The Yellow Wallpaper

By charlotte perkins gilman, the yellow wallpaper character list.

Modeled after Charlotte Perkins Gilman, the narrator in “The Yellow Wallpaper” is a young wife and mother who has recently began to suffer symptoms of depression and anxiety. Although she does not believe that anything is wrong with her, John, her physician husband, diagnoses her with neurasthenia and prescribes several months of S. Weir Mitchell’s famed “rest cure.” In addition to being confined to the nursery in their rented summer home, the narrator is expressly forbidden to write or engage in any creative activity. The narrator desperately wants to please her husband and assume her role as an ideal mother and wife, but she is unable to balance her husband’s needs with her desire to express her creativity. While attempting to adhere to John’s wishes for the most part, the narrator secretly writes in her journal, seeking solace from her extreme loneliness and inactivity. Over the course of the story, the narrator also begins to find comfort in the hideous yellow wallpaper that covers the walls of the nursery. She gradually begins to see a female figure trapped behind the bar-like pattern of the wallpaper and realizes that both she and the figure are suffering from oppression and imprisonment. As the narrator becomes more and more preoccupied with the pattern of the wallpaper, she forgets her desire to become the perfect wife and mother and thinks only of a way to release the imprisoned woman from the wallpaper. Gilman’s increasingly choppy prose and disjointed stream-of-consciousness express the narrator’s growing insanity with each passing day. By the end of the story, the narrator has lost all sense of reality, and John discovers her creeping around the perimeter of the nursery, following the endless pattern of the wallpaper. While she discards her duty as a wife and mother, as well as her sanity, the narrator ultimately triumphs in her personal quest to release the woman in the wallpaper - and thus liberates herself.

In some editions of the story, the narrator declares her liberation from the wallpaper and the rational world by proclaiming, "I've got out at last...in spite of you and Jane." Some scholars argue that "Jane" is simply a misprint for "Jennie," John's sister and housekeeper. Yet, it is also possible that "Jane" is the actual name of the narrator, a character who remains a nameless stereotype of female social oppression for the entirely of the story. If this "Jane" is, in fact, the narrator, then Gilman suggests that the narrator's liberation from sanity and the bars of the wallpaper also means an "escape" from her own sense of self.

The husband of the narrator, John is a practical physician who believes that his wife is suffering from nothing more than a “slight hysterical tendency.” He prescribes the “rest cure,” confining the narrator to the nursery and forbidding her to exercise her creative imagination in any way. His antagonism toward her imagination stems from his own rationality and personal anxiety about creativity; he scoffs openly at the narrator’s fancies and is incapable of understanding her true nature. Throughout the story, he treats her in an infantile manner, referring to her as his “blessed little goose” and “little girl.” Moreover, when the narrator attempts to discuss her unhappiness with the situation in a mature manner, he refuses to accept her as an equal and simply carries her back up to the nursery for more bed rest. He is fixed in his authoritative position as husband and doctor and cannot adapt his strategy to account for her opinion on the matter. He believes in a strict, paternalistic divide between men and women; men work outside of the home, as he does, while women like Jennie, his sister, and Mary, the nanny, tend to the house.

Although John is set up as the villain of the story, he can also be seen as a more sympathetic character. He clearly loves his wife and relies on her for his own happiness. Yet he is unable to reconcile her creative desires with his own rationality or the chauvinistic expectations of the time period. His wife is unable or unwilling to adhere to the ideal model of domesticity expressed by the 19th-century society, and John is at a loss as to what to do. His solution is to use Weir Mitchell’s rest cure to “fix” his wife, and he does not realize that his own actions push her over the edge of insanity.

Woman in the wallpaper

Although the narrator eventually believes that she sees many women in the yellow wallpaper, she centers on one in particular. The woman appears to be trapped within the bar-like pattern of the wallpaper, and she shakes the pattern as she tries to break out. The woman is most active by moonlight, a symbol of femininity and a sign that John’s strict daytime regimen is no longer applicable to the narrator.

Over time, as the narrator’s insanity deepens, she identifies completely with this woman and believes that she, too, is trapped within the wallpaper. As a ghostly counterpart of the narrator, the woman in the wallpaper also symbolizes female imprisonment within the domestic sphere. Unable to break free from the room, like the narrator, the woman in the wallpaper has only the symbolic option of tending to the house as a wife or mother. The woman’s habit of “creeping” suggests that she must still be secretive after she has achieved her liberation. Social norms will not accept her freedom from the domestic sphere, and so she must creep furtively and lie in wait in the shadows of the wallpaper.

Jennie is the narrator’s sister-in-law and takes care of the house during the narrator’s illness. Although she does not play an active role in the narrative, she is a constant reminder of the narrator's inability to assume her proper role as John's wife and housekeeper. Always maintaining a passive position under John's supervision, Jennie symbolizes the happily domesticated woman who does not find anything wrong with her domestic prison. However, Gilman also suggests that there may be more to Jennie than meets the eye: the narrator acknowledges that Jennie is aware of the narrator's growing interest in the wallpaper and even discusses her future with John.

Mary takes care of the narrator and John's baby. With her name a possible allusion to the Virgin Mary, Mary is the perfect mother-surrogate for the narrator, an idealized maternal figure whose only concern is her child. Like Jennie, she also symbolizes the happily domesticated woman. Although Mary is even less present in the text than Jennie, she still serves to remind the narrator of her personal failings as a 19th century woman, particularly in terms of her own child.

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The Yellow Wallpaper Questions and Answers

The Question and Answer section for The Yellow Wallpaper is a great resource to ask questions, find answers, and discuss the novel.

Which of the following best summarizes a central idea of the text?

I'm sorry, you will need to provide the answer choices in your posts.

what is the central idea of the text

None of these really match but C is the closest.

Why is she not able to make a “very good case for [her]self”? .

I think the narrator is under a lot of stress and suffers under her oppressive husband. She has mental health issues.

Study Guide for The Yellow Wallpaper

The Yellow Wallpaper study guide contains a biography of Charlotte Perkins Gilman, literature essays, a complete e-text, quiz questions, major themes, characters, and a full summary and analysis.

  • About The Yellow Wallpaper
  • The Yellow Wallpaper Summary
  • Character List

Essays for The Yellow Wallpaper

The Yellow Wallpaper literature essays are academic essays for citation. These papers were written primarily by students and provide critical analysis of The Yellow Wallpaper.

