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The Yellow Wallpaper

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'The Yellow Wallpaper' by Charlotte Perkins Gilman is a short story that delves into a woman's descent into madness as she stays confined in a room with yellow wallpaper, growing obsessed with it. The book explores themes of women's mental health issues in the late 19th century, particularly postpartum depression, and the mistreatment of women by society and the medical profession. The narrative is a powerful commentary on women's lack of power in a male-dominated world, showcasing the consequences of isolation and confinement on one's mental state.

The writing style in 'The Yellow Wallpaper' is often described as gothic, haunting, and psychological. It effectively portrays the slow deterioration of the main character's mental state, capturing the reader's attention with vivid descriptions and a sense of impending madness. The story is lauded for its thought-provoking exploration of societal norms and the repression of women, offering a chilling and impactful read in just a few pages.

Characters:

The characters reflect gender dynamics of the 19th century, with the wife suffering under her controlling husband, who is depicted as both loving and ignorant of her needs.

Writing/Prose:

The prose style is characterized by a fragmented, stream-of-consciousness narrative that mirrors the protagonist's deteriorating mental state, employing vivid and unsettling imagery.

Plot/Storyline:

The plot centers on a woman's confinement in a room due to her supposed mental illness, leading her to obsess over the yellow wallpaper, symbolizing her struggle against oppression and eventual madness.

Setting:

The setting plays a crucial role, being an isolated, oppressive space that symbolizes the confinement and control experienced by the protagonist.

Pacing:

The pacing is intentionally slow, enhancing the sense of dread as the protagonist spirals into madness, culminating in a rapid and impactful finale.
If a physician of high standing, and one's own husband, assures friends and relatives that there is really nothing the matter with one but temporary nervous depression—a slight hysterical tendency—wha...

Notes:

The Yellow Wallpaper was published in 1892 and remains a significant early work of feminist literature.
The story is presented as a series of journal entries from an unnamed woman confined to a room by her physician husband for her mental health.
The narrator suffers from what is now believed to be postpartum depression, but during the time period, her symptoms are dismissed as mere nerves.
The wallpaper in the room symbolizes the oppressive societal norms restricting women's autonomy and self-expression.
Charlotte Perkins Gilman wrote this story based on her own experiences with mental illness and the ineffective 'rest cure' prescribed to her.
The story explores themes of isolation, mental health, and the power dynamics in gender relationships.
At the end of the story, the narrator's mental state deteriorates as she becomes obsessed with the wallpaper, ultimately believing she sees a woman trapped behind it.
The physical setting of the story—a room with barred windows and yellow wallpaper—serves as a literal and metaphorical prison for the narrator.
Despite its short length, the story has had lasting impact and continues to be studied for its commentary on women's health and autonomy.
The Yellow Wallpaper influenced later feminist discourse and literary criticism regarding female mental health.

Sensitive Topics/Content Warnings

Triggers and content warnings include themes of mental illness, misogyny, postpartum depression, emotional abuse, and isolation.

From The Publisher:

THE YELLOW WALL-PAPER is a short story by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, first published in January 1892 in The 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. Presented in the first person, the story is a collection of journal entries written by a woman whose physician husband 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 from him, so she can recuperate from what he calls a "temporary nervous depression - a slight hysterical tendency," a diagnosis common to women in that period.

Ratings (199)

Incredible (30)
Loved It (84)
Liked It (54)
It Was OK (21)
Did Not Like (7)
Hated It (3)

Reader Stats (385):

Read It (215)
Want To Read (127)
Did Not Finish (1)
Not Interested (42)

11 comment(s)

Incredible
1 week

It's a very short story but oh boy did it pack a punch! It's haunting and will stay with me for a long time!

 
Loved It
2 weeks

loved this short, haunting tale

 
Loved It
3 months

4*

rtc

 
Loved It
4 months

Okay, this is not the first time I've read

The Yellow Wallpaper. The first time I read this story, I literally was in seventh grade. I enjoyed it then, and I enjoy it even more now that I'm an adult.

So I see that most people reviewing this story take it quite literally. To me, the narrator may or may not actually have mental illness; but, even if she does, her husband is using it as another means to control her.

The yellow wallpaper symbolizes the patriarchy/the narrator's husband/any male in the narrator's life. Thus, this is why the narrator is so bothered by the wallpaper and wants to change it. The woman trapped in the wallpaper is the narrator herself (and, by extension, any woman).

Anyway, I love

The Yellow Wallpaper. I want to examine it further when I have more time.

 
Did Not Like
5 months

really don't like " descent into madness type stories

 
Loved It
5 months

Interesting short story about attitude towards mental health.

 
Did Not Like
6 months

There are things in that paper that nobody knows but me, or ever will.

In a word: underwhelming. 2.5 stars.

The Yellow Wall-Paper may have shocked readers at the time and might be an important text from a historical perspective (or maybe not—I can't say either way), but it didn't work for me as literature. Maybe it's because it's

so short and I don't read much short fiction (then again, Shirley Jackson's

The Lottery is undeniably incredible and even shorter), or maybe because I've read other authors whose novels explore depression and insanity better (namely, Charlotte Brontë and the aforementioned Shirley Jackson, respectively), but I didn't find

The Yellow Wall-Paper to be especially impactful, interesting, or well-written. Instead, the themes, descriptions, and plot are fairly repetitive and simplistic, without leaving the reader much of anything to contemplate after the story ends. Any hint of nuance or psychological complexity or emotional core is utterly absent. I wanted to love it, but instead I'm disappointed.

The Yellow Wall-Paper isn't bad, but it's not

good, either: it's just…on the very boring side of "fine." It certainly doesn't live up to the hype.

 
Incredible
6 months

claustrophobic and maddening this story exemplifies the female experience

 
Incredible
6 months

An unforgettable experience!!

 
Liked It
6 months

what we know about mental illness is so much greater (thank god)

 
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About the Author:

Charlotte Perkins Gilman (1860-1935) was born in New England, a descendant of the prominent and influential Beecher family. In 1884 she married Charles Water Stetson. After giving birth, Charlotte sank into a deep depression. She entered a sanitarium in Philadelphia to undergo the 'rest cure', a controversial treatment, which forbade any type of physical activity or intellectual stimulation. 1892, she published the now-famous story 'The Yellow Wall-Paper'. In 1898, her most famous nonfiction book, Women and Economics, was published. With its publication, and subsequent translation into seven languages, Gilman earned international acclaim. In 1900, she married her first cousin, George Houghton Gilman. Over the next thirty-five years, she wrote and published hundreds of stories and poems and more than a dozen books. Denise D. Knight is a professor of English at the State University of New York at Courtland, where she specializes in nineteenth-century American Literature. She is author of Charlotte Perkins Gilman: A Study of the Short Fiction and editor of The Later Poetry of Charlotte Perkins Gilman, The Diaries of Charlotte Perkins Gilman, The Abridged Diaries of Charlotte Perkins Gilman, "The Yellow Wall-Paper" and Selected Stories of Charlotte Perkins Gilman, and Nineteenth-Century American Women Writers: A Bio-Bibliographical Critical Sourcebook. She is also the author of numerous articles, essays, and reviews on nineteenth-century American writers.

 
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