perkins Gilman.
The Yellow Wallpaper follows a woman who was recently diagnosed with 'nervous depression with slight hysterical tendencies' and thus prescribed bedrest by her husband John. Whilst their house is being renovated, they move into a colonial mansion they rented for a few months to help our protagonist recover. The mansion is quite large and has a beautiful garden with riotous flowers and grape covered arbours. Most of the events of this story take place in the attic of the estate, a former nursery and playroom turned bedroom. The bedroom is quite spacious with mismatching furniture brought there from the other rooms. The woman starts to write in secret in her new bedroom, as her husband, who is a physician, says that will only worsen her condition and If a physician of high standing, and one's own husband, assures friends and relatives that there is nothing the matter with one but temporary nervous depression -- a slight a slight hysterical tendency -- what is one to do?
. Yet she takes comfort in writing, this story being told trough her diary. The woman takes great care in describing the wallpaper in the room, a mouldy yellow colour (at least in most areas) with twisting and curving patterns seemingly committing every artistic sin
as they sprawled forth from every imaginable angle, ending quite abruptly and changing shape as light hit it from different angles. The protagonist becomes enamored by it, studying it profusely. She asks John multiple times to change rooms or get rid of the wallpaper, as she has become quite agitated by the grotesqueness that it possesses, but John refuses to, responding that giving in to these kinds of fancies would be detrimental to her recovery.
So as time progresses her obsession with the wallpaper grows and her condition worsens, becoming much more sensitive and tired, crying at most times of day and having difficulties thinking straight. This is also when her obsession with the wallpaper grows to an all-time high, as she spends more and more hours of the day rigorously observing the paper, trying desperately to find any kind of rhyme or reason in the delirious patterns, which she eventually finds, at least according to herself. She finds a figure, a woman even, trapped behind the wallpaper, standing almost perfectly still during the day and crawling sporadically during the night, moving in inhuman ways. During the daytime our main character is shocked and delighted to look out of one of her windows and to find that figure creeping in her driveway. This event causes the woman to not leave her room as much anymore, whereas before she loved spending time alone in the garden. This goes on for a bit until she finally decided to free the figure from its wallpaper prison and astonish John with her progress. So, she starts ripping of large parts of the wallpaper, creeping alongside the wall, finally being released from the paper and free to roam the room as she pleases, not wanting to go outside as outside you have to creep on the ground, and everything is green instead of yellow
. When there's suddenly a knock at the door. As John repeatedly calls her out to open the door she refuses to, as she threw her key out of the window. When John gets through the door at last, he is quite shocked to see his wife speaking to him whilst crawling on the floor, causing him to faint and letting the woman creep on the floor for as long as she'd want.
introduction
Rising action
Climax
Falling action
Resolution
The title refers to the mouldy yellow wallpaper haunting the attic of the estate where this story takes place. It is easily the most referenced concept in this short story, thus basing the title off it is fitting.
The protagonist of this story would be the unnamed woman who is currently (according to John and other physicians) suffering from temporary nervous depression -- a slight a slight hysterical tendency --
and thus prescribed plenty of rest. As the story progresses we see that this treatment isn't really working, as the woman's mental state continues to decline over the short story.
Our antagonist would be the yellow wallpaper/the woman behind the wallpaper, which could never be adequatly described in an analysis like this, as I can't possibly match the evocative writing of the short story.
The main side character of this short story would be John, out protaginist's husband and a physician. He is said to be incredibly practical and refuses to endulge in superstitions, which could explain him fainting in the resolution of the story. He works quite a lot and does everything he can to support support his wife through this difficult part of her life. Although he ultimately fails her as a husband and a physician with the treatment he prescribed to her.
This story is written from a first person perspective, as we see this world trough the diary of our protagonist.
This story supposedly takes place around the same time it was written, altough I can't confirm this as a date was never mentioned in the story itself. I am pretty confident about this date however as the story adresses some relavent concerns about the way that phycisians diagnosed mental issues in women at the time. Location wise this story takes place in a colonial mansion, somewhere in the USA.
The ending of 'The Yellow Wallpaper' is quite open, we don't really know what happened to the woman after she got to creeping all over the floor, although it is likely that she'd get send to a friend of John's, another physician, where she would be held for a while whilst she gets the 'care' that she needs.
I would absolutely recommend reading this story, not because of the way it was written, the way characters develop nor the way the wallpaper is described, although all of these things are executed very well. I would recommend this story because of it's historical importance to women's healthcare at the time. As it illustrates the attitude of physicians towards the mental and physical wellbeing of women during the 19th century. And it's also an incredibly personal story to Gilman, who was diagnosed with a postnatal depression by after the birth of her first daughter. She was, just like our protagonist, prescribed a strict 'rest cure' and was strictly advised not to work, read, write or paint. After 3 months of this she decided to start working again and to write 'The Yellow Wallpaper' as a way to show her disdain of the current medical field and especially this 'rest cure'. For this reason I would recommend others to read this short story and to learn more about the history of the medical field.
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