The Yellow

Wallpaper
Study Guide by Course Hero

ABOUT THE TITLE

What's Inside In the story the narrator becomes obsessed with the pattern in
the yellow wallpaper that covers the walls in the room where
she is forced to spend most of her time.
j Book Basics ................................................................................................. 1

d In Context ..................................................................................................... 1

a Author Biography ..................................................................................... 2 d In Context

h Characters .................................................................................................. 3 "The Yellow Wallpaper" presents a fictional account of one
woman's struggle against her own mind as well as her external
k Plot Summary ............................................................................................. 5
circumstances. Its concerns are grounded in experiences that
c Section Summaries ................................................................................. 8 were a reality for women at the time.

g Quotes ......................................................................................................... 14

l Symbols ...................................................................................................... 16
Gender Roles in the 19th
m Themes ....................................................................................................... 16 Century: The True Woman
e Suggested Reading ............................................................................... 17 Gender roles were well defined in 19th-century society. Men
were expected to take care of the public aspects of
life—making money, pursuing politics, fighting in wars—while
women were expected to function in private, domestic life. This
j Book Basics gentler, more virtuous "women's sphere" was thought to
provide a needed counterbalance to the competitive, driven,
AUTHOR dog-eat-dog world that men operated in. Within this concept of
Charlotte Perkins Gilman the true woman, however, were assumptions that were
erroneous and severely limiting. For example, a woman was
YEAR PUBLISHED viewed as virtuous but also vulnerable and in need of
1892 protection. Of course few women ever achieved the idea of the
"true woman." Yet as an idea, it persisted. Perkins takes on this
GENRE
idea in "The Yellow Wallpaper" in full force by showing the
Drama, Horror
negative psychological effects on women from idleness and
PERSPECTIVE AND NARRATOR dwelling solely in the "women's sphere."
"The Yellow Wallpaper" is narrated from a first-person point of
view.

TENSE
"The Yellow Wallpaper" is told in the present tense.
The Yellow Wallpaper Study Guide
Postpartum Depression and
the Rest Cure
Postpartum depression, now recognized as a fairly common
form of depression among new mothers, was unlabeled as a
valid medical concern and misunderstood at the time Gilman
wrote "The Yellow Wallpaper." Symptoms may develop within a
few weeks of giving birth but can develop after several months.
Depression and mood swings, crying, loss of appetite,
tiredness and fatigue, anxiety, and failure to bond with the child
are all symptoms of this physical and emotional condition.
Today, doctors prescribe psychotherapy, antidepressants, and
exercise to treat the condition, and they recommend avoiding
isolation, which can worsen symptoms. In Gilman's time,
however, women who had a "nervous condition" after giving
birth were often put on the "rest cure" regimen promoted by
Dr. Silas Weir Mitchell. This rest cure included rest, isolation,
and a diet high in milk and meat. It also included an avoidance
of using the brain for even small pursuits, such as writing,
talking, reading, and sewing.
The New Woman
Pushing back against the ideal of the "true woman," women in
the late 19th century developed the concept of the "new
woman." These early feminists idealized a woman who was
independent, on equal terms with men, and educated. They
fought for women's rights, often avoided marriage and the
restrictions of being a wife, and embraced, to some degree,
sexuality. Support for the new woman was not divided by
gender. Some women vehemently opposed this new woman,
and some men approved of her. "The Yellow Wallpaper"
explores the various attitudes of both sexes prevalent during
the time of this important transition in the feminist movement.
a Author Biography
Born in Hartford, Connecticut, on July 3, 1860, Charlotte Anna
Perkins grew up in difficult circumstances. Her father left the
family when Charlotte was a child, leaving her mother without
the financial and emotional resources with which to raise her
two children. The family moved often, resulting in a sporadic
education. Her mother withheld affection from young Charlotte
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Author Biography 2
in an effort to raise her to be self-sufficient—not dependent on
others for emotional fulfillment. In her autobiography, The
Living of Charlotte Perkins Gilman—An Autobiography, Gilman
notes that this was a well-meaning but misguided action on the
part of her mother.
Charlotte married Walker Stetson in 1884, and a year later she
gave birth to her first child, a daughter. Throughout her
pregnancy and continuing after the birth, she suffered from a
crushing depression. She was sent to Dr. Silas Weir Mitchell, a
physician famous for his "rest cure" for such a
condition—called a "nervous condition" at the time. The "rest
cure" meant doing very little—physically or mentally. Gilman
abided by the doctor's wishes for three months with disastrous
results. This experience became the basis for the story "The
Yellow Wallpaper." It also became the impetus for writing the
story, as Gilman hoped that, by giving a personal account of
the rest cure's effects, she might save others from the mental
decline it prompted in her own life. She divorced her husband
and moved to California in an effort to find real healing.
After Gilman wrote "The Yellow Wallpaper" in 1891, she sent it
to William Dean Howells, a former editor of The Atlantic
Monthly. He sent it on to an editor of the magazine, who
reacted negatively to the story and rejected it. The reason for
the rejection was that it was not very uplifting—not that it was a
feminist story. However, in 1892 the story was printed in New
England Magazine. Today it is regarded from a range of
perspectives, from feminist literature to Gothic horror (genre of
literature characterized by fear, horror, and death, as well as
nature, individualism, and emotion).
As a relative of suffragist Isabella Beecher Hooker, feminist
Catherine Beecher, and abolitionist and writer Harriet Beecher
Stowe, perhaps it is unsurprising that Gilman grew into a
women's rights activist. She wrote Women and Economics
(1898) about the necessity for women to have worthwhile work
suited not to their gender but to their inherent talents, abilities,
and inclinations. She became a noted speaker on women's
rights issues and the role of women in society. She married
George Gilman in 1900. In 1934 George died, and soon after,
Charlotte discovered she had terminal cancer. She committed
suicide on August 17, 1935.
The Yellow Wallpaper Study Guide Characters 3