  • Responding to the Wallpaper
  • The Stages of Feminine Injustice
  • "Personally, I Disagree With Their Ideas"
  • Paper, Paper, On the Wall...
  • Prescription to Madness

Lesson Plan for The Yellow Wallpaper

  • About the Author
  • Study Objectives
  • Introduction to The Yellow Wallpaper
  • Relationship to Other Books
  • Notes to the Teacher

E-Text of The Yellow Wallpaper

The Yellow Wallpaper E-Text contains the full text of The Yellow Wallpaper

  • Full Text of The Yellow Wallpaper

Wikipedia Entries for The Yellow Wallpaper

  • Introduction
  • Plot summary
  • Interpretations
  • Dramatic adaptations

character analysis on the yellow wallpaper

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Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s classic short story, "The Yellow Wallpaper" tells the story of a young woman’s gradual descent into psychosis. " The Yellow Wallpaper" is often cited as an early feminist work that predates a woman’s right to vote in the United States. The author was involved in first-wave feminism, and her other works questioned the origins of the subjugation of women, particularly in marriage. "

The Yellow Wallpaper" is a widely read work that asks difficult questions about the role of women, particularly regarding their mental health and right to autonomy and self-identity. We’ll go over The Yellow Wallpaper summary, themes and symbols, The Yellow Wallpaper analysis, and some important information about the author.

"The Yellow Wallpaper" Summary

"The Yellow Wallpaper" details the deterioration of a woman's mental health while she is on a "rest cure" on a rented summer country estate with her family. Her obsession with the yellow wallpaper in her bedroom marks her descent into psychosis from her depression throughout the story.

The narrator of "The Yellow Wallpaper" begins the story by discussing her move to a beautiful estate for the summer. Her husband, John, is also her doctor , and the move is meant in part to help the narrator overcome her “illness,” which she explains as nervous depression, or nervousness, following the birth of their baby. John’s sister, Jennie, also lives with them and works as their housekeeper.

Though her husband believes she will get better with rest and by not worrying about anything, the narrator has an active imagination and likes to write . He discourages her wonder about the house, and dismisses her interests. She mentions her baby more than once, though there is a nurse that cares for the baby, and the narrator herself is too nervous to provide care.

The narrator and her husband move into a large room that has ugly, yellow wallpaper that the narrator criticizes. She asks her husband if they can change rooms and move downstairs, and he rejects her. The more she stays in the room, the more the narrator’s fascination with the hideous wallpaper grows.

After hosting family for July 4th, the narrator expresses feeling even worse and more exhausted. She struggles to do daily activities, and her mental state is deteriorating. John encourages her to rest more, and the narrator hides her writing from him because he disapproves.

In the time between July 4th and their departure, the narrator is seemingly driven insane by the yellow wallpaper ; she sleeps all day and stays up all night to stare at it, believing that it comes alive, and the patterns change and move. Then, she begins to believe that there is a woman in the wallpaper who alters the patterns and is watching her.

A few weeks before their departure, John stays overnight in town and the narrator wants to sleep in the room by herself so she can stare at the wallpaper uninterrupted. She locks out Jennie and believes that she can see the woman in the wallpaper . John returns and frantically tries to be let in, and the narrator refuses; John is able to enter the room and finds the narrator crawling on the floor. She claims that the woman in the wallpaper has finally exited, and John faints, much to her surprise.

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Background on "The Yellow Wallpaper"

The author, Charlotte Perkins Gilman, was a lecturer for social reform, and her beliefs and philosophy play an important part in the creation of "The Yellow Wallpaper," as well as the themes and symbolism in the story. "The Yellow Wallpaper" also influenced later feminist writers.

Charlotte Perkins Gilman

Charlotte Perkins Gilman, known as Charlotte Perkins Stetsman while she was married to her first husband, was born in Hartford, CT in 1860. Young Charlotte was observed as being bright, but her mother wasn’t interested in her education, and Charlotte spent lots of time in the library.

Charlotte married Charles Stetsman in 1884, and her daughter was born in 1885. She suffered from serious postpartum depression after giving birth to their daughter, Katharine. Her battle with postpartum depression and the doctors she dealt with during her illness inspired her to write "The Yellow Wallpaper."

The couple separated in 1888, the year that Perkins Gilman wrote her first book, Art Gems for the Home and Fireside. She later wrote "The Yellow Wallpaper" in 1890, while she was in a relationship with Adeline Knapp, and living apart from her legal husband. "The Yellow Wallpaper" was published in 1892, and in 1893 she published a book of satirical poetry , In This Our World, which gained her fame.

Eventually, Perkins Gilman got officially divorced from Stetsman, and ended her relationship with Knapp. She married her cousin, Houghton Gilman, and claimed to be satisfied in the marriage .

Perkins Gilman made a living as a lecturer on women’s issues, labor issues, and social reform . She toured Europe and the U.S. as a lecturer, and founded her own magazine, The Forerunner.

Publication

"The Yellow Wallpaper" was first published in January 1892 in New England Magazine.

During Perkins Gilman's lifetime, the role of women in American society was heavily restricted both socially and legally. At the time of its publication, women were still twenty-six years away from gaining the right to vote .

This viewpoint on women as childish and weak meant that they were discouraged from having any control over their lives. Women were encouraged or forced to defer to their husband’s opinions in all aspects of life , including financially, socially, and medically. Writing itself was revolutionary, since it would create a sense of identity, and was thought to be too much for the naturally fragile women.

Women's health was a particularly misunderstood area of medicine, as women were viewed as nervous, hysterical beings, and were discouraged from doing anything to further “upset” them. The prevailing wisdom of the day was that rest would cure hysteria, when in reality the constant boredom and lack of purpose likely worsened depression .

Perkins Gilman used her own experience in her first marriage and postpartum depression as inspiration for The Yellow Wallpaper, and illustrates how a woman’s lack of autonomy is detrimental to her mental health.

Upon its publication, Perkins Gilman sent a copy of "The Yellow Wallpaper" to the doctor who prescribed her the rest cure for her postpartum depression.

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"The Yellow Wallpaper" Characters

Though there are only a few characters in the story, they each have an important role. While the story is about the narrator’s mental deterioration, the relationships in her life are essential for understanding why and how she got to this point.

The Narrator

The narrator of the story is a young, upper-middle-class woman. She is imaginative and a natural writer, though she is discouraged from exploring this part of herself. She is a new mother and is thought to have “hysterical tendencies” or suffer from nervousness. Her name may be Jane but it is unclear.

John is the narrator’s husband and her physician. He restricts her activity as a part of her treatment. John is extremely practical, and belittles the narrator's imagination and feelings . He seems to care about her well-being, but believes he knows what is best for her and doesn't allow her input.

