The Yellow Wallpaper – page 2
Theme
The main theme on the first page is that of the inferior position of women in society to men.
This is shown through the relationship between the narrator and her husband, John. John
has control over her life. The narrator has given in to what John believes, stating things such
as “but one expects that in marriage.” Men are thought to be powerful and women weak.
Tone
The narrator has a curious and suspicious tone about the home that she and John have
moved into while she is sick. She questions “why should it be let so cheaply? And why have
stood so long untenanted?”
Mood
There is a Gothic mood to the narrator’s description of their new home. She describes it as a
“colonial mansion, a hereditary estate… a haunted house.” However, the mood of the
narrator is somewhat neutral as she has just arrived. This is also because she cannot express
herself around John and has been forced to supress her feelings. John is controlling over her
life, thoughts and emotions.
Word Choice
The narrator often has a statement and then contradicts herself by what John says and
thinks. For example “…if I had less opposition and more society and stimulus – but John says
the very worst thing I could do…” and so on. She is not able to express herself, sometimes
not even in her writing. She cannot do what she believes will make herself feel better.
Syntax
The narrator has a pattern of a simple statement followed by a compound or a compoundcomplex statement. She states “John is practical in the extreme.” – Simple. “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.” – Compound. The narrator later
continues with “And what can one do?” – Simple. “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?” –
Compound-complex. The use of sentence types shows how she has no way out of this and
has no way to express herself. The sentence structures show how she is trapped and reflects
the theme.
Anaphora and Repetition
The narrator repeats the simple sentence “but what is one to do?” This shows how she must
do as John says and cannot do what she feels will make her better. She also states
“Personally, I disagree with their ideas. Personally, I believe that congenial work, with
excitement and change would do me good.” The use of this anaphora shows how she really
doesn’t believe in John’s methods and can only express what she feels in her writing.
The Yellow Wallpaper
Notes on Page 4:
Themes:
Effects/Impact of boredom in individuals
Effects/Impact of confinement in individuals
Effects/Impact of control in individuals
Relationship between boredom and mental illness
Relationship between confinement and mental illness
Relationship between control and mental illness
Events:
Begins analysing the furniture/room in general
Obsessed with wallpaper (personified wallpaper)
Describes setting in great detail
Mood:
Empathy toward her frustration of the wallpaper
Slightly curious toward the wallpaper (to find out what more she is
seeing)
Tone:
Frustration with the wallpaper as well as her situation
A tone of boredom that is distracted by the mind numbing
entertainment/distraction of analysing the wallpaper
Syntax:
“He [John] 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.”
The
simple
sentence
following
the
long
compound-complex
sentence
emphasises the simplicity or the easy submission of the narrator to her
husband’s will. She did not appear to have any argument, or else has curbed
her disagreement to fight against his desire, indeed simply saying “so I try.”
“I wish I could get well faster. But I must not think about that.”
The repeated use of simple sentences emphasised the narrator’s ability to
think of only one thought within one period of time, and emphasises her
solid focus of “not [thinking] about that [getting well].”
“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.”
This complex sentence reflects the complexity of the pattern, and the
narrator’s growing obsession with the pattern – she did not use full-stops to
describe the “sub-pattern,” perhaps because she is too fascinated or too
engrossed with the pattern to do so.
Word Choices (including Imagery):
Words with Positive Connotations:
Used to describe the outside.
“I get a lovely view of the bay and little private wharf… There is a beautiful
shaded lane…”
“A lovely shaded winding road… a lovely country too, full of great elms and
velvet meadows.”
This is curious as the narrator herself is ‘trapped’ in the house. Perhaps these
positive connotations reflect her desire leave the house without requiring
permission or an escort. Could it be a type of transference where the
narrator
transfers
her
desire
into
writing
description of the outside instead?
Used also to describe her childhood memories.
a
detailed
and
beautiful
“I could always hop into that chair and be safe.”
The narrator lets the readers understand through this statement that she
had happy memories of her childhood, and this appears to juxtapose with
the room that she is forced to live in.
Used to describe John’s sister.
“Such a dear girl… a perfect and enthusiastic housekeeper.”
This appears to be the narrator attempting to try and ‘overcompensate’ for
the disgust that she has for the room – she appears to try very hard to find
positive points about her life and the way she is being treated, and upon
finding them, she exaggerates – perhaps to make herself feel better about
