Charlotte Perkins Gilman The Yellow Wallpaper (1899)
Goal: Students will work in small groups to explore imagery, motifs and themes of
Gilman’s The Yellow Wallpaper. Students will connect their reading of Gilman’s work to
the historical context of the Woman’s Suffrage Movement.
Directions: Each group will have one element of the story to explore. You should do the
following:
1. survey your group by having an initial 5 minute discussion about your overall
opinion on your understanding of how the prompt relates to the story.
2. Go through the story. . piece by piece. . .Find at least 5-6 quotes to support
your topic. You are to write these quotes on the “big” paper. Make sure that
at least one of you marks up your text, so you can share with students where
you found the quotes.
3. Discuss what you learned about your topic now that you went through the
text. For example, What is the author saying about the role of marriage?
What support did you find?
GROUP #1and 2: EXPLORE the role of marriage and
John’s treatment of the narrator.
Groups #3 and 4 Examine how imagery/color shape the
story. What are recurring motifs?
Group #5 and 6 Describe the impact of “society” on the
narrator and the story. Who represents society? What
images are used to evoke society’s presence? What
does the narrator think of society?
Group #7 and 8 Evaluate whether this is a story about
sanity or insanity. What in the text leads you to
conclude that the narrator is insane? What leads you to
believe she could be sane?