The Yellow Wallpaper
Dover Publications cover
Author	Charlotte Perkins Gilman
Country	United States
Language	English
Subject(s)	Feminism, Women's health, Autobiography
Genre(s)	Short story
Publisher	New England Magazine
Publication date	1892
ISBN	0-486-29857-4

"The Yellow Wallpaper" is a 6,000-word short story by American writer Charlotte Perkins Gilman. It was first published in 1891 in New England Magazine. It is regarded as an important early work of American feminist literature, illustrating attitudes in the 19th century toward women's physical and mental health. Image File history File links Size of this preview: 287 × 473 pixelsFull resolution (287 × 473 pixel, file size: 49 KB, MIME type: image/jpeg) Yellow Wallpaper, Dover Thrift Edition cover This image is of a book cover, and the copyright for it is most likely owned either by the artist... Dover Publications is a book publisher founded in 1941. ... Charlotte Perkins Gilman (July 3, 1860 – August 17, 1935) was a prominent American poet, non-fiction writer, short story writer, novelist, lecturer, and social reformer. ... For other uses, see Country (disambiguation). ... The English language is a West Germanic language that originates in England. ... Feminists redirects here. ... Womens health generally refers to health issues and matters specific to human female anatomy. ... Cover of the first English edition of 1793 of Benjamin Franklins autobiography. ... This article is in need of attention. ... A publisher is a person or entity which engages in the act of publishing. ... Year 1892 (MDCCCXCII) was a leap year starting on Friday (link will display the full calendar) of the Gregorian Calendar (or a leap year starting on Wednesday of the 12-day slower Julian calendar). ... ISBN redirects here. ... This article is in need of attention. ... Charlotte Perkins Gilman (July 3, 1860 – August 17, 1935) was a prominent American poet, non-fiction writer, short story writer, novelist, lecturer, and social reformer. ... Feminists redirects here. ... Mental health is a term used to describe either a level of cognitive or emotional wellbeing or an absence of a mental disorder. ...

The story is written in the first person as a series of journal entries. The narrator is a woman whose husband — a physician — has confined her to the upstairs bedroom of a house he has rented for the summer. She is forbidden from working and has to hide her journal entries from him so that she can recuperate from what he has diagnosed as a "temporary nervous depression — a slight hysterical tendency;" a diagnosis common to women in that period.^[1] The windows of the room are barred, and there is a gate across the top of the stairs, allowing her husband to control her access to the rest of the house. First-person narrative is a literary technique in which the story is narrated by one character, who explicitly refers to him or herself in the first person, that is, I. the narrator is a fool putting his nose into the storytelling exercise. ... For other uses, see Doctor. ... On the Threshold of Eternity. ... Water massages as a treatment for hysteria c. ...

The story illustrates the effect of confinement on the narrator's mental health, and her descent into psychosis. With nothing to stimulate her, she becomes obsessed by the pattern and color of the room's wallpaper. "It is the strangest yellow, that wall-paper! It makes me think of all the yellow things I ever saw — not beautiful ones like buttercups, but old foul, bad yellow things. But there is something else about that paper — the smell! ... The only thing I can think of that it is like is the color of the paper! A yellow smell."^[2] For other uses, see Psychosis (disambiguation). ... Mary Cassatts painting of two ladies drinking tea in a room with red-blue striped wallpapers. ...

In the end, she imagines there are women creeping around behind the patterns of the wallpaper, and comes to believe that she is one of them. She locks herself in the room, now the only place she feels safe, refusing to leave when the summer rental is up. "For outside you have to creep on the ground, and everything is green instead of yellow. But here I can creep smoothly on the floor, and my shoulder just fits in that long smooch around the wall, so I cannot lose my way."^[3]

Plot synopsis

Charlotte Perkins Gilman.

Told in the first-person perspective, in the form of a series of journal entries, the story details the narrator's descent into madness. The protagonist's husband believes it is in the narrator's best interest to go on a rest cure, since he only credits what is observable and scientific. He serves as his wife's physician, therefore treating her like a powerless patient. The story hints that part of the woman's problem is that she recently gave birth to a child, insinuating she may be suffering from what would, in modern times, be called postpartum psychosis. While on vacation for the summer at a colonial mansion, the narrator senses "something queer about it [the mansion]." The narrator is confined in an upstairs room to recuperate by her well-meaning but dictatorial and oblivious husband, but this treatment only exacerbates her depression. Image File history File links Charlotte_Perkins_Gilman_c. ... Image File history File links Charlotte_Perkins_Gilman_c. ... Charlotte Perkins Gilman (July 3, 1860 – August 17, 1935) was a prominent American poet, non-fiction writer, short story writer, novelist, lecturer, and social reformer. ... First-person narrative is a literary technique in which the story is narrated by one character, who explicitly refers to him or herself in the first person, that is, I. the narrator is a fool putting his nose into the storytelling exercise. ... ‹ The template below (Expand) is being considered for deletion. ... After giving birth, about 70-80% of women experience an episode of baby blues, feelings of depression, anger, anxiety and guilt lasting for several days. ...