her life.
Words with Negative Connotations:
Used to describe the wallpaper.
“I get positively angry with the impertinence of it and the everlastingness…
the wall-paper is torn off in spots – they [the children] must have had
perseverance as well as hatred… particularly irritating one [pattern].”
These negative connotations firstly emphasises the narrator’s dislike for the
pattern, but perhaps also reflects the narrator’s own mood of despair, as she
cannot escape from seeing the wallpaper (as she lives in the room). Also,
considering the many sentences the narrator had used to describe the
wallpaper, it was something resting deeply on her mind. The negatively
connoted words emphasise that it isn’t something that the narrator would
like to have to remain in her mind.
Note: Because she spends most of the day in the room, she might not have
anything else to think about, resulting in the constant dwelling of the
wallpaper and her irritation with it. Although it is technically her choice to
dwell on the wallpaper, she had nothing else to replace her it in her
thoughts. Thus, perhaps due to the lack of choice, it can be considered that
she is forced to think about the wallpaper – no other stimuli to think about.
Used to describe the room in general.
“The furniture in this room is no worse than inharmonious… I never saw such
ravages as the children made here… the floor is scratched and gouged and
splintered…”
It is interesting that the narrator used the specific word “inharmonious,”
because it can also be considered that her life and her husband’s perception
of her life is “inharmonious.”
Also, the past tense of the negatively connoted words of “scratched,”
“gouged,” and “splintered” gives the room a sense of ethereality, as it has
suffered through past, unknown, and relatively spooky events.
Personification:
Personification is used a lot in this page, perhaps because the narrator is
being isolated, and is feeling quite lonely. Thus, animating inanimate objects
may become essential to reduce that sense of loneliness.
Used for the outside.
“The riotous old-fashioned flowers, and bushes and gnarly trees… [the]
shaded lane that runs down there…”
This is used for the emphasis on the beautiful outdoors, and for extra detail
for the description. Also, it emphasises the narrator’s idea that the outside is
pristine and alive – a peaceful place that is (possibly) able to help her out of
her “nervous weakness.”
Also used for the paper.
“The paper looks to me as if it knew what a vicious influence it had!”
This statement is important as it emphasises to the audience that the
narrator sees the paper as having a life, and perhaps her feeling that even
the paper was against her, as were the people around her. Also, it increases
the sense of ethereality of the room, as even inanimate objects were given
life.
Used for wallpaper.
“The pattern lolls… up and down and sideways they crawl…”
This once again is another description of the pattern, emphasising the
narrator’s obsession with it, but the curious thing about this is that she
wrote “sideways they crawl.” This emphasises the personification, as “they”
appears to be a word that is more easily related to the readers rather than
“it,” which is more neutral. This possibly emphasises the feeling of the
narrator that the pattern is alive and “[crawling]”.
Used for childhood memories.
“I remember what a kindly wink the knobs of our big, old bureau used to
have…”
The narrator appeared to have always reached out to inanimate objects for
help, even when she was a child. As a child, it is considered relatively normal
to personify inanimate objects (for example a favourite plush toy), as the
narrator
had
personified
her
bureau.
But,
as
an
adult,
constant
personification (as the narrator did) starts to get slightly more worrying.
Adults should be constantly surrounded by living people who would help the
individual through tough times. This is not happening to the narrator. No
one appears to know how to help her.
Similes:
“The pattern lolls like a broken neck and two bulbous eyes.”
This description is interesting as this means that the narrator is surrounded
by death (she is surrounded by the wallpaper). This is figurative, and all in
the narrator’s mind.
Metaphor:
“Those absurd, unblinking eyes are everywhere.”
By comparing the pattern as eyes, this emphasises the idea that the
narrator is uncomfortable in the room, and that she might feel like she is
being watched – not being able to be herself and tell the closest people
around her of the truth of how she felt, and what she felt she required –
work.
Repetition:
Adjuncts were used commonly in the narrator’s writing.
“But I must not think about that.”
“But I don’t mind it a bit.”
“But I can write when she is out.”
“But” is a with a relatively neutral connotation. However, it does reflect the
sense of disagreement, or the sense of unrest. The repeated use of these as
adjuncts (which also emphasises the feeling of disagreement) reflects the
narrator’s disquiet mood about being constantly at rest and being unable to
have any ‘stimulating’ activity.
Extra Notes:
Juxtapositions were present in the page.
“When I get really well, John says we will ask Cousin Henry and Julia
down for along visit; but he says he would as soon put fireworks in my
pillow-case as to let me have those stimulating people about now.”
