Questions for “The Yellow Wallpaper”
1. What is important about the title, “The Yellow Wallpaper”?
2. Could the wallpaper have been any other color? What are the
psychological implications of the color "yellow"? How would a different
color change the story?
3. How does the narrator's description of the wallpaper change over time?
How is the wallpaper representative of the domestic sphere?
4. Could the story have taken place in a different place (or at a different
time)? Why does the narrator live in a "colonial mansion"? What does
the setting mean? Is it important?
5. Why does Charlotte Perkins Gilman change the point of view? Is it an
effective technique?
6. Why does the narrator say: "what can one do?"? How does that
statement represent her state of mind?
7. What are the conflicts in The Yellow Wallpaper? What types of conflict
(physical, moral, intellectual, or emotional) did you notice? Is the
conflict resolved?
8. What is the role of women in the text? How are mothers represented?
What about single/independent women? What is important about
women--in the historical context?
9. How does the narrator's relationship with her husband evolve/change?
Does her mental state improve or worsen?
10. Compare the main character in The Yellow Wallpaper with the mad
woman in the attic (from Jane Eyre). What does love have to do with it?
What about mental illness?