h Characters Mary
The narrator describes Mary as "so good with the baby." The
caretaker is not mentioned by name again, although readers
Narrator learn that "the baby is well and happy." Mary is clearly not only
doing her job with the baby but, like Jennie, is another force
Recently having given birth and suffering from a "nervous cutting the narrator off from any useful stimulation or focus.
condition," the unnamed narrator has been prescribed total
rest as a treatment. This means that she must do very little that
is physically or mentally stimulating in the hope that she will
regain her mental health. The confinement and inactivity of the
treatment, however, only make her mental condition
deteriorate. 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. Many readers believe the narrator's name is
Jane, revealed in a cryptic comment at the very end of the
story.

John
The narrator's husband is an upstanding gentleman doctor,
and, as such, he is the face of 19th-century patriarchal
oppression of women. While he is depicted as loving and well
meaning, he infantilizes and controls his wife, calling her "little,"
situating her in the house's nursery, giving orders that she must
obey, and restricting her freedom to an extreme degree by
modern standards. Yet he seems naive about her condition,
and, in the end, he is shocked when her mental deterioration
becomes obvious.

Jennie
The narrator calls Jennie a "dear girl" who is very careful with
her charge. However, the narrator also says she "must not let
her find me writing," suggesting that Jennie is complicit with
John in suppressing the narrator's need for a creative outlet.
Jennie herself seems rather dull, a "perfect and enthusiastic
housekeeper" who does not aspire to anything more. fMary

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The Yellow Wallpaper Study Guide Characters 4

Character Map

Mary
Caregiver for the baby

Employee

Narrator
Suffers from a "nervous
condition"
Sisters-in-
Spouses Law

John
Jennie
Well meaning but
Siblings Provides domestic help
condescending doctor

Main Character

Other Major Character

Minor Character

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The Yellow Wallpaper Study Guide Plot Summary 5

and trying to follow the pattern to its stopping point.

Full Character List
As time passes, she becomes more and more paranoid and
increasingly fascinated by the pattern of the yellow wallpaper.
Character Description
She considers what it looks like. She comes to believe that
there is a woman trapped behind the pattern—a woman who
The narrator, deprived of any meaningful
wants to escape. She observes this woman first as a crouching
activity, descends from depression into
Narrator shadow, then as a woman who shakes the pattern, trying to
insanity. Her only outlet is secretly writing
her story. get through, and then as many women, creeping about behind
the pattern. She begins to hallucinate frequently, noticing that
John, a doctor, is the narrator's well- the woman sometimes gets out from the wallpaper and creeps
John meaning yet patriarchal and condescending
around outside. The narrator feels much better and more
husband.
energetic as she becomes more interested in the woman
behind the wallpaper.
Jennie is John's sister who has come to
Jennie help with the domestic tasks while the
narrator rests. As the summer draws to a close, the narrator begins to feel
that she must help the woman escape before they leave the
house. She thinks that if she can peel the wallpaper off, the
Mary is a woman who has been hired to
Mary woman can go free. At first she peels just a little at a time.
care for the narrator's new baby.
Ultimately, she locks herself in the room and begins to peel the
paper off the walls in earnest. As she completes this task, she
begins to identify herself as the woman, and creeps along the
k Plot Summary floor around the room, following a streak on the wallpaper.
John finds her in this state and faints. She creeps over him and
"The Yellow Wallpaper," which takes place in the late 1800s, is continues on her path.
set on an isolated country estate where the narrator and her
husband, John, a physician, are living for the summer. The
narrator has recently given birth and has come down with a
"nervous condition" for which she has been prescribed rest.
This rest, however, does not simply mean taking it easy but
involves the near-total elimination of all stimuli, including
interacting with people, reading, writing, and even seeing her
own child. Two other women have come to help with child care
and domestic tasks.

Writing secretly, the narrator tells the story of her confinement

in an upper room of the house—a room that was once a
nursery and thus has barred windows. The room has tattered
yellow wallpaper with an intricate pattern the narrator finds
irritating.