Jennie is John’s sister, who works as a housekeeper for the couple. Jennie seems concerned for the narrator, as indicated by her offer to sleep in the yellow wallpapered room with her. Jennie seems content with her domestic role .

Main Themes of "The Yellow Wallpaper"

From what we know about the author of this story and from interpreting the text, there are a few themes that are clear from a "Yellow Wallpaper" analysis. "The Yellow Wallpaper" was a serious piece of literature that addressed themes pertinent to women.

Women's Role in Marriage

Women were expected to be subordinate to their husbands and completely obedient, as well as take on strictly domestic roles inside the home . Upper middle class women, like the narrator, may go for long periods of time without even leaving the home. The story reveals that this arrangement had the effect of committing women to a state of naïveté, dependence, and ignorance.

John assumes he has the right to determine what’s best for his wife, and this authority is never questioned. He belittles her concerns, both concrete and the ones that arise as a result of her depression , and is said so brush her off and “laugh at her” when she speaks through, “this is to be expected in marriage” He doesn’t take her concerns seriously, and makes all the decisions about both of their lives.

As such, she has no say in anything in her life, including her own health, and finds herself unable to even protest.

Perkins Gilman, like many others, clearly disagreed with this state of things, and aimed to show the detrimental effects that came to women as a result of their lack of autonomy.

Identity and Self-Expression

Throughout the story, the narrator is discouraged from doing the things she wants to do and the things that come naturally to her, like writing. On more than one occasion, she hurries to put her journal away because John is approaching .

She also forces herself to act as though she’s happy and satisfied, to give the illusion that she is recovering, which is worse. She wants to be a good wife, according to the way the role is laid out for her, but struggles to conform especially with so little to actually do.

The narrator is forced into silence and submission through the rest cure, and desperately needs an intellectual and emotional outlet . However, she is not granted one and it is clear that this arrangement takes a toll.

The Rest Cure

The rest cure was commonly prescribed during this period of history for women who were “nervous.” Perkins Gilman has strong opinions about the merits of the rest cure , having been prescribed it herself. John’s insistence on the narrator getting “air” constantly, and his insistence that she do nothing that requires mental or physical stimulation is clearly detrimental.

The narrator is also discouraged from doing activities, whether they are domestic- like cleaning or caring for her baby- in addition to things like reading, writing, and exploring the grounds of the house. She is stifled and confined both physically and mentally, which only adds to her condition .

Perkins Gilman damns the rest cure in this story, by showing the detrimental effects on women, and posing that women need mental and physical stimulation to be healthy, and need to be free to make their own decisions over health and their lives.

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The Yellow Wallpaper Analysis: Symbols and Symbolism

Symbols are a way for the author to give the story meaning, and provide clues as to the themes and characters. There are two major symbols in "The Yellow Wallpaper."

The Yellow Wallpaper

This is of course the most important symbol in the story. The narrator is immediately fascinated and disgusted by the yellow wallpaper, and her understanding and interpretation fluctuates and intensifies throughout the story.

The narrator, because she doesn’t have anything else to think about or other mental stimulation, turns to the yellow wallpaper as something to analyze and interpret. The pattern eventually comes into focus as bars, and then she sees a woman inside the pattern . This represents feeling trapped.

At the end of the story, the narrator believes that the woman has come out of the wallpaper. This indicates that the narrator has finally merged fully into her psychosis , and become one with the house and domesticated discontent.

Though Jennie doesn’t have a major role in the story, she does present a foil to the narrator. Jennie is John’s sister and their housekeeper, and she is content, or so the narrator believes, to live a domestic life. Though she does often express her appreciation for Jennie’s presence in her home, she is clearly made to feel guilty by Jennie’s ability to run the household unencumbered .

Irony in The Yellow Wallpaper

"The Yellow Wallpaper" makes good use of dramatic and situational irony. Dramatic literary device in which the reader knows or understands things that the characters do not. Situational irony is when the character’s actions are meant to do one thing, but actually do another. Here are a few examples.

For example, when the narrator first enters the room with the yellow wallpaper, she believes it to be a nursery . However, the reader can clearly see that the room could have just as easily been used to contain a mentally unstable person.

The best example of situational irony is the way that John continues to prescribe the rest-cure, which worsens the narrator's state significantly. He encourages her to lie down after meals and sleep more, which causes her to be awake and alert at night, when she has time to sit and evaluate the wallpaper.

The Yellow Wallpaper Summary

"The Yellow Wallpaper" is one of the defining works of feminist literature. Writing about a woman’s health, mental or physical, was considered a radical act at the time that Perkins Gilman wrote this short story. Writing at all about the lives of women was considered at best, frivolous, and at worst dangerous. When you take a look at The Yellow Wallpaper analysis, the story is an important look into the role of women in marriage and society, and it will likely be a mainstay in the feminist literary canon.

What's Next?

Looking for more expert guides on literary classics? Read our guides on The Cask of Amontillado and The Great Gatsby .

Need important and interesting quotes? Check out these 18 To Kill a Mockingbird Quotes and 9 Great Mark Twain Quotes .

For help analyzing literature and writing essays , read our expert guide on imagery , literary elements , and writing an argumentative essay .

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Carrie holds a Bachelors in Writing, Literature, and Publishing from Emerson College, and is currently pursuing an MFA. She worked in book publishing for several years, and believes that books can open up new worlds. She loves reading, the outdoors, and learning about new things.

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The Yellow Wallpaper

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The Narrator

The narrator of “The Yellow Wallpaper” is a writer whose husband has forbade her to work due to a mysterious ailment called “temporary nervous depression,” or “a slight hysterical tendency” (131). She is married to a physician named John and has recently given birth to a baby boy. With her husband John, their infant son and two others, the narrator spends a summer in a rented mansion in the countryside. Although she claims an attachment to her infant son, the narrator cannot bear to spend time with him, which suggests she is suffering from what is now understood to be postpartum depression and/or anxiety. As the summer passes, the narrator spends little time in the company of others, and her mental health steadily declines until she loses all sense of reality. Although she makes efforts to alert her husband to her worsening condition and to her own treatment preferences, he ignores her wishes and condition, which only makes the situation worse. The narrator appears to know what she needs, but she is denied and dismissed, which only intensifies her decline.

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Interesting Literature

A Summary and Analysis of Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s ‘The Yellow Wallpaper’

By Dr Oliver Tearle

‘The Yellow Wallpaper’, an 1892 short story by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, has the structure and style of a diary. This is in keeping with what the female narrator tells us: that she can only write down her experiences when her husband John is not around, since he has forbidden her to write until she is well again, believing it will overexcite her.