“Well” and “long” both do not have much of a connotation, but “fireworks”
and “stimulating” does. This juxtaposition could reflect how the narrator
only has dull, unstimulating events in her life – perhaps she is awaiting
excitement?
“I
used
to
lie
awake
more entertainment and terror out
as
of
a
child
and
get
blank
walls
and
plain
furniture than most children could find in a toy store.”
Firstly, the juxtaposition of “entertainment” and “terror” could emphasise
how intense the narrator’s emotions had been when she was a child, (this in
turn juxtaposes with her lack of stimulating emotions as an adult).
Secondly, the juxtaposition of the “blank walls and plain furniture” and “a
toy store.” This showed that the narrator never wanted much, and was at
peace with what she had (when she was a child). It is ironic that in the
future (when she is an adult), she does not have what she needs – i.e. a
supportive individual in her life.
Also, written in present tense. Makes it feel more current and perhaps more
engaging.
‘The Yellow Wallpaper’ - Page 5
Theme + events
Suppression of Feelings
On page 5, the narrator spends the first half talking about all the restriction John is
implementing of only having very few visitors. He implements this as he feels it is
good for her to not be around many people to avoid brain stimulation. Although she
does not directly express it, it is clear she is not content with this. She suppresses her
feelings on this topic and moves on to other topics. For example, she accidentally
ends up talking about the yellow wallpaper. For a large majority of the page, she is
describing the horrors of the wallpaper in great depth, blowing it way out of
proportion. This is subconscious her outlet for her anger towards John.
Tone
The tone of the page is slightly sarcastic. The sarcastic tone is present when the
narrator says " I had a friend who was in his hands once, and she says he is just like
john and my brother, only more so!." This shows sarcasm as from this text I believe
no one could be worse than john as he does not take the women (the protagonist)
seriously and does not listen to her wants or needs. Another sarcastic example is
“John is kept in town very often by serious cases." This is sarcastic as he is her
husband and this should not be put others before her. Another point is that if the
woman's case was not serious why is she being kept in captivity and not allowed to do
anything. The statement “John says I mustn't lose my strength." This statement is
sarcastic if john did not want her to lose her strength then he should have let her
keep active to maintain her muscles and keep her strength.
Mood
-¼ of the page is spent talking about the wallpaper which creates a sort of agitated
mood. The focus on something like wallpaper designs makes the reader feel confused
and frustrated in a way- the very feelings the woman in the short story has.
Syntax communicating tone/mood/change in pace.
-The narrator uses quite a few long compound sentences such as “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’ve heard
of.” These sentences make the text seem stretched out and like someone could get
easily lost reading it. This assist in making the frustrated and agitated mood the
woman feels, come through to the readers.
-Another mood that is found within the page is empathy. The use of exclamation
marks in non-exclamatory sentences (e.g. “There’s sister on the stairs!”, “It dwells in
my mind so!”, “Dear John”) makes the woman in the text seem very frantic and
uncomfortable in her surroundings which makes the readers feel empathy.
-However, the narrator does use a few short, simple sentences (e.g. “it dwells in my
mind so!”, “I don’t know why I should write this” and “of course I didn’t do a thing”).
This makes parts of the text flow, and seems to be moving at a quick pace which
helps us understand that the woman in the story is over thinking/over analysing
things and has an over-active mind.
Repetition/anaphora
There is repetition in the yellow wallpaper of tiredness. The saying is repeated in “I
am tired all the same” and “I am tired out “this shows the significance of the woman
being tired and with repeating tiredness it shows the woman is very tired. Another
repetition is the idea of horizontal wallpaper. This is used in “the whole thing goes
horizontally “also “they have used a horizontal breadth." This repetition of horizontal
shows how much the woman dwells on the appearance of the wallpaper as it's all that
she sees and it takes all of her time and attention. The anaphora in the passage is
when the narrator says “I don't know ..., I don't want to ..., and I don't feel able to ...."
This shows the significance of the “I" which emphasises the personal attachment and
the strong amount of meaning she has on the words, as she cannot write when she
wanted to.
Word choice
Words describing the wallpaper: All these describe the wallpaper as horrible way out
of proportion
Plunges – negative connotation – plunging to death
Grotesque – negative connotation – a step more than disgusting, disgustingly
intrigued
Wallowing – negative connotation –
Optic horror – Using horror to just describe wallpaper is not necessary yet she
describes it that way any way which shows how strongly she feels about said
wallpaper.
More page 5 notes
Themes and Events