Weeks pass, and the narrator finds that her anxiety and
depression have increased and even the smallest tasks have
become overwhelming. She asks John if they can leave the
house, but he doesn't think it is practical or reasonable to give
in to this "fancy." The narrator continues to obsess about the
wallpaper, finding it both appalling and mesmerizing. She
spends hours each day looking at it, tracking it with her eyes

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The Yellow Wallpaper Study Guide Plot Summary 6

Plot Diagram

Climax

Rising Action 4 Falling Action

6
3

2 7
1
Resolution
Introduction

Introduction Falling Action

1. The depressed narrator has been isolated on doctor's 6. John faints in her path as she creeps along the wall.
orders.

Resolution
Rising Action
7. The narrator continues to crawl along the wall.
2. She takes a dislike to the yellow wallpaper in her room.

3. She becomes obsessed with the pattern of the wallpaper.

4. She becomes convinced a woman is trapped behind the

pattern.

Climax

5. She locks herself in the room and peels away the wallpaper.

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The Yellow Wallpaper Study Guide Plot Summary 7

Timeline of Events

Early summer

The narrator and her husband take up temporary

residence in an isolated house.

Two weeks later

The narrator writes that the wallpaper pattern looks like

a "broken neck" and staring eyes.

Around July 4

A few relatives come to visit, and the narrator says she is

becoming fond of the wallpaper pattern.

Days or weeks later

The narrator sees a creeping woman in the wallpaper's

pattern—one who wants to escape.

August

The narrator asks John if they can leave; John says they
cannot.

Days later

The narrator feels better because she looks forward to

watching the woman in the wallpaper.

Last day in the house

The narrator locks her door and begins to peel the paper
off the wall.

The next morning

John finds the narrator creeping along the wall and

faints.