Through a series of short instalments, we learn more about the narrator’s situation, and her treatment at the hands of her doctor husband and her sister-in-law. You can read ‘The Yellow Wallpaper’ here before moving on to our summary and analysis below.

To summarise the story, then: the narrator and her husband John, a doctor, have come to stay at a large country house. As the story develops, we realise that the woman’s husband has brought her to the house in order to try to cure her of her mental illness (he has told her that repairs are being carried out on their home, which is why they have had to relocate to a mansion).

His solution, or treatment, is effectively to lock her away from everyone – including her own family, except for him – and to forbid her anything that might excite her, such as writing. (She writes her account of what happens to her, and the effect it has on her, in secret, hiding her pen and paper when her husband or his sister come into the room.)

John’s suggested treatment for his wife also extends to relieving her of maternal duties: their baby is taken out of her hands and looked after by John’s sister, Jennie. Jennie also does all of the cooking and housework.

It becomes clear, as the story develops, that depriving the female narrator of anything to occupy her mind is making her mental illness worse, not better.

The narrator confides that she cannot even cry in her husband’s company, or when anyone else is present, because that will be interpreted as a sign that her condition is worsening – and her husband has promised (threatened?) to send her to another doctor, Weir Mitchell, if her condition doesn’t show signs of improving. And according to a female friend who has been treated by him, Weir Mitchell is like her husband and brother ‘only more so’ (i.e. stricter).

The narrator then outlines in detail how she sometimes sits for hours on end in her room, tracing the patterns in the yellow wallpaper. She then tells us she thinks she can see a woman ‘stooping down and creeping about behind that pattern.’ At this point, she changes her mind, and goes from being fond of the pattern in the yellow wallpaper to wishing she could go away from the place.

She tells John that she isn’t getting any better in this house and that she would like to leave, but he tells her she is looking healthier and that they cannot return home for another three weeks, until their lease is up and the ‘repairs’ at home have been completed.

Despondent, the narrator tells us how she is becoming more obsessed by the yellow wallpaper, especially at night when she is unable to sleep and so lies awake watching the pattern in the wallpaper, which she says resembles a fungus.

She starts to fear her husband. She becomes paranoid that her husband and sister-in-law, Jennie, are trying to decipher the pattern in the yellow wallpaper, and she becomes determined to beat them to it. (Jennie was actually checking the wallpaper because the thought it was staining their clothes; this is the reason she gives to the narrator when asked about it, anyway. However, the more likely reason is that she and John have noticed the narrator’s obsession with looking at the wallpaper, and are becoming concerned.)

Next, the narrator tells us she has noticed the strange smell of the wallpaper, and tells us she seriously considered burning down the house to try to solve the mystery of what she smell was. She concludes that it is simply ‘a yellow smell!’ We now realise that the narrator is losing her mind rather badly.

She becomes convinced that the ‘woman behind’ the yellow wallpaper is shaking it, thus moving the front pattern of the paper. She says she has seen this woman creeping about the grounds of the house during the day; she returns to behind the wallpaper at night.

The narrator then tells us that she believes John and Jennie have become ‘affected’ by the wallpaper – that they are losing their minds from being exposed to it.

So the narrator begins stripping the yellow wallpaper from the walls, much to the consternation of Jennie. John has all of his wife’s things moved out of the room, ready for them to leave the house. While John is out, the narrator locks herself inside the now bare room and throws the key out the window, so she cannot be disturbed.

She has become convinced that there are many creeping women roaming the grounds of the house, all of them originating from behind the yellow wallpaper, and that she is one of them. The story ends with her husband banging on the door to be let in, fetching the key when she tells him it’s down by the front door mat, and bursting into the room – whereupon he faints, at the sight of his wife creeping around the room.

That concludes our attempt to summarise the ‘plot’ of ‘The Yellow Wallpaper’.

‘The Yellow Wallpaper’ begins by dangling the idea that what we are about to read is a haunted house story, a Gothic tale, a piece of horror. Why else, wonders the story’s female narrator, would the house be available so cheaply unless it was haunted? And why had it remained unoccupied for so long? This is how many haunted house tales begin.

And this will turn out to be true, in many ways – the story is often included in anthologies of horror fiction, and there is a ‘haunting’ of a kind going on in the story – but as ‘The Yellow Wallpaper’ develops we realise we’re reading something far more unsettling than a run-of-the-mill haunted house story, because the real ghosts and demons are either inside the narrator’s troubled mind or else her own husband and her sister-in-law.

Of course, these two things are linked. Because one of the ‘morals’ of ‘The Yellow Wallpaper’ – if ‘moral’ is not too strong a word to use of such a story – is that the husband’s treatment of his wife’s mental illness only succeeds in making her worse , rather than better, until her condition reaches the point where she is completely mad, suffering from hallucinations, delusions, and paranoia. So ‘The Yellow Wallpaper’ is a haunted house story … but the only ghosts are inside the narrator’s head.

‘The Yellow Wallpaper’ borrows familiar tropes from a Gothic horror story – it ends with the husband taking an axe to the bedroom door where his cowering wife is imprisoned – but the twist is that, by the end of the story, she has imprisoned herself in her deluded belief that she is protecting her husband from the ‘creeping women’ from behind the wallpaper, and he is prepared to beat down the door with an axe out of genuine concern for his sick wife, rather than to butcher her, Bluebeard or Jack Torrance style.

Narrative Style

As we mentioned at the beginning of this analysis, ‘The Yellow Wallpaper’ has the structure and style of a diary. This is in keeping with what the female narrator tells us: that she can only write down her experiences when her husband John is not around. But it also has the effect of shifting the narrative tense: from the usual past tense to the more unusual present tense.

Only one year separates ‘The Yellow Wallpaper’ from George Egerton’s first volume of short stories , which made similarly pioneering use of present-tense narration in order to depict female consciousness.

The literary critic Ruth Robbins has made the argument that the past tense (or ‘perfect tense’) is unsuited to some modes of fiction because it offers the ‘perspective that leads to judgment’: because events have already occurred, we feel in a position to judge the characters involved.

Present-tense narration deters us from doing this so readily, for two reasons. First, we are thrown in amongst the events, experiencing them as they happen almost, so we feel complicit in them. Second, because things are still unfolding seemingly before our very eyes, we feel that to attempt to pass judgment on what’s happening would be too rash and premature: we don’t know for sure how things are going to play out yet.

