“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. She feels, however, that there is “something queer” about the place and explains that her case of “nervous depression” is what prompted their stay there. The narrator complains that her husband John, who is also her doctor, belittles both her illness and, more generally, her perspective. Her treatment, known as the “rest cure,” requires that she refrain from virtually any form of activity, even working and writing. Despite these instructions, she feels that activity, freedom, and interesting work would help her condition and has begun keeping a secret journal in order to “relieve her mind.” The narrator continues her journal entry by describing the house and gardens, both of which are beautiful yet clearly impacted by the estate’s years of emptiness. In the nursery on the top floor, however, she finds the yellow wallpaper, with its strange, formless pattern, to be particularly disturbing.
As the first few weeks of the summer pass, the narrator succeeds at hiding her journal, thus keeping her true thoughts from John. While she longs for more stimulating company and complains about John’s patronizing, controlling ways, she takes a new interest in the oddly-menacing wallpaper. John worries about her fixation, and he refuses to repaper the room so as not to give in to her nervousness. The narrator’s imagination, however, has awakened, and she reflects on her history of having an overactive mind. She goes on to describe the bedroom again, which she says must have been a nursery for young children due to the fact that the paper is torn off the wall in spots, there are scratches and gouges in the floor, and the furniture is heavy and fixed in place. Just as she begins to see a strange sub-pattern behind the main design of the wallpaper, John’s sister Jennie, who serves as a housekeeper and nurse for the narrator, interrupts her writing.
As the Fourth of July passes, the narrator reports that her family has just visited, leaving her more tired than ever. John threatens to send her to Weir Mitchell, the real-life physician under whose care author Charlotte Perkins Gilman suffered. The narrator is alone most of the time and says that she has become almost fond of the wallpaper; studying the pattern has become her primary form of entertainment. As her obsession grows, the sub-pattern of the wallpaper becomes clearer. It begins to resemble a woman “stooping down and creeping” behind the main pattern, which at nighttime looks like the bars of a cage. Soon the wallpaper dominates the narrator’s imagination. Mistaking the narrator’s fixation for tranquility, John thinks she is improving. On the contrary, she sleeps less and less and believes that she can smell the paper all over the house. The sub-pattern now clearly resembles a woman who is trying to escape from behind the main pattern. The narrator sees her shaking the bars at night and creeping around during the day, when the woman is able to leave the wall.
Suspecting that John and Jennie know of her obsession, she resolves to destroy the paper once and for all, peeling much of it off during the night. While left alone the next day, she goes into something of a frenzy, biting and tearing at the paper in order to free the trapped woman whom she sees struggling from inside the pattern. By the end, the narrator is hopelessly insane, convinced that there are many women creeping around and that she herself has come out of the wallpaper. She creeps endlessly around the room, smudging the wallpaper as she goes. When John breaks into the locked room and sees the full horror of the situation, he faints in the doorway so that the narrator has “to creep over him every time!”
FAQs
Charlotte Perkins Gilman
Confined to a room in her home by her physician husband, she becomes increasingly obsessed with the yellow wallpaper that adorns the room. Set in a colonial mansion during the late 19th century, the story sheds light on the treatment of women's mental health during that era.
What is the plot twist in The Yellow Wallpaper? ›
Through seeing the women in the wallpaper, the narrator realizes that she could not live her life locked up behind bars. At the end of the story, as her husband lies on the floor unconscious, she crawls over him, symbolically rising over him.
What is the plot and conflict in The Yellow Wallpaper? ›
Major Conflict The struggle between the narrator and her husband, who is also her doctor, over the nature and treatment of her illness leads to a conflict within the narrator's mind between her growing understanding of her own powerlessness and her desire to repress this awareness.
What happened to the girl at the end of The Yellow Wallpaper? ›
The ending represents Gilman's ideas of a repressive treatment of women's mental and physical health. At the end of summer, Jane locks herself in the room and strips off the wallpapers that disgust her. The narrator crawls around the room, shouting out that she is finally out.
What happens to John at the end of The Yellow Wallpaper? ›
That John has been destroyed by this imprisoning relationship is made clear by the story's chilling finale. After breaking in on his insane wife, John faints in shock and goes unrecognized by his wife, who calls him “that man” and complains about having to “creep over him” as she makes her way along the wall.
Why does John faint at the end of The Yellow Wallpaper? ›
John faints at the end of the story because the narrator's erratic and destructive behavior shocks him. He cannot believe that his wife, whom he presumed was improving in her condition, has fallen into such animalistic behavior.
Why did she go insane in The Yellow Wallpaper? ›
She also believes that she can smell the color, which has a “yellow smell” (150). Due to her isolation in the yellow room, her brain is consumed with the color and her senses become entangled with the smell. The narrator's confinement is what ultimately drives her insane.
What is The Yellow Wallpaper climax? ›
The climax of the story occurs when the narrator resolves to tear down the wallpaper and free “that poor thing” who “crawl[s] and shake[s] the pattern.” In this moment, she takes physical action to rebel against her confinement by destroying a symbol of the very thing that defines her life as a Victorian woman: ...
Why does she creep in The Yellow Wallpaper? ›
“Creeping” in the story by Charlotte P. Gilman symbolizes the struggle of women to overcome domestic captivity. The word appears in the text many times. It adds to the story's creepy air that unfolds around a woman who became a domestic violence victim.
What is the main issue of The Yellow Wallpaper? ›
The social issue that plays a central role in "The Yellow Wallpaper" is the treatment of women in late 19th-century society, particularly by the medical field.
In the end, when the narrator rips the wallpaper off the wall, she believes that she's freeing the trapped woman inside. But who she really wants to free is herself—she sees herself in that trapped woman, and she ends the story creeping around the bedroom where John has fainted on the floor.
What is the falling action in The Yellow Wallpaper? ›
Answer and Explanation: The falling action in "The Yellow Wallpaper" can be noted when the narrator had finally seen the woman on the paper wandering around. The narrator spent hours with the woman as she enjoyed her subtle freedom. Finally, the narrator stripped the wallpaper so the woman could be free.
Does Jane hang herself in The Yellow Wallpaper? ›
Although the story does not directly state this, it is believed that the narrator from "The Yellow Wallpaper" does hang herself at the end of the story. This is indicated in the passage where she discusses hiding a length of rope in her room and finding a way to escape her confinement, despite never leaving the room.
Is The Yellow Wallpaper a true story? ›
Charlotte Perkins Gilman won much attention in 1892 for publishing “The Yellow Wallpaper,” a semi-autobiographical short story dealing with mental health and contemporary social expectations for women.
Did the woman in The Yellow Wallpaper have a baby? ›
Answer and Explanation:
Yes, the story indicates that Jane has a baby in "The Yellow Wallpaper," but the child is not present or allowed to be with its mother during her psychological recovery. The story says that someone else is caring for the child while the main character recovers.
What lesson does The Yellow Wallpaper teach? ›
The Subordination of Women in Marriage
In “The Yellow Wallpaper,” Gilman uses the conventions of the psychological horror tale to critique the position of women within the institution of marriage, especially as practiced by the “respectable” classes of her time.
Why does the woman in The Yellow Wallpaper go crazy? ›
Due to her isolation in the yellow room, her brain is consumed with the color and her senses become entangled with the smell. The narrator's confinement is what ultimately drives her insane.
What are the key events in The Yellow Wallpaper? ›
The most significant event in "The Yellow Wallpaper" is the suicide of the main character, the narrator of the story. While this event is not specifically mentioned in the text, it is alluded to in several ways.