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The Yellow Wallpaper Study Guide
c Section Summaries
Section 1
Summary
"The Yellow Wallpaper" is told as a series of journal entries on
what the narrator calls "dead paper." As it begins, the narrator
explains that she and her husband, John, have rented a
"colonial mansion, a hereditary estate" for the summer. She
feels that there is something strange about it, but John, a
doctor and a man who prides himself on being practical and
reasonable, dismisses her misgivings. She reveals that she has
a "nervous condition" and has been prescribed medication and
rest by John. She is not supposed to do any "work," which
includes writing.
The house is miles from town and set back from the road,
surrounded by gardens and broken-down greenhouses. The
narrator's room is on the upper floor in what used to be a
nursery. Bars on the windows were likely once used to keep
children safe from falls, and the wallpaper is peeled off in
places where children may have damaged it. The narrator
notices that the wallpaper is an ugly shade of yellow, and its
pattern is equally ugly: "committing every artistic sin."
Analysis
In this opening journal entry, the narrator establishes important
details of setting, character, and situation that provide the
foundation of the rest of the story.
Setting
The narrator and her husband are staying for the summer in a
large mansion that has fallen into some disrepair. The narrator
feels that there is something of a "haunted house" feel to it.
The room where she will be staying is large and airy, but it has
some unsettling traits: bars on the windows, yellow wallpaper
that the narrator takes an instant dislike to. In this story, setting
will play a very important role, as nearly every aspect of the
narrator's psyche and situation are reflected in how she
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Section Summaries 8
describes her surroundings. For example, the estate was once
in good condition but is now a bit broken down, as readers will
learn is true of the narrator. The estate has "hedges and walls
and gates that lock, and lots of separate little houses," the
windows are barred, and the house is isolated—all images that
reflect the narrator's sense of being confined within
boundaries, in a small space, away from people. The wallpaper
has curves that "commit suicide" and "destroy themselves in
unheard of contradictions," which reflects the self-destructive
workings of the narrator's mind.
Characters
The narrator and her husband, while a loving couple, are not
equal in freedom or power. John, a respected physician, has all
the decision-making authority in the marriage. He vetoes her
desires dismissively—"John would not hear of it"—and prides
himself on being "rational." Therefore, he will not listen to or
take seriously any of her explanations of how she feels or what
she wants, because he sees these things as being imaginative
and irrational.
Situation
The narrator has a "nervous condition," and John has
prescribed rest, tonics, food, and the avoidance of all work or
stimulating activity, including writing or visiting family. Although
the narrator doesn't believe this course of action will help her,
she realizes she has no say in the matter and accepts his
directives ... or at least, most of them. She has kept a secret
journal, which she writes in when John is not around.
Section 2
Summary
Two weeks later, the narrator is sitting by the window writing in
her journal, because John is away for the day. She describes
how depressed she feels and how difficult it is for her to do
even those small tasks left to her, such as getting dressed and
entertaining. She reveals her anxiety about being with her
newborn child. She recounts an interaction between herself
and John in which she asked to take a room downstairs rather
The Yellow Wallpaper Study Guide
than the upstairs room with the terrible wallpaper. He did not
give in to her wishes.
So she turns her attention to the view from the windows in her
room. Out of one she can see a garden. Out of another she can
see a bay and a wharf. She thinks that sometimes she can see
people walking on the paths, but John believes this to be her
imagination. He advises her to "check the tendency" to use her
imagination in this way, and says that once she is well (but not
before) she can have visitors. Her thoughts about being unwell
lead her back to thoughts of the yellow wallpaper, which she
blames for her continued feelings of depression. She describes
the pattern's impertinence and how it looks like a series of
unblinking eyes at the ends of broken necks. She has noticed a
second pattern in the paper as well: "a strange, provoking,
formless kind of figure, that seems to skulk about behind that
silly and conspicuous front design." She also observes that the
wallpaper is torn and the floor and walls are scratched.
As John's sister, who has come to help take care of the house,
approaches, the narrator ends her journal entry.
Analysis
This journal entry reveals an important part of the narrator's
situation: She has recently had a child, and another woman,
Mary, has been hired to take care of the child. She says she is
very nervous about being with her child: "It is fortunate Mary is
so good with the baby. Such a dear baby! And yet I cannot be
with him, it makes me so nervous." Many readers have made
the connection between this piece of information and a
common symptom of postpartum depression—heightened
anxiety.
After John dismisses her worries about the room, she begins
to describe her external surroundings. This mirrors what
happens in the first journal entry when John tells her not to
think about her condition, and so she describes the grounds of
the estate. This is important for two reasons: one is that she
clearly wants to please John and does not want him to think
badly of her. Unfortunately, because he doesn't believe in the
seriousness of her condition, this means she has to suppress
that part of her that is truly worried about her illness. Another
is that, in turning her internal gaze outward, she projects her
inward turmoil onto her environment. As the story goes on, this
tendency becomes more pronounced—and ultimately
destructive.
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Section Summaries 9
She also notes that she is very imaginative and likes to make
up stories. John thinks these tendencies are adding to her
problem, but she sees them as an outlet: "I think sometimes
that if I were only well enough to write a little it would relieve
the press of ideas and rest me." She gives an example of the
positive power of imagination as she describes her childhood
furniture: "I remember what a kindly wink the knobs of our big,
old bureau used to have, and there was one chair that always
seemed like a strong friend."
Section 3
Summary
The next journal entry takes place following the Fourth of July
holiday. Although John allowed a few family visitors to come
for a week, the narrator explains that Jennie, John's sister,
took care of everything. John is increasingly worried that the
narrator isn't getting well more quickly and considers sending
her to Dr. Weir Mitchell for treatment. The narrator does not
want to go away for treatment. A friend told her that the doctor
is like her husband and brother, only even worse than they are.
She spends her days mostly alone, taking occasional walks on
the estate or sitting on the porch, but most often just lying in
her room, staring at the wallpaper and trying to follow its
winding pattern to "some sort of a conclusion." She notes that
there is no symmetry or other element of design in the pattern,
and following it fascinates her yet tires her. She says the
wallpaper is "a kind of 'debased Romanesque' with delirium
tremens."
Analysis
In this section, the narrator mentions Weir Mitchell, the doctor
responsible for the "rest cure" that John is using to treat his
wife. Yet this section also shows a marked decline in the
narrator's condition as a result of the rest cure measures John
has taken. The narrator feels tired out by the littlest things and