Given that Gilman is writing about a mentally unstable woman being mistreated by her male husband (and therefore, given his profession, by the medical world too), her decision to plunge us headlong into the events of the story encourages us to listen to what the narrator is telling us before we attempt to pronounce on what’s going on.

The fact that ‘The Yellow Wallpaper’ is narrated in the first person, from the woman’s own perspective and in her own voice, is also a factor: the only access we have to her treatment (or mistreatment) and to her husband’s behaviour and personality is through her: what she tells us and how she tells it to us.

But there is another narrative advantage to this present-tense diary structure: we as readers are forced to appraise everything we are told by the narrator, and scrutinise it carefully, deciding whether we are being told the whole story or whether the narrator, in her nervous and unstable state, may not be seeing things as they really are.

A good example of this is when, having told us at length how she follows the patterns on the yellow wallpaper on the walls of her room, sometimes for hours on end, the narrator then tells us she is glad her baby doesn’t have to live in the same room, because someone as ‘impressionable’ as her child wouldn’t do well in such a room.

The dramatic irony which the narrator cannot see but which we, tragically, can, is that she is every bit as impressionable as a small child, and the yellow wallpaper – and, more broadly, her effective incarceration – is clearly having a deleterious effect on her mental health. (The story isn’t perfect: Gilman telegraphs the irony a little too strongly when, in the next breath, she has her narrator tell us, with misplaced confidence, ‘I can stand it so much easier than a baby, you see.’)

In the last analysis, ‘The Yellow Wallpaper’ is so unsettling because it plays with established Gothic horror conventions and then subverts them in order to expose the misguided medical practices used in an attempt to ‘treat’ or ‘cure’ women who are suffering from mental or nervous disorders. It has become a popular feminist text about the male mistreatment of women partly because the ‘villain’, the narrator’s husband John, is acting out of a genuine (if hubristic) belief that he knows what’s best for her.

The whole field of nineteenth-century patriarchal society and the way it treats women thus comes under scrutiny, in a story that is all the more powerful for refusing to preach, even while it lets one such mistreated woman speak for herself.

character analysis on the yellow wallpaper

10 thoughts on “A Summary and Analysis of Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s ‘The Yellow Wallpaper’”

I absolutely loved this story. read it a few times in a row when I first crossed paths with it a few years ago –

“The Yellow Wallpaper” remains one of the most disturbing books I’ve ever read. Excellent analysis!

Fantastic book.

I cringe every time this story appears on a reading list or in a curriculum textbook. It’s almost hysterical in tone and quite disturbing in how overstated the “abuse” of the wife is supposed to be. It’s right up there with “The Awakening” as feminist literature that hinders, instead of promoting, the dilemma of 19th century women.

How is it overstated?

To witness the woman’s unraveling and how ignored she is, to me, a profound statement how people with emotional distress are not treated with respect.

  • Pingback: ‘The Yellow Wallpaper’: A Summary of Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s Story – Interesting Literature

Terrific analysis. Gothic fiction is always open to many forms of reading and particularly for feminist reading – as openly presented by Angela Carter’ neo-gothic stories (which I would love to read your analyses of one day Oliver!). ‘the Yellow Wallpaper’ I think is the go-to story for most feminist commentators on Gothic fiction – and rightly so. I can’t help notice the connections between this story and the (mis)treatments of Sigmund Freud. Soooo much in this story to think about that I feel like a kiddie in sweet shop!

Thank you as always, Ken, for the thoughtful comment – and I completely agree about the links with Freud. The 1890s really was a pioneering age for psychiatric treatment/analysis, though we cringe at some of the ideas that were seriously considered (and put into practice). Oddly enough I’ve just been rearranging the pile of books on the floor of my study here at IL Towers, and The Bloody Chamber is near the top of my list of books to cover in due course!

I will wait with abated breath for your thoughts! I love Angela Carter :)

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Analysis of 'The Yellow Wallpaper' by C. Perkins Gilman

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Like Kate Chopin's " The Story of an Hour ," Charlotte Perkins Gilman's " The Yellow Wallpaper " is a mainstay of feminist literary study. First published in 1892, the story takes the form of secret journal entries written by a woman who is supposed to be recovering from what her husband, a physician, calls a nervous condition.

This haunting psychological horror story chronicles the narrator's descent into madness, or perhaps into the paranormal, or perhaps—depending on your interpretation—into freedom. The result is a story as chilling as anything by Edgar Allan Poe or Stephen King .

Recovery Through Infantilization

The protagonist's husband, John, does not take her illness seriously. Nor does he take her seriously. He prescribes, among other things, a "rest cure," in which she is confined to their summer home, mostly to her bedroom.

The woman is discouraged from doing anything intellectual, even though she believes some "excitement and change" would do her good. She is allowed very little company—certainly not from the "stimulating" people she most wishes to see. Even her writing must happen in secret.

In short, John treats her like a child. He calls her diminutive names like "blessed little goose" and "little girl." He makes all decisions for her and isolates her from the things she cares about.

Even her bedroom is not the one she wanted; instead, it's a room that appears to have once been a nursery, emphasizing her return to infancy. Its "windows are barred for little children," showing again that she is being treated as a child—as well as a prisoner.

John's actions are couched in concern for the woman, a position that she initially seems to believe herself. "He is very careful and loving," she writes in her journal, "and hardly lets me stir without special direction." Her words also sound as if she is merely parroting what she's been told, though phrases like "hardly lets me stir" seem to harbor a veiled complaint.

Fact Versus Fancy

John dismisses anything that hints of emotion or irrationality—what he calls "fancy." For instance, when the narrator says that the wallpaper in her bedroom disturbs her, he informs her that she is letting the wallpaper "get the better of her" and refuses to remove it.

John doesn't simply dismiss things he finds fanciful though; he also uses the charge of "fancy" to dismiss anything he doesn't like. In other words, if he doesn't want to accept something, he simply declares that it is irrational.

When the narrator tries to have a "reasonable talk" with him about her situation, she is so distraught that she is reduced to tears. Instead of interpreting her tears as evidence of her suffering, he takes them as evidence that she is irrational and can't be trusted to make decisions for herself.

As part of his infantilization of her, he speaks to her as if she is a whimsical child, imagining her own illness. "Bless her little heart!" he says. "She shall be as sick as she pleases!" He does not want to acknowledge that her problems are real, so he silences her.

The only way the narrator could appear rational to John would be to become satisfied with her situation, which means there is no way for her to express concerns or ask for changes.

