THE YELLOW WALLPAPER
By: Charlotte Perkins Gilman
Charlotte Perkins Gilman
•Gilman suffered from neurasthenia (called postpartum
depression today) after she had her daughter. This
disease is characterized by depression and fatigue but
was not linked at the time to the depression some women
experience after having a baby or postpartum depression.
Her “unsuccessful prescription” from Silas Weir Mitchell
lead her to write “The Yellow Wallpaper”.
•After Gilman had written “The Yellow Wallpaper” she
decided to write an explanation of her purpose or so-what
behind the story. She says that she based it on her own
personal experiences through this disease and “it was not
intended to drive people crazy, but to save people from
being driven crazy, and it worked.” (Gilman, “Why I wrote
Yellow Wallpaper”).
“THE YELLOW WALLPAPER”
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https://vimeo.com/95343563
THOUGHTS…
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What did you think of the video?
What do you know about “The Yellow
Wallpaper”?
What is the story about?
THE YELLOW WALLPAPER
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The short story is about a women suffering from neurasthenia or
postpartum depression. She waits to work and still be productive but
a physician along with her husband and brother give her the “rest
cure” prescription.
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This is what causes her depression to escalate because she is
unable to feel productive in society and becomes a recluse.
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The narrator is imprisoned both physically (in her room) and
emotionally (in her mind). Her room has bars on the windows and her
life is controlled by a detailed schedule.
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In the end she becomes the woman in the wall that she sees
throughout the story and at this point is beyond all medical help.
THOUGHTS…
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Who are the characters in the story?
What do we know about the characters?
Who do we know the most about in the story?
Are there any questions about characters?
Are you sure?
CHARACTERS
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The Narrator- A young, upper-middle-class woman, newly
married and a mother, who is undergoing care for depression.
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John - The narrator’s husband and her physician. John restricts
her behavior as part of her treatment. Unlike his imaginative
wife, John is extremely practical, preferring facts . He seems to
love his wife, but he does not understand the negative effect
his treatment has on her.
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Jennie - John’s sister. She acts as housekeeper for the couple.
Her presence and her contentment with a domestic role
intensify the narrator’s feelings of guilt over her own inability to
act as a traditional wife and mother.
OVERVIEW- ON THE SURFACE
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In the story, wallpaper, a usually feminine, floral
decoration on the interior of walls, is a symbol of
female imprisonment within the domestic sphere.
When John curbs her creativity and writing, the
narrator takes it upon herself to make some sense
of the wallpaper. She reverses her initial feeling of
being watched by the wallpaper and starts actively
studying and decoding its meaning.
OVERVIEW- ON THE SURFACE (CONTINUED)
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She untangles its chaotic pattern and locates the
figure of a woman struggling to break free from the
bars in the pattern.
Over time, as her insanity deepens, she identifies
completely with this woman and believes that she,
too, is trapped within the wallpaper. When she tears
down the wallpaper over her last couple of nights, she
believes that she has finally broken out of the
wallpaper within which John has imprisoned her.
OVERVIEW- ON THE SURFACE (CONTINUED)
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By tearing down the yellow wallpaper, the
narrator emerges from the wallpaper and
asserts her own identity, albeit a somewhat
confused, insane one.
Though she must crawl around the room, as
the woman in the wallpaper crawls around, this
"creeping" is the first stage in a feminist
uprising.
THOUGHTS…
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What tense is the story written?
What point of view is the story told?
Is the point of view significant?
POINT OF VIEW
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As the main character’s fictional journal, the story is told in
strict first-person narration, focusing exclusively on her own
thoughts, feelings, and perceptions.
Everything that we learn or see in the story is filtered through
the narrator’s shifting consciousness, and since the narrator
goes insane over the course of the story, her perception of
reality is often completely at odds with that of the other
characters.
The point of view of the narrator is essential in
understanding the feelings and emotions that she is
experiencing throughout the course of the story.
The narrator describes the odor of the wallpaper as a yellow
smell.
LITERARY DEVICES
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Paradox- The narrator of “The Yellow Wallpaper” is a
paradox: as she loses touch with the outer world, she
comes to a greater understanding of the inner reality of
her life. This inner/outer split is crucial to understanding
the nature of the narrator’s suffering.
A paradox in literature refers to the use of concepts or
ideas that are contradictory to one another, yet, when
placed together hold significant value on several levels.
The uniqueness of paradoxes lies in the fact that a deeper
level of meaning and significance is not revealed at first
glace, but when it does crystallize, it provides astonishing
insight.
LITERARY DEVICES (CONTINUED)
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Irony - Almost every aspect of “The Yellow Wallpaper” is ironic in
some way. In her journal, the narrator uses verbal irony often,
especially in reference to her husband: “John laughs at me, of
course, but one expects that in marriage.” Obviously, one
expects no such thing, at least not in a healthy marriage. Later,
she says, “I am glad my case is not serious,” at a point when it
is clear that she is concerned that her case is very serious
indeed.
Irony-The use of irony in literature refers to playing around with
words such that the meaning implied by a sentence or word is
actually different from the literal meaning. Often irony is used
to suggest the stark contrast of the literal meaning being put
forth.
LITERARY DEVICES (CONTINUED)
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FORESHADOWING - The discovery of the teeth marks on the
bedstead foreshadows the narrator’s own insanity and
suggests the narrator is not revealing everything about her
behavior; the first use of the word “creepy” foreshadows the
increasing desperation of the narrator’s situation and her own
eventual “creeping.”
Foreshadowing-The literary device foreshadowing refers to the
use of indicative word or phrases and hints that set the stage
for a story to unfold and give the reader a hint of something
that is going to happen without revealing the story or spoiling
the suspense. Foreshadowing is used to suggest an upcoming
outcome to the story.
MYSTERIOUS THOUGHTS…
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Why are there bars on the windows?
Why are there teeth marks on her bed?
Is she really on a vacation?
Where is she?
Is your mind blown!?!
Is the point of view of the story significant?
CLOSING THOUGHTS…
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Gilman was able to alter medical practices with The Yellow
Wallpaper and says that she has “saved one woman from a
similar fate--so terrifying her family that they let her out into
normal activity and she recovered.” (Gilman, “Why I wrote
Yellow Wallpaper”) She was also using it to represent the
oppression of women in a masculine society.
Also the doctor that had applying the “rest cure” to her
altered his treatment for neurasthenia or postpartum
depression.
Gilman was later diagnosed with incurable breast cancer
and she killed herself with an overdose of chloroform rather
then letting others be in charge of her life.
DISCUSSION QUESTIONS
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How would you describe the story's setting?
How and why is the setting significant?
How would you describe the narrator's husband?
How does the narration mimic the narrator's mental
state?
What does the narrator mean by, "I got out at last?"
What does the ending of this story suggest about the
woman behind the wall-paper?
How are this woman and the wall-paper itself symbolic?