doesn't feel that it is "worth while" to do anything anymore. She
cries "at nothing" and cries often. She is mostly alone. As she
suffers physically and emotionally, she becomes more
obsessed with the wallpaper pattern. She feels that looking at
it is almost as good as exercise. These details help build the
The Yellow Wallpaper Study Guide
themes in the story: women's roles, confinement, and
conformity versus expression. In lieu of a public and intellectual
life, the narrator substitutes wallpaper—the only remedy at her
disposal, because she is confined and denied expression.
The narrator seems to have some training in art and design, for
she notes "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
ever heard of." Author Charlotte Perkins Gilman did attend the
Rhode Island School of Design, which may account for her
interest in using a wallpaper pattern as a metaphor and symbol
in her work. It also may inform her character's descriptions of
the wallpaper. In the story, it is used to signify that the narrator
is naturally intellectual and imaginative, so she is suffering in
such a mentally stifling environment.
The condition delirium tremens, which the narrator uses to
describe the wallpaper, is caused by withdrawal from alcohol.
Its symptoms include tremors, confusion, and irritability.
Section 4
Summary
The fourth journal entry begins, "I don't know why I should write
this. I don't want to. I don't feel able." The summer has
progressed, and the narrator spends half of each day lying
down now. She describes trying to talk reasonably with John
about going to visit her cousins but being reduced to tears so
easily she fails to convince him. John had carried her up to bed
and read to her. She considers it a blessing that she is using
the room with the yellow wallpaper because, that way, her child
can be in a different room and not be subjected to it.
The shapes behind the outer pattern of the wallpaper have
become clearer, and more substantial, to the narrator, but she
has decided not to share her insights about the wallpaper with
Jennie or John: "Of course I never mention it to them any
more—I am too wise,—but I keep watch of it all the same. There
are things in that paper that nobody knows but me, or ever
will." She also notices that the shapes look like the figure of a
woman, "stooping down and creeping about."
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Section Summaries 10
Analysis
The narrator's journal entries have begun to get fragmented;
her sentences are shorter and her thoughts more disjointed.
She begins with two very short sentences and moves quickly
from her emotions to how she imagines John would react if
she were to tell him just how badly she feels, and then
tangents to thinking about how John will not let her go visit her
cousins.
She's also developed a more secretive way of speaking about
her relationship with the others in the house. While she has
been hiding her journal and crying for weeks, now she
deliberately withholds her ideas on a consistent basis and is
more aware of being secretive. This implies that Jennie and
John have made the narrator feel uncomfortable when she
speaks about the wallpaper, even if it is not shown happening
in the story. Again, expression is discouraged and conformity
encouraged, so the narrator must hide her true thoughts and
feelings from those around her, creating an even unhealthier
state of mind. Is she truly crazy, or is she someone who can
see and understand more around her than those who choose
to live purely rationally and pragmatically?
Section 5
Summary
In the creeping moonlight, the narrator believes the figure she
sees in the yellow wallpaper shakes the outer pattern, as if it
wants to get out. The narrator is tempted to feel the wallpaper
to see if it has moved. When she returns to bed, her husband,
John, is awake. He scolds her for being out of bed. She
decides to talk to him about leaving the estate altogether, but
he says no, arguing that their lease doesn't end for three more
weeks and their own home is being repaired and is not yet
ready. He tells her she is really "better, dear, whether you can
see it or not. I am a doctor, dear, and I know." The narrator
disagrees and tells him so: "I don't weigh a bit more ... and my
appetite ... is worse in the morning when you are away!" "Bless
her little heart!" John reacts, hugging the narrator and asking
her to trust him. Then John goes back to sleep and the
narrator lies there for hours, wondering if the front pattern and
the back pattern move together or separately.
The Yellow Wallpaper Study Guide
Analysis
The narrator says that her husband is wise and loving, but John
seems to belittle her and treat her like a child at every turn. He
directly contradicts what she knows to be true—that she isn't
gaining any weight and her appetite is poor. This reflects the
structure of the section. The narrator begins by wondering if
the wallpaper is moving, and it ends with her sense of reality
weakened—knowing the wallpaper is moving. The whole
section is a clash between her needs, desires, and perceptions,
and her husband's, as John twists reality and the truth to instill
the idea in her mind that she is improving.
Section 6
Summary
The next journal entry begins with an elaborate description of
the yellow wallpaper, which the narrator has become even
more fascinated with. She spends hours following the pattern,
which she describes as "torturing." Now it "turns a back-
somersault and there you are. It slaps you in the face, knocks
you down, and tramples upon you." She has figured out that
the outside pattern of the wallpaper becomes bars when it is
seen in the moonlight.
She sees something about the wallpaper that the others do not
notice: "it changes as the light changes." In sunlight it looks one
way, but in the moonlight, the narrator can see the "sub-
pattern" and the figure of the woman becomes "as plain as can
be." John has begun forcing the narrator to lie down
immediately after each meal, but she thinks this "is a very bad
habit ... for you see I don't sleep. And that cultivates deceit, for I
don't tell them I'm awake—O no!" Also, the narrator is beginning
to fear her husband.
When the narrator surprises Jennie, alone in the nursery
staring at the wallpaper, Jennie tells her to be careful because
"she had found yellow smooches" on the narrator's and John's
clothes. The narrator begins to feel suspicious of Jennie (and
John), believing them to be studying the pattern of the
wallpaper, too. The narrator is determined to be the one to
figure out the meaning of the wallpaper pattern.
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Section Summaries 11
Analysis
The language the narrator uses to describe the wallpaper has
become more active, more violent, just as her situation is
growing more desperate; the wallpaper becomes more alive to
her. Her sense of confinement has increased, and to reflect her
feelings she now sees prisonlike bars in the wallpaper. There is
an outside pattern and a subpattern clearly distinguished in
this section, as the story begins to reflect the thematic idea of
women being subjected to men. The pattern she speaks of
signifies the current relationship dynamics between men and
women. Men are like the outer pattern—with their professional
and political outward lifestyles—and women are the
subpattern—with their domestic and in-home lifestyles. So, it is
significant that, in this section, the narrator takes her
husband's advice even though she feels it is bad advice, and
this leads to deceit and fear.
Jennie reflects a more domestic type of woman, content with
her status in society; her concern is the laundry and the stains
from the wallpaper. On a literal level, as the story unfolds
Jennie has found "yellow smooches" on the narrator's clothes,
and readers must puzzle out why this might be.
Section 7
Summary
The narrator is excited, and her health is improving. She feels
more positive, and John is pleased that she is eating well and
seems less agitated. She explains that her improvement is
because she looks forward to watching the pattern in the
wallpaper. She does not intend to reveal this fact to John,