In her journal, the narrator writes:

"John does not know how much I really suffer. He knows there is no reason to suffer, and that satisfies him."

John can't imagine anything outside his own judgment. So when he determines that the narrator's life is satisfactory, he imagines that the fault lies with her perception. It never occurs to him that her situation might really need improvement.

The Wallpaper

The nursery walls are covered in putrid yellow wallpaper with a confused, eerie pattern. The narrator is horrified by it.

She studies the incomprehensible pattern in the wallpaper, determined to make sense of it. But rather than making sense of it, she begins to identify a second pattern—that of a woman creeping furtively behind the first pattern, which acts as a prison for her.

The first pattern of the wallpaper can be seen as the societal expectations that hold women, like the narrator, captive. Her recovery will be measured by how cheerfully she resumes her domestic duties as wife and mother, and her desire to do anything else—like write—is something that would interfere with that recovery.

Though the narrator studies and studies the pattern in the wallpaper, it never makes any sense to her. Similarly, no matter how hard she tries to recover, the terms of her recovery—embracing her domestic role—never make sense to her, either.

The creeping woman can represent both victimization by the societal norms and resistance to them.

This creeping woman also gives a clue about why the first pattern is so troubling and ugly. It seems to be peppered with distorted heads with bulging eyes—the heads of other creeping women who were strangled by the pattern when they tried to escape it. That is, women who couldn't survive when they tried to resist cultural norms. Gilman writes that "nobody could climb through that pattern—it strangles so."

Becoming a Creeping Woman

Eventually, the narrator becomes a creeping woman herself. The first indication is when she says, rather startlingly, "I always lock the door when I creep by daylight." Later, the narrator and the creeping woman work together to pull off the wallpaper.

The narrator also writes, "[T]here are so many of those creeping women, and they creep so fast," implying that the narrator is only one of many.

That her shoulder "just fits" into the groove on the wall is sometimes interpreted to mean that she has been the one ripping the paper and creeping around the room all along. But it could also be interpreted as an assertion that her situation is no different from that of many other women. In this interpretation, "The Yellow Wallpaper" becomes not just a story about one woman's madness, but a maddening system.

At one point, the narrator observes the creeping women from her window and asks, "I wonder if they all come out of that wallpaper as I did?"

Her coming out of the wallpaper—her freedom—coincides with a descent into mad behavior: ripping off the paper, locking herself in her room, even biting the immovable bed. That is, her freedom comes when she finally reveals her beliefs and behavior to those around her and stops hiding.

The final scene—in which John faints and the narrator continues to creep around the room, stepping over him every time—is disturbing but also triumphant. Now John is the one who is weak and sickly, and the narrator is the one who finally gets to determine the rules of her own existence. She is finally convinced that he only "pretended to be loving and kind." After being consistently infantilized by his comments, she turns the tables on him by addressing him condescendingly, if only in her mind, as "young man."

John refused to remove the wallpaper, and in the end, the narrator used it as her escape. 

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The Yellow Wallpaper: Characters

character analysis on the yellow wallpaper

The main characters in The Yellow Wallpaper are: the Narrator, John (her husband), Jennie, and Mary. And, last but not least, there is an imagined woman behind the wallpaper’s pattern who drives the Narrator crazy.

Welcome The Yellow Wallpaper characters page prepared by our editorial team! It describes all the main characters in The Yellow Wallpaper and provides a comprehensive analysis of their roles in the short story.

  • 🖋️ Narrator
  • 🌝 The Woman
  • 🗺️ Navigation

🎓 References

🖋️ the yellow wallpaper: narrator.

The narrator in The Yellow Wallpaper

The narrator in The Yellow Wallpaper is a creative and imaginative young woman who suffers from postpartum depression. The short story is written in the form of her secret journal.

What Is the Narrator’s Name in The Yellow Wallpaper?

The narrator in The Yellow Wallpaper doesn’t have a name . Leaving the narrator’s name ambiguous in stories written from the first-person perspective is quite common. A possible reason for The Yellow Wallpaper narrator’s lack of a name might be symbolic. The central theme of the short story is that the narrator lacks agency and identity of her own .

The Narrator in The Yellow Wallpaper: Character Analysis

The main character of The Yellow Wallpaper is the narrator.

She is a woman who has recently given birth to her first child. Now she is trying to recover from postpartum depression. Her husband, John, is “a physician of high standing.” He has taken it up to oversee his wife’s treatment. The treatment he has chosen is a so-called “ rest cure ,” widely practiced by psychiatrists at the narrator’s time.

As a part of the treatment, a patient has to abstain from any mental activity until they miraculously recover. John has arranged a rental house for himself and his wife until she gets better. The narrator is sealed up in the desolate mansion for an entire summer, banned from all social connections. She can’t do any mental exercise whatsoever. Craving action, her mind gets fixated on the one thing that provokes her utmost irritation – the ugly yellow wallpaper in the room she has to live in. The result is the narrator’s gradual descent into insanity. The fact is overlooked and ignored by those closest to her.

The mentality of the main character of the story is a fascinating subject. The narrator is a product of her time – she is, first and foremost, a woman. She was taught to place her trust in the judgment of the males superior to her. That was customary in the patriarchal society of the time. It didn’t help that she was naturally shy and agreeable, having no desire to cause distress or discomfort to those around her. It made it easier for her husband to deny her agency of her own, to belittle both herself and her suffering.

The narrator is a writer . She is a deeply imaginative and delicate soul who finds inspiration in anything surrounding her. Her husband seems to believe that his wife’s very nature is what causes her illness. Not once does he instill it into her – your thoughts, your imagination, your fancies are nothing but trouble. You must cease to think, to imagine, and to fancy. The narrator tries to abide, for John is an unquestionable authority in her eyes. She is stuck in a position painfully awkward from a social point of view. On the one hand, she doesn’t agree with how her husband chooses to treat her to the core. On the other hand, being weakened by her condition, she is unable to communicate it.

John continuously cuts her off and turns her down. Under these circumstances, the narrator has no choice but to submit rather than cause inconvenience by arguing or taking matters into her own hands. Thus, the building up pressure from the unspent energy and the suppressed thoughts result in her misfortune.

The Yellow Wallpaper: Narrator’s Quotes

“I think sometimes that if I were only well enough to write a little it would relieve the press of ideas and rest me. But I find I get pretty tired when I try. It is so discouraging not to have any advice and companionship about my work.” The Yellow Wallpaper , entry 1
“I don’t feel as if it was worth while to turn my hand over for anything, and I’m getting dreadfully fretful and querulous. I cry at nothing, and cry most of the time.” The Yellow Wallpaper , entry 2
“I’ve got out at last,.. in spite of you and Jane! And I’ve pulled off most of the paper, so you can’t put me back! Now why should that man have fainted? But he did, and right across my path by the wall, so that I had to creep over him every time! ” The Yellow Wallpaper , entry 11

👨‍⚕️ Who is John in The Yellow Wallpaper?