She devotes many journal entries to obsessively describing the wallpaper — its "yellow" smell, its "breakneck," scrawling pattern; she also describes the various patches it is missing and the fact that it leaves yellow smears on the skin and clothing of anyone who touches it. (Said yellow smears are found on her clothing, suggesting that all along it was she that was shredding the wallpaper). Obsessing over the hatred she believes radiates from the room, she supposes that it must have once been a nursery, and that the children who lived in it hated the wallpaper as much as she did. She notes a patch of wallpaper has been rubbed off at her shoulder height early in the book, and after lapsing into insanity confirms that she was the one who had done all the damage to the room, although she is oblivious to this fact herself. She describes how the longer one stays in the bedroom, the more the wallpaper appears to mutate and change, especially in the moonlight. With no other stimuli than the wallpaper, the pattern and designs on the wallpaper become increasingly intriguing, and a figure of a woman soon appears in the design. She eventually reaches the conclusion that the figure is trying to escape the bars from the shadows, and that there is a woman creeping on all fours behind them.

With the summer close to an end, the narrator finally asks for permission to leave the room. John does not agree to give her the freedom to walk outside, so the narrator voices that she may be losing her mind. Being urged to not speak another word of it, she eventually consumes her entire night with watching the wallpaper, while sleeping during the day. Eventually the woman descends into complete insanity, thinking she is a woman who has escaped from inside the wallpaper.

After realizing she must try to free the woman in the wallpaper, she begins to strip the remaining designs off the wall. While working on peeling away the wallpaper, she tries to hide her obsession with it due to her paranoia and fear that John may re-diagnose her, and his sister will remain with them. On the last day of summer, she locks herself in her room in order to strip the remains of the wallpaper. When John arrives home, the woman refuses to unlock the door and tells him to go fetch the key from outside her window where she threw it earlier. Once he returns with the key and opens the door, however, he finds her creeping around the room, circling the walls and touching the wallpaper. She exclaims, "I’ve got out at last," her husband faints, as she continues to circle the room, stepping over his inert body each 'lap' around.

Interpretation

This story has been interpreted by feminist critics^{[citation needed]} as a condemnation of the androcentric hegemony of 19th century medical profession. The narrator's suggestions about her recuperation (that she should work instead of rest, that she should engage with society instead of remaining isolated, that she should attempt to be a mother instead of being separated entirely from her child, etc.) are dismissed out of hand using language that stereotypes her as an irrational being and, therefore, not qualified to offer ideas about her own condition. Gilman indicated^{[citation needed]} that the idea for the story originated in her own experience as a patient. Other feminist readings have pointed out the inequality of the marriage described in the story and have discussed this aspect of the story in relation to Victorian ideals and traditions of marriage. Androcentrism (Greek ανδρο, andro-, man, male, χεντρον, kentron, center) is the practice, conscious or otherwise, of placing male human beings or the masculine point of view at the center of ones view of the world and its culture and history. ... Look up hegemony in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... Alternative meaning: Nineteenth Century (periodical) (18th century — 19th century — 20th century — more centuries) As a means of recording the passage of time, the 19th century was that century which lasted from 1801-1900 in the sense of the Gregorian calendar. ... For other uses, see Stereotype (disambiguation). ... Irrationality is talking or acting without regard of rationality. ...

"The Yellow Wallpaper" is sometimes referred to^{[citation needed]} as an example of Gothic literature for its treatment of madness and powerlessness. It has also been published in collections of horror fiction, which has led some to speculate^{[citation needed]} that the women in the wallpaper were actually ghosts bent on driving the narrator insane, and not hallucinations. The strong feminist statements claimed for the work and the author's own explanations do not lend support to a supernatural interpretation, although the story's treatment of madness and nervous breakdown still places it in the Gothic mode. It has been suggested that this article or section be merged with Gothic novel. ... “Horror story” redirects here. ... For other uses, see Ghost (disambiguation). ... A hallucination is a perception in the absence of a stimulus that the person may or may not believe is real. ...

The feminist interpretation has also drawn on the concept of the “domestic sphere” that women were held in during this period. "The Yellow Wallpaper" has a lot to do with the subordination of marriage and the domestic work of the wife, while the husband has an active working life.^[4]

The role of the feminist revival was to find the degree of triumph at the end of "The Yellow Wallpaper." While some may claim the narrator slipped into insanity, others see the ending as a female's assertion of freedom in a marriage she felt trapped in.^[5] The emphasis on reading and writing being gendered practices also illustrated the importance of the wallpaper. If the narrator was not allowed to write in her journal nor read, she would begin to "read" the wallpaper until she found what she was looking for: an escape. Through seeing the women in the wallpaper, the narrator realizes she could not live her life locked up behind bars. At the end of the story, as her husband John lays on the floor unconscious, she crawls over him, symbolically rising over him, making her symbolically superior to him. This is further proof that she may have been victorious over her controlling husband, however losing her sanity as the price. For other uses, see Freedom. ...