however. She fears her husband will make fun of her or make
her leave early if he finds out her improvement "was because
of the wall-paper." There is only one more week for the rental
of the estate, and the narrator says, "I think that will be
enough."
Analysis
This very short entry is a turning point in the story, as the
narrator begins to "improve." However, the improvement she
seems to show is a result of her deepening fantasy that there
The Yellow Wallpaper Study Guide
is a woman living inside the wallpaper, which builds suspense.
She says she thinks a week more will be "enough" to "find it
out," but she doesn't say exactly what she intends or expects.
John's point of view and the reader's point of view diverge
even more here, because readers have far more information
than John does.
Section 8
Summary
The narrator says she feels better than ever, though she
sleeps most of the day and stays up all night to watch
"developments" in the nursery wallpaper. She has begun to
notice that the wallpaper gives off a smell that "creeps all over
the house," following her around. She spends a good amount
of time puzzling over the smell, trying to figure out what it
reminds her of. She decides it is a "yellow" smell. She notices a
long streak on the wallpaper that goes all the way around the
room. She wonders "how it was done and who did it, and what
they did it for."
Analysis
Developments in this section are related to the fact that the
narrator is unaware of some of her own actions. She notices a
strange mark that goes around the room, except where the
bed is (remember that the bed is nailed down), as if it had been
rubbed over and over.
Readers can begin to see the puzzle pieces snapping into
place: Her clothes have yellow from the wallpaper on them.
There is a long smear where it looks like someone has rubbed
along the wall over and over, around and around. She can
always smell the wallpaper, even in her hair.
Section 9
Summary
The narrator has figured out that the outer pattern moves
because the woman behind it shakes it, trying to climb through
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Section Summaries 12
it. Sometimes she sees many women trapped in the wallpaper,
and sometimes, only one. But she notes it can't be escaped
from—those who try get strangled in the pattern.
Analysis
The fact that the narrator thinks there may be one woman, or
possibly many, behind the wallpaper pattern brings out the
symbolic nature of the woman. She represents the narrator,
but she also represents many women, maybe all women. This
helps connect readers to the larger theme of women's roles in
society, and how there are patterns in place that confine
women.
The wallpaper pattern is quite violent now—where before it
was "torturing" and would "slap," now it will "strangle." This
reflects the narrator's growing agitation from her confinement.
Section 10
Summary
The narrator is convinced that the woman behind the
wallpaper's pattern gets out in the daytime because she can
see her through the windows, creeping around outside. The
narrator insists that she, herself, only creeps around when she
is in her room, and no one can see. She wishes that John would
sleep in a different room because "John is so queer now." Also,
she would like to have the nursery to herself at night as well as
by day.
Analysis
The narrator reveals two disturbing physical actions that she
engages in—ones that are not simply in her imagination: she
creeps by daylight, and she turns around and around near the
windows in order to see if she can see the creeping woman.
What would Jennie or John think if they saw these actions
happening? There is a clue—"John is so queer now"—in the
section that implies that John is changing toward the narrator,
as her behavior grows stranger. The story's structure plays
with differences in perception between men and women and
ideas about mental illness and normalcy: the reader knows
The Yellow Wallpaper Study Guide
more about the narrator than the other characters do, and the
reader knows the narrator does not understand the other
characters' reactions to her. It comes down to differing
perceptions and a lack of understanding between parties.
Again, this is making the point that perhaps the narrator has
only grown ill because she has the type of mind—regardless of
her gender—that needs to be engaged and intellectually
stimulated.
Section 11
Summary
The narrator has decided to remove the top pattern from the
wallpaper, leaving the pattern underneath behind. She feels
that there is some urgency about doing this because they have
only two days left in the house. She tells the reader that she
has a secret she isn't going to even reveal in her journal: "I have
found out another funny thing, but I shan't tell it this time! It
does not do to trust people too much." John has become
concerned about her behavior, and he has been asking
questions of both her and of Jennie. The narrator writes that
he pretends to be loving and kind, but she can see through him.
She's not surprised he's acting strangely after "sleeping under
this paper for three months." She also suspects that the yellow
wallpaper is affecting Jennie.
Analysis
The narrator is more secretive and suspicious. She thinks John
is just "pretending" to be nice. She is suspicious of whomever
is reading her journal—either herself or readers. This idea ties
in with the theme of conformity versus expression; that to
express oneself can be dangerous seems to be the narrator's
message.
This section extends the metaphor of the pattern in the
wallpaper representing the pattern between men and women:
the pattern, which represents the male–female dynamic, is
affecting John and Jennie, too. They think she is wrong for
wanting to use her mind to heal herself, but she thinks they are
just as fixated and trapped by the pattern as she is. They don't
know it, but she does. So who is really insane? Those who
remain ignorant of the pattern, or those who tear it apart and
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Section Summaries 13
try to break free from it?
Section 12
Summary
The narrator feels certain that she can complete her task,
although it is the last day in the house. Working by moonlight
and with the "help" of the woman behind the pattern, the
narrator has removed large areas of the wallpaper. She locks
the door and throws the key out the window, then begins
peeling. She thinks that there are many women who come out
from behind the wallpaper pattern, and that she is actually one
of them. She begins to creep around the wall of the room, with
her shoulder rubbing into the long yellow streak she had
noticed earlier in the wallpaper.
John arrives, and, finding the door locked, pounds on it. She
tells him that the key is under a plant outside, and he is able to
open the door. "It is so pleasant to be out in this great room
and creep around as I please!" she tells John. "I've got out at
last," she says, "in spite of you and Jane? ... And I've pulled off
most of the paper, so you can't put me back!" He sees her
creeping along and faints across her path, but she continues to
creep.
Analysis
The final journal entry reveals the complete disintegration of
the narrator's identity. She is so invested in peeling off the
paper, she seems violent toward anyone else who touches it:
"no person touches this paper but me,—not alive!" She says
that she is tempted to jump out the window but can't because
of the bars. She notes that the "bedstead is fairly gnawed,"
then reveals that she is the one gnawing it: "I got so angry I bit
off a little piece at one corner—but it hurt my teeth." These are
violent images that point to a level of madness and agitation
she hasn't shown to John, or the reader, at all.
As she finally descends into madness, she seems to merge her
identity with that of the woman in the wallpaper. She doesn't
want to go outside because she's come to identify so much
with the wallpaper. She treats the nursery as if she has
escaped out of the wallpaper and arrived to enjoy the large
expanse of the room for the first time.
The Yellow Wallpaper Study Guide Quotes 14