John in The Yellow Wallpaper

John is the narrator’s husband, a physician by profession. He takes it upon himself to oversee the treatment of his wife. From his point of view, the reason for her illness is her imagination. He forbids her to do any mental exercise. Although John is barely present, his controlling personality steers the narrator’s life into a disaster.

John in The Yellow Wallpaper: Character Analysis

John is a caring and thoughtful individual. At least, this is how the narrator wants to see him. He does display a level of concern in his wife’s state of health.

However, in practice, he is drastically opposed to considering the narrator’s evaluation of her condition. John believes that his wife imagines herself being ill and doesn’t trust anything she is trying to tell him. She justifies her husband’s condescending and disparaging tone by coloring John pragmatic. In reality, he is simply rude to her.

John scoffs at and waves off every thought his wife tries to share with him. He is also uncomfortable with the fact that the narrator is a writer. Her “imagined” illness comes as an excellent excuse for John to ban her from writing and seeing like-minded people.

It’s apparent from the text that John feels ashamed of his wife’s condition . He reiterates how nothing is wrong with her and hides the narrator from society until she is presentable again. That is one reason for her eventual descent into madness – John’s inability and unwillingness to admit that there’s a problem. The infamous “rest cure” is forced upon the narrator, trying to oppose it in her limited capabilities. The resulting misfortune is entirely of John’s doing.

The particular tragedy of this outcome is the fact that it was one hundred percent preventable. If the people closest to the narrator would just listen to her telling them how bad she feels, everything might have turned out differently. The way all the factors that drive the narrator crazy conveniently combine makes John look especially suspicious. She is banned from seeing other people. She is separated from her newborn and forced to live in the room that causes her such distress. There’s a ban on not just writing but even thinking. All these facts make the situation look like it was orchestrated. Although it’s impossible to tell it from the account of the story’s unreliable narrator, the husband might have been in on it. She chooses to see nothing but her husband’s benevolence, love, and well-meaning, ignoring her distinct feeling of disquiet.

The Yellow Wallpaper: John’s Quotes

“Bless her little heart!.. She shall be as sick as she pleases! But now let’s improve the shining hours by going to sleep, and talk about it in the morning!” The Yellow Wallpaper , entry 5
“My darling,.. I beg of you, for my sake and for our child’s sake, as well as for your own, that you will never for one instant let that idea enter your mind! There is nothing so dangerous, so fascinating, to a temperament like yours. It is a false and foolish fancy. Can you not trust me as a physician when I tell you so?” The Yellow Wallpaper , entry 5

💉 Who is Mary in The Yellow Wallpaper?

Mary in The Yellow Wallpaper

There is nothing known about Mary apart from the fact that she is the nursemaid to the narrator’s newborn child. She is praised for her work: the narrator believes Mary to be good with the baby, although it’s not clear how she knows it. Either her relatives are telling her that, or the narrator is assuring herself.

👧 Who is Jennie in The Yellow Wallpaper?

Jennie in The Yellow Wallpaper

Jennie is the sister of the narrator’s husband, John . She takes up the role of the housekeeper since the narrator is unable to carry out this duty. Jennie doesn’t appear much in the story, keeping a distance from her sister-in-law. She is a source of guilt for the narrator, who is feeling like a burden.

🌝 Who is The Woman in The Yellow Wallpaper?

The Woman in The Yellow Wallpaper

The Woman from the wallpaper is the crucial component of the narrator’s hallucinations . The latter doesn’t see the Woman immediately after moving in. Rather, her hallucinations are exponentially intensifying throughout the narrator’s stay.

First, the narrator is disturbed only by the poor design of the pattern and the repellant shades of yellow color. Then, she starts noticing a subpattern visible only in a particular light. After a while, the flowery curls start sprouting fungus, and there are upside-down heads with white eyes poking through the pattern as if they tried to climb out but were cut down. And, of course, there is the Woman, stooping down and creeping behind the pattern at all times, and at nights, she is shaking it, trying to get out.

The Woman does eventually get out and creeps all over the valley, as fast as the shadows of the running clouds. In the end, the narrator peels down the yellow wallpaper, thus releasing the Woman – and herself – for good.

Whom does the narrator see hiding in the wallpaper? She sees herself , although she doesn’t understand it. The narrator identifies as the Woman who is caged in the hated room like she is. The narrator is forced to hide her writing, her thoughts, and her true feelings. Just like her, the Woman from the wallpaper hides from people and creeps behind closed doors when nobody sees her. And the more exasperation the narrator suppresses, the more active the Woman becomes. In the end, the narrator comes to completely identify herself with the Woman, losing herself in the process.

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character analysis on the yellow wallpaper

The Yellow Wallpaper

Charlotte perkins gilman, everything you need for every book you read..

The Yellow Wallpaper is written as a series of diary entries from the perspective of a woman who is suffering from post-partum depression. The narrator begins by describing the large, ornate home that she and her husband, John , have rented for the summer. John is an extremely practical man, a physician, and their move into the country is partially motivated by his desire to expose his suffering wife to its clean air and calm life so that she can recover from what he sees as a slight hysterical tendency.

The narrator complains that her husband will not listen to her worries about her condition, and treats her like a child. She also suspects that there is something strange and mysterious about the house, which has been empty for some time, but John dismisses her concerns as a silly fantasy. As part of her cure, the narrator is forbidden from pursuing any activity other than domestic work, so as not to tax her mind. She particularly misses the intellectual act of writing and conversation, and this account is written in a diary that she hides from her husband. They move into the room at the top of the house, which the narrator supposes is a former nursery since it has barred windows and peeling yellow wallpaper.

This repellent yellow wallpaper becomes a major force in the story, as the narrator grows obsessed with deciphering its seemingly incomprehensible, illogical patterns. She continues to hide the diary from John, and grows more and more convinced that the wallpaper contains a malevolent force that threatens the whole home. From her room, she can see a shaded lane, the bay, and an overgrown garden. When she can escape the attention of her husband and Jennie , his sister, she continues her study of the wallpaper and begins to imagine she can see a mysterious figure hiding behind the top pattern. She tries to convince her husband that they should leave the house, but he insists that she is improving and sees indulging her concerns as encouraging a dangerous, fanciful nature, when what is required is self-control.