John babying her
She confronts John (at the end)
She begins to see a woman in the wallpaper
Tone



Concerning
Soft
John isn’t angry, more worried, so he uses a gentle tone
Defiant
Mood


Tense – she isn’t happy about where she is and John won’t listen to her
Awkward – this is because she’s finally standing up to John
Uncomfortable – the fact that they are arguing makes it uncomfortable to read
Repetition and Anaphora


Creep – it describes the wallpaper, her and the woman in the pattern
he said – this gives a very controlling tone to how John is speaking to her
woman – this is what she refers to the figure in the wallpaper as
Word choice



‘little’, ‘darling’ and ‘girl’ (this shows that he is treating her like a child)
She uses quite dark and uncomfortable words when describing the wallpaper
The fact that she mentions being in a nursery again shows that John is treating her like a
baby
John uses the word ‘dear’ a lot, suggesting he really cares about her
Techniques
‘The faint figure behind seemed to shake the pattern, as if she wanted to get out’ – simile –
this shows how she is feeling trapped
“THE YELLLOW WALLPAPER”
PAGE 7
Syntax:
-“He thought I was asleep at 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 separately.”
This sentence is Compound-Complex. This also suggests that she
is over thinking and over analysing the wallpaper. Readers begin
to become curious of her mental state and question why she is
treating the wallpaper as if it is alive (personifying it). Where she
says “he thought I was asleep at first..” also makes her seem very
shady making the readers wary of her.
“The colour is hideous enough, and unreliable enough, and
infuriating enough, but the pattern is torturing”
This compound sentence indicates the writer has an obsession
with the pattern. Torturing in this context means that the pattern
is addicting. This is also a strange quote given by the writer.
“The fact is I am getting a little afraid of John.”
This is a simple sentence. The simplicity of this sentence
emphasises the sentence even more.
“At night in any kind of light, in twilight, candlelight, lamplight and
worst of all by moonlight, it becomes bars!”
This is a compound sentence which shows the writers mental
state declining. “it becomes bars!” is the highlight of the sentence
proving her obsession over the wallpaper. To know how deeply
she is thinking about it just shows that there is something terribly
wrong. The exclamation mark shows her excitement, this further
proves the points above.
Tone pg 7
The Yellow Wallpaper
The wall paper is first described as being “a bad dream”. The author uses
descriptive language and repetition to describe how she feels about the wall
paper: “The colour is hideous enough, unreliable enough, and infuriating
enough, but the pattern is torturing.” Her tone is dark and displeasing, and
there are no positive connotations toward it. The outside pattern is compared
to a fungus “If you can imagine a toadstool in joints, and interminable string of
toadstools.’’
However this tone changes further down the page where the outside pattern
has transformed from a hideous fungus, to bars. And it brings to mind the
transition from something blurred and messy, to a clean sharp image of bars.
The sub pattern is then personified to represent a subdued woman by the
daylight, so again the tone has changed from uncertain to sharp visual images
she is seeing.
This is a rapid change in tone as it displays how fast her mental state is
changing concerning the wall paper, and how deeper enveloped in the wall
paper she has become, where she is seeing distinct shapes: from fungus to
bars, and from a torturing pattern to a subdued woman.
THE YELLOW WALLPAPER – page 8
Theme and events
She sees the woman creeping around outside her window during the daylight, and confesses that
she creeps around at night while John is asleep. She is starting to find John and Jennie weird and
claims that they are both lying to her. The day before she was leaving the mansion she rips the
yellow wallpaper that the woman is stuck in and believes the wallpaper laughs at her when the sun
comes up. At night she stays by herself in the room while Jennie and the servants leaves and
analyses it claiming it looks bare.
Themes:



The damage isolation can do to a mind
Hallucinations becoming reality
The effect of an overactive mind
Tone





Desperation
Urgency
Paranoid
Hallucinated Happiness
Excitement
Mood


Moody - her mood changes as sometimes she's paranoid aboout the creeping woman and
sometimes shes suspicious of John and Jennie whike other times she becomes happy of her
achievement in ripping the wallpaper.
Excitment - she is also excited and looked forward in completing her "work" and counts the
days left before they leave to finish her work.
Syntax and communicating tone/mood/change in pace


Punctuation: many commas are used within sentences creating the effect that her thoughts
are disjointed
A lot of simple sentences are used by the persona at the second half the page suggesting
that she has changed her perspective of working. Instead of treating writing as work in her
life, the persona has began thinking ripping the wallpaper as the work in her life.
Word Choice:




Exclaimation marks is frequently used, it suggests a lot about her mood changes and her
urgency to get her work done. When she's paranoid she uses exclamation marks, when shes
supsicious, when shes happy and when shes urgent to get her work done.
There is a repetition of I suggesting that she is becoming detached from reality, in her
perspective there's only her left, even though Jennie snd John still interact wtih her, she
views them as outsiders who are deceiving her.
There's is also a repetition of creeping suggesting the importance and dominance of the
woman in the persona's life..
She personifies the wallpaper a lot such as ".....that awful pattern began to laugh at me"
showing thst because of the isolation she was kept in, she began turning her attention to the
inanimate things in her life to communicate and feel a sense of normality.
Page 9
What is the major theme/major themes that jump out at you from this page? Why? What events
occur on this page?
In the story, the mentally unstable narrator has stripped the wallpaper off and starts
creeping around the room when her husband shows up. “Then I peeled off all the paper I could
reach standing on the floor”. The quotation “I’ve got out at last” displays that the narrator had
gained freedom in exchange of her sanity. The examples convey the major theme of importance of
freedom. In addition, the last page exhibits the theme of gender equality by showing the husband,
who was supposed to be in a control of the situation, fainting by narrator’s unexpected actions.
“Now why should that man have fainted?”.
What is the tone of the page? Does it shift and where?
The tone of the page ten is urgent; the narrator engages in using a lot of exclamation marks
and short sentences, which creates a fast shift in events, leading readers to feel tense and anxiety.
The tone of the narrator is active, in control, creeping over her husband. The usage of short, minor
sentences creates the tone of overexcitement.
What is the mood? Does it shift and where?
The usage of emotive language, such as ‘hurt’, ‘angry’, and ‘desperate’ creates intensity in
the story. Also, repetition of the word ‘creep’ adds to the uncanny atmosphere. The tones of these
descriptive words have connotations of anguish and insanity and add to the mood of desperation.
Anaphora is a language technique that is also used at the beginning of paragraph one to increase the
mood of desperation “I don’t want to go out, and I don’t want to have anybody come in”. The
statement “I don’t” is repeated throughout the final page, “I don’t like to look out of the windows”,
“I don’t want to go outside”. This can insinuate that she is taking control now or embracing her
emotions rather than being controlled.
How does syntax help communicate tone and mood?
The narrator is explaining her mood in step by step, using a lot of brief and short simple sentences,
for example, ‘But I must get to work’ or ‘I want to astonish him’. Not only do these short sentences
display the narrator’s liberation from her restricting husband but they also show the true essence of
her emotions; she is no longer using coherent sophisticated syntax but instead emulating her
unrestrained mentality by using minor and simple sentence structures. This form of sentence
structure indicates her insanity comparing to a lot of complex compound and sophisticated
sentences in the beginning of the story. The narrator also uses relatively use then, I and now, also
implying her loss of intelligence. There are numbers of emotive language, such as ‘hurt’, ‘angry’ and
‘desperate’, which creates a depressed tone, letting readers to feel sympathy towards the narrator.