Some readers believe that the phrase "in spite of you and
enough to constantly irritate and
Jane" is a cryptic revelation of the narrator's real name. If so, it
shows that she has completely left behind her old identity. provoke study, and when you
Some scholars believe that Jane is an error, meant to be
follow the lame uncertain curves
Jennie, and that the narrator is actually referring to her sister-
in-law. Either way, the ending has the same connotation for a little distance they suddenly
because Jennie represents the type of woman who embraces
the status quo.
commit suicide—plunge off at
outrageous angles, destroy
themselves in unheard of
g Quotes
contradictions."
"John laughs at me, of course, but — Narrator, Section 1
one expects that in marriage."
One of the narrator's first descriptions of the wallpaper's
— Narrator, Section 1 pattern shows that it already reflects her internal state:
uncertain, self-destructive, contradictory.

The narrator's expectations of marriage reveal how

commonplace it is for her husband to belittle her.
"It does weigh on me so not to do
my duty in any way!"
"If a physician of high standing,
and one's own husband, assures — Narrator, Section 2

friends and relatives that there is

The narrator refers to the fact that she has no tasks to do—not
really nothing the matter with one even the normal "woman's work" of mothering and keeping
house. She is weighed down not by duties, but by lack of them.
but temporary nervous
depression—a slight hysterical
tendency—what is one to do?" "I think sometimes that if I were
only well enough to write a little it
— Narrator, Section 1
would relieve the press of ideas
The narrator explains why she is helpless to make the changes
and rest me."
she needs to get better. Her husband does not take her
seriously, and because he is respected as both a doctor and a — Narrator, Section 2
male, while she is not, his opinion is considered more reliable.

John has given instructions that she is not to tell stories or use
her imagination because it might lead to a worse mental
"It is dull enough to confuse the condition. However, the narrator seems to think that writing her
ideas down on paper might make her feel better.
eye in following, pronounced

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The Yellow Wallpaper Study Guide
"There is a recurrent spot where
the pattern lolls like a broken neck
and two bulbous eyes stare at you
upside down. I get positively angry
with the impertinence of it and the
everlastingness."
— Narrator, Section 2
The narrator's description of the pattern as looking like a
broken neck is ominous and reflects the growing intensity of
her mental decline. She also begins to attribute human
motivations to the wallpaper, referring to its "impertinence."
"I cry at nothing, and cry most of
the time. Of course I don't when
John is here, or anybody else, but
when I am alone. And I am alone a
good deal just now."
— Narrator, Section 3
As the narrator's isolation continues for weeks, she becomes
more and more emotionally fragile. Yet she doesn't show this
to the others yet—she's become secretive, concealing her real
self.
"The faint figure behind seemed to
shake the pattern, just as if she
wanted to get out."
— Narrator, Section 5
The narrator begins to believe that a woman is trapped inside
the wallpaper's pattern, as if the pattern were bars of a prison.
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Quotes 15
""What is it, little girl?" he said.
"Don't go walking about like
that—you'll get cold.""
— John, Section 5
John, the narrator's husband, refers to her as if she were a
child who must be taken care of rather than a grown woman,
using the word little to describe her several times in the story.
"By daylight she is subdued, quiet.
I fancy it is the pattern that keeps
her so still. It is so puzzling. It
keeps me quiet by the hour."
— Narrator, Section 6
The pattern of the wallpaper confines and subdues the
imaginary woman just as the narrator is subdued and confined
by its pattern. The imaginary woman seems to externally
manifest the narrator's internal state.
"I pulled and she shook, I shook
and she pulled, and before
morning we had peeled off yards
of that paper."
— Narrator, Section 12
At the end of the story, the narrator has come to believe that
the woman in the wallpaper is just as real as she is. In a way
they work together, because they are both looking for a way
out. In some ways, they have become the same person in her
mind.
The Yellow Wallpaper Study Guide
l Symbols
Yellow Wallpaper
The yellow wallpaper's pattern symbolizes the confinement of
the narrator. It traps the narrator's thoughts as she is
increasingly fascinated by its paths, and follows them with her
eyes at the expense of doing anything else. After several
weeks, she believes that the wallpaper's pattern includes bars
that trap a woman inside. This woman shakes the bars, trying
to get out. At the end of the story, the narrator tears the paper
from the wall, trying to free the woman. This action of tearing
down the symbol of confinement represents the narrator's own
desire to be free.
Estate
The estate, which consists of an isolated house and its
gardens, reflects the narrator's own isolation. The boundaries
of the estate, house, and room symbolize the ever-smaller
spaces in which the narrator has physical and mental freedom:
"hedges and walls and gates that lock, and lots of separate
little houses for the gardeners and people." The narrator's
room, as a former nursery, even has bars on the windows. It
also functions as an extension of the narrator's perception of
herself. In early descriptions, she says that it is "beautiful" and
"quite alone," yet "strange" and "all broken now." Later, as she
becomes more self-destructive, she considers burning the
house to get rid of the smell.
Moon
The moon, with its pattern of monthly phases long connected
to a woman's menstrual cycle, represents womanhood. As the
narrator deteriorates, she notices the moon is most active
when it is shining. Its movements mimic the creeping of the
woman the narrator hallucinates, and, later, the narrator
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Symbols 16
herself: "it creeps so slowly, and always comes in by one
window or another ... I kept still and watched the moonlight on
that undulating wallpaper till I felt creepy." The moon's
movement also causes the light to shine on the wallpaper in a
way that suggests, to the narrator, the figure of a woman
trapped behind bars, trying to get out. As a result, the moon,
the trapped woman, and the narrator all move about by night
and are stilled or unseen during the day.
m Themes
Conformity versus Expression
As the wife of a respected physician, the narrator of "The
Yellow Wallpaper" must conform to society's norms as well as
her husband's wishes. The narrator accepts her role with very
little outward dissent, although her need for freedom of
expression reveals itself privately. She rebelliously and secretly
writes in her journal. She stays awake at night to have time to
herself. However, her need for healthy self-expression mostly
goes unmet, and so she begins to project her inward self onto
her surroundings through hallucination. She sees a confined
woman behind the "bars" of the wallpaper's pattern, and she
sees creeping women outside her windows. Ultimately, this
unhealthy tension between conformity and expression breaks
her down, and the narrator is left without the ability to do
either.
Confinement
The narrator is confined physically by her surroundings and her
husband's directives. The edges of the property, the edges of
her vision, the walls of the room, and the bars on the windows
all provide borders and walls behind which she must stay.
Beyond these physical barriers are those set up by society for
women. In this era, a woman must conform to the wishes of her
husband and the culture in which she is living. Her husband has
decided that she should remain inactive and in her room most
of the time, and, as a doctor and her husband, she has little
The Yellow Wallpaper Study Guide Suggested Reading 17