The narrator’s depression and fatigue continue to worsen. Her fascination with the wallpaper takes over her life. In a series of increasingly short diary entries, she describes her progress in uncovering the secrets of its pattern, as she grows increasingly paranoid about the intentions of Jennie and John. She believes that the figure is a creeping woman, trapped behind the bars of the top pattern, and becomes determined to free her, and to keep the secret of her existence from her husband and his sister. She surprises Jennie examining a scratched groove on the wall, and doesn’t believe her excuse that she had been looking for the source of the yellow stains on the narrator’s clothes. She begins to keep secrets even from her diary, and makes an initial, nighttime attempt to remove the wallpaper on the eve of their departure. Later, when all the furniture has been removed from the room except for the gnawed and heavy bedstand, she locks the door and throws the key down onto the front drive, and then proceeds to tear and tear at the parts of the wallpaper she can reach.

Here, at the story’s climax, the perspective shifts as the narrator’s mental breakdown becomes complete, and in her madness she is convinced that she is the woman who was trapped behind the wallpaper. She begins to creep around the room in an endless circle, smudging the wallpaper in a straight groove. John breaks into the room and discovers her, and faints at the sight. She continues to creep endlessly around the room, forced to go over his prone body.

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  1. The Yellow Wallpaper Character Analysis

    Intro Plot Summary & Analysis Themes Quotes Characters Symbols Lit Devices Theme Viz Teachers and parents! Our Teacher Edition on The Yellow Wallpaper makes teaching easy. Everything you need for every book you read. "Sooo much more helpful than SparkNotes. The way the content is organized

  2. The Yellow Wallpaper: Character List

    Study Guide Charlotte Perkins Gilman Section 1 Section 2 Section 3 Full Plot Summary Full Plot Analysis Key Facts Character List The Narrator John Jennie Literary Devices Character List Next The Narrator A young, upper-middle-class woman, newly married and a mother, who is undergoing care for depression.

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    Deeper Study The Narrator Previous Next 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.

  4. The Yellow Wallpaper Character Analysis

    She becomes obsessed with the pattern of the yellow wallpaper in her room, and her preoccupation with its twistings and turnings serves to catch and trap her mind and imagination. Her preoccupation eventually detaches completely from reality, as her imaginations become hallucinations, and her view of other people becomes more and more paranoid.

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    Modeled after Charlotte Perkins Gilman, the narrator in "The Yellow Wallpaper" is a young wife and mother who has recently began to suffer symptoms of depression and anxiety.

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    The Yellow Wallpaper" is a widely read work that asks difficult questions about the role of women, particularly regarding their mental health and right to autonomy and self-identity. We'll go over The Yellow Wallpaper summary, themes and symbols, The Yellow Wallpaper analysis, and some important information about the author.

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    Chapter Summaries Themes Characters Symbols Quotes The Narrator The story's unnamed narrator has just had a baby, and she's clearly suffering from extreme depression and anxiety. To recover her health, her husband John, a doctor, has insisted that they stay at a country estate for a while.

  8. The Yellow Wallpaper Character Analysis

    The Narrator. The narrator of "The Yellow Wallpaper" is a writer whose husband has forbade her to work due to a mysterious ailment called "temporary nervous depression," or "a slight hysterical tendency" (131). She is married to a physician named John and has recently given birth to a baby boy.

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  11. The Yellow Wallpaper Study Guide

    Utopian lit. In addition to critiques like The Yellow Wallpaper, Gilman wrote utopian fiction through which she imagined a world in which social conditions reflected equality for women. The best study guide to The Yellow Wallpaper on the planet, from the creators of SparkNotes. Get the summaries, analysis, and quotes you need.

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    Fact Versus Fancy John dismisses anything that hints of emotion or irrationality—what he calls "fancy." For instance, when the narrator says that the wallpaper in her bedroom disturbs her, he informs her that she is letting the wallpaper "get the better of her" and refuses to remove it.

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    The main character of The Yellow Wallpaper is the narrator. She is a woman who has recently given birth to her first child. Now she is trying to recover from postpartum depression. Her husband, John, is "a physician of high standing." He has taken it up to oversee his wife's treatment.

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    See in text (The Yellow Wallpaper) Through personification—using words like "hovering," "skulking," and "hiding"—the narrator demonstrates how the odor seems to linger all throughout the house. The narrator does not realize however that this odor is the smell of decay. The smell follows her because it emanates from her body ...

  19. The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman Plot Summary

    The Yellow Wallpaper is written as a series of diary entries from the perspective of a woman who is suffering from post-partum depression. The narrator begins by describing the large, ornate home that she and her husband, John, have rented for the summer.John is an extremely practical man, a physician, and their move into the country is partially motivated by his desire to expose his suffering ...

  20. The Yellow Wallpaper Character Analysis Through Gilman's Text

    Also, The Yellow Wallpaperit deep character analysis how in the nineteenth century women had to be obedient, ignorant of intellectual opinion, and followed what their husband commanded. But, most important of all, it is to see how this wall yellow paper started as a simple dislike painting on a wall, and then brought the sufficient strength to ...

  21. Yellow Wallpaper

    Name: Block: Date: "The Yellow Wall-Paper" Analysis Learning Target 11.4f: I can determine how the author's use of character development, theme, and conflict contribute to the meaning of the story. Use the worksheet to take notes on how the narrator discusses the world around her. Pay close attention to her description, noting how her tone and perception of her surroundings and situation ...

  22. The Yellow Wallpaper: Full Plot Summary

    Charlotte Perkins Gilman Full Plot Analysis Key Facts Character List The Narrator John Deeper Study Full Plot Summary Previous Next "The Yellow Wallpaper" opens with the story's unnamed narrator, who expresses her thoughts in the form of journal entries, marveling at the grandeur of the house and grounds her husband has taken her to for the summer.

  23. Jennie Character Analysis in The Yellow Wallpaper

    Charlotte Perkins Gilman Study Guide Full Plot Summary Full Plot Analysis Character List John Deeper Study Jennie Previous Jennie is John's sister, and she serves as the housekeeper for the family while the narrator undergoes the rest cure.

  24. The Yellow Wallpaper: Setting

    The Yellow Wallpaper Study Guide Charlotte Perkins Gilman Questions & Answers Why does John faint at the end of the story? What condition does the narrator have? What does the woman in the wallpaper represent? Key Quotes Repression Infantilization Purpose By Character John Deeper Study Setting Previous Next