Media adaptations

• In 2007, Chatterbox Audio Theater adapted the story for audio and made it available for free download and streaming from its website.
• A version of it was performed twice on the radio program Suspense by Agnes Moorehead.
• In 1977, a short film adaptation was produced by Marie Ashton through Women Make Movies.
• Produced by the British Broadcasting Company (BBC) for a series entitled "Masterpiece Theatre" a television film was adapted in 1989. It was adapted by Maggie Wadey and directed by John Clive.
• An audio book of The Yellow Wallpaper additionally was produced by Durkin Hayes, and read by Win Phillips in 1997. This Radio Tales version can also be heard on Sonic Theater on XM Radio.
• BBC Radio dramatized the story for the series Fear on Four.
• A stage adaptation was performed at the 2006 Edinburgh Fringe Festival.
• The Yellow Wallpaper (film)
• Song "Yellow Creep Around" on the Mary's Danish album Circa, published one century after the original.

Suspense, one of the premier drama programs of the Golden Age of Radio, was subtitled radios outstanding theater of thrills. ... Agnes Robertson Moorehead (December 6, 1900 – April 30, 1994) was an Oscar-nominated American character actress. ... Categories: Festival stubs | Edinburgh ... The Yellow Wallpaper is a 2007 Gothic thriller film based on the short story written by Charlotte Perkins Gilman. ... Marys Danish is the name of a alternative rock band that was formed in Los Angeles, California in the late 1980s and released a series of albums until 1992. ...

See also

• Brown Dog affair

The Brown Dog affair was a controversy and cause célèbre for a brief period in Edwardian England, from 1903 to 1910, and revolving around vivisection and a statue erected in memory of a dog killed in the cause of medical research. ...

References

Further reading

Wikisource has original text related to this article:

The Yellow Wallpaper

• Chatterbox Audio Theater's adaptation of "The Yellow Wallpaper"
• Text of The Yellow Wallpaper, City University of New York, retrieved January 22, 2008.
• Gilman, Charlotte Perkins. "Why I wrote The Yellow Wallpaper", The Forerunner, October 1913; this webpage prepared by Catherine Lavender for the Department of History, The College of Staten Island of The City University of New York, last modified Tuesday June 8, 1999, retrieved January 22, 2008.
• The Yellow Wallpaper, audio, CBS radio, 1948.
• The Yellow Wallpaper at the Internet Movie Database
• The Yellow Wallpaper A 2006 film inspired by the short story that relies on the gothic/horror interpretation.
• Why I wrote The Yellow Wallpaper An article from the author published in 1913.
• Bak, John S. “Escaping the Jaundiced Eye: Foucauldian Panopticism in Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s ‘The Yellow Wallpaper.’” Studies in Short Fiction 31.1 (Winter 1994): 39-46.
• Crewe, Jonathan. “Queering ‘The Yellow Wallpaper’? Charlotte Perkins Gilman and the Politics of Form.” Tulsa Studies in Women’s Literature 14 (Fall 1995): 273-293.
• Gilbert, Sandra and Gubar, Susan. The Madwoman in the Attic. Yale University Press, 1980. ISBN 0-300-02596-3
• Golden, Catherine. “The Writing of ‘The Yellow Wallpaper’ A Double Palimpsest.” Studies in American Fiction 17 (Autumn 1989): 193-201.
• Haney-Peritz, Janice. "Monumental Feminism and Literature’s Ancestral House: Another Look at ‘The Yellow Wallpaper," Women’s Studies 12 (1986): 113-128.
• Hume, Beverly A. "Gilman’s ‘Interminable Grotesque’: The Narrator of ‘The Yellow Wallpaper," Studies in Short Fiction 28 (Fall 1991): 477-484.
• Johnson, Greg. “Gilman’s Gothic Allegory: Rage and Redemption in ‘The Yellow Wallpaper.’” Studies in Short Fiction 26 (Fall 1989): 521-530.
• King, Jeannette, and Pam Morris. “On Not Reading Between the Lines: Models of Reading in ‘The Yellow Wallpaper.’” Studies in Short Fiction 26.1 (Winter 1989): 23-32.
• Klotz, Michael. "Two Dickens Rooms in 'The Yellow Wall-Paper'" Notes and Queries (December 2005): 490-1.
• Knight, Denise D. “The Reincarnation of Jane: ‘Through This’ - Gilman’s Companion to ‘The Yellow Wall-paper.’” Women’s Studies 20 (1992): 287-302.
• Lanser, Susan S. “Feminist Criticism, ‘The Yellow Wallpaper,’ and the Politics of Color in America.” Feminist Studies 15 (Fall 1989): 415-437.
• Treichler, Paula A. "Escaping the Sentence: Diagnosis and Discourse in 'The Yellow Wallpaper'." Tulsa Studies in Women's Literature (1984): 61-75.