choice but to obey. These restrictions are reflected in the way
her thoughts are confined by the wallpaper's pattern. She finds
that she can trace its patterns for hours at a time while lying
completely inactive in her bed: "I lie here on this great
immovable bed—it is nailed down, I believe—and follow that
pattern about by the hour. It is as good as gymnastics, I assure
you. I start, we'll say, at the bottom, down in the corner over
there where it has not been touched, and I determine for the
thousandth time that I will follow that pointless pattern to some
sort of a conclusion." In this way, the pattern traps her mind
even as her physical self is trapped.
Women's Roles
becomes more and more caught up in thoughts of the
wallpaper's pattern, in hallucinations, and in her increasing
paranoia about the other people in the house. Physically, she is
increasingly tired and emotionally unstable, sleeping most of
the days away and crying when she tries to discuss her
situation with her husband, John. In the end, she succumbs in
both body and mind to the madness, creeping along the wall in
her room without taking notice of her surroundings.
e Suggested Reading
"Charlotte Perkins Gilman Digital Collection." Radcliffe Institute
for Advanced Study. Harvard U, 2016. Web. 23 Sept. 2016.

Gilman, Charlotte Perkins. The Living of Charlotte Perkins

Gilman: An Autobiography. Madison: U of Wisconsin, 1991. Print.
At the time "The Yellow Wallpaper" was written, women of the
narrator's class were expected to stay in the home, perform
Gilman, Charlotte Perkins. "Why I Wrote the Yellow Wallpaper."
the function of gracious hostess when entertaining guests, and
The Forerunner, Oct. 1913. American Literature Since 1865. U of
submit to their husbands' authority. As a woman, the narrator
Virginia, n.d. Web. 23 Sept. 2016.
lacks liberty, agency in her own life, and meaningful work. She
must stay in the home, and most decisions are made for her, Gilman, Charlotte Perkins, and Larry Ceplair. Charlotte Perkins
not by her. John decides to rent the house. He decides that Gilman: A Nonfiction Reader. New York: Columbia UP, 1991.
she should rest. When she wants to leave, he rejects that Print.
option. Even the roles of homemaker and mother are taken on
by other women. Mary takes on the role of mother, taking care
of the baby. Jennie does the other domestic tasks in the
house, including taking care of the narrator. Treated like a child
who must be cared for, the narrator has nothing but idleness in
her life. The writer, Charlotte Gilman, was of the strong opinion
that women need meaningful work suited to their natural
abilities and inclinations, which might not be maternal or
domestic. The narrator's mental decline demonstrates what
can happen when women lack suitable work.

Mental Illness

The narrator's declining mental condition has both internal and

external origins. She is clearly suffering from depression, likely
related to the birth of the baby mentioned in the story. Yet the
idleness and isolation that is supposed to cure her of this
condition only worsens it. Her madness also has internal and
external effects. Her mind, revealed in the words of her journal,

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