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Analysis of Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s The Yellow Wall-Paper

By NASRULLAH MAMBROL on April 28, 2022

First published in New England Magazine in January 1892, and reprinted by Small, Maynard and Company as a chapbook (1899), “The Yellow Wall-Paper” is Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s most famous work. Depicting the nervous breakdown of a young wife and mother, the story is a potent example of psychological realism. Based loosely on Gilman’s own experiences in undergoing the rest cure for neurasthenia, the story documents the psychological torment of her fictional first-person narrator.

The narrator’s husband, John, a physician, prescribes isolation and inactivity as treatment for her illness, a “temporary nervous depression—a slight hysterical tendency” (10). John forbids her to engage in any kind of labor, including writing. Despite his admonitions, however, the narrator records her impressions in a secret diary.

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These diary entries compose the text of the story; they reveal the narrator’s emotional descent. As the story unfolds, it becomes apparent that she is suffering an acute form of postpartum depression, a condition acknowledged neither by John nor by the late-19th-century medical community. So severe is the narrator’s depression that a nursemaid has assumed care of the new baby. Deprived of the freedom to write openly, which she believes would be therapeutic, the narrator gradually shifts her attention to the yellow wallpaper in the attic nursery where she spends her time. The paper both intrigues and repels her; it becomes the medium on which she symbolically inscribes her “text.” Soon she detects a subpattern in the wallpaper that crystallizes into the image of an imprisoned woman attempting to escape. In the penultimate scene, the narrator’s identity merges with that of the entrapped woman, and together they frantically tear the paper from the walls. In an ironic reversal in the final scene, John breaks into the room and, after witnessing the full measure of his wife’s insanity, faints. Significantly, however, he is still blocking his wife, literally and symbolically obstructing her path so that she has to “creep over him every time!” (36).

Critics disagree over the meaning of the story, variously arguing the significance of everything from linguistic cues, to psychoanalytic interpretations, to historiographical readings. While some critics have hailed the narrator as a feminist heroine, others have seen in her a maternal failure coupled with a morbid fear of female sexuality. Some have viewed the story, with its yellow paper, as an exemplar of the silencing of women writers in 19th-century America; others have focused on its gothic elements.

Since the Feminist Press reissued the story in 1973, “The Yellow Wall-Paper” has been widely anthologized and is now firmly assimilated in the American literary body of work.

BIBLIOGRAPHY Gilman, Charlotte Perkins. The Yellow Wall-paper. Boston: Small, Maynard, & Co., 1899. Reprint, Old Westbury, N.Y.: Feminist Press, 1973. Lanser, Susan A. “Feminist Criticism, ‘The Yellow Wallpaper,’ and the Politics of Color in America.” Feminist Studies 15, no. 3 (Fall 1989): 415–441. Shumaker, Conrad. “ ‘Too Terribly Good to Be Printed’: Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s ‘The Yellow Wallpaper.’ ” American Literature 57, no. 4 (1985): 588–599. Veeder, William. “Who Is Jane? The Intricate Feminism of Charlotte Perkins Gilman.” Arizona Quarterly 44, no. 3 (1988): 40–79.

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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.

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.

"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.

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 .

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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Review: The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman

Yesterday was the International Women’s Day – 8 March 2019, and although I am a bit late, I thought I would still review one of the stories from the feminist literature.

The Yellow Wallpaper is a short story about the narrator’s path towards madness. The narrator is a woman who has recently given birth and is advised by her husband John, a physician, to have more rest and to stop writing in her diary. The narrator, however, loves to write and is very imaginative. On the top floor of their rented cottage, she finds a room which was once a nursery. There, one presence does not let her enjoy her stay – the presence of the yellow wallpaper on the walls. She gradually becomes fixated and obsessed with it until she cannot distinguish reality and imagination. This story by Charlotte Perkins Gilman has always been known for its eeriness, as well as for multiple interpretations that can be given to it. Whether the book is viewed as an unsettling horror story, a mental illness case study or a purely feminist text to highlight the plight of women at the turn of the century, it still remains a compelling and thought-provoking read.

At the beginning of the story, it becomes clear that the narrator is not well. She may be suffering from a post-natal depression, but the medical knowledge at that time will probably refer to it as some form of a “female hysteria” or an attack of the nerves. Upon encountering the yellow wallpaper in one of the rooms in the cottage that her husband rented, the narrator takes an immediate dislike to it. That dislike soon grows to become something unimaginable, and the narrator’s vicious, gradual hatred for the wallpaper is intoxicating. “ The colour is repellent, almost revolting; a smouldering unclean yellow, strangely faded by the slow-turning sunlight ” [1892: 43], writes our narrator in her diary, continuing that “ it is dull yet lurid orange in some places, a sickly sulphur tint in others” [1892: 43]. Later on, there is also a statement: “ the colour is hideous enough, and unreliable enough, and infuriating enough, but the pattern is torturing ” [1892: 51].

Later, it becomes hard to define the narrator’s mental condition. She is confused and does not understand the nature of her condition. There is even an element of an obsessive-compulsive disorder because she criticises the wallpaper for not being orderly. Our narrator is also implicitly compared to her husband: if she is imaginative and prone to fancies, he is a reasonable physician who likes to use his common sense and scientific judgement.

Then, the story reminded me of Henry James’s novella The Turn of the Screw [1898], which is also open to multiple interpretations. In both, we may be instinctively drawn to the narrator’s side or believe the narrator because she bears her soul, fear and trauma to us, seeking our sympathy. Therefore, there is an element of doubt in the story. In the beginning, we may wonder if, perhaps, John, the narrator’s husband, is not so innocent in this situation of the confinement of one woman to one room. The narrator does say at one point “ I am getting a little afraid of John ” [1892: 52], and before that also “ he hates to have me write a word” [1892: 44]. John does seem overprotective and restrictive, and the narrator appears misunderstood. There is uncertainty about what is going on, and because the narrator is frightened, we become uneasy too.

We become more sceptical about the narrator’s version of events as the story moves forward, and can be frankly shocked about where the narrator’s trail of thoughts takes her in the days to come. I would have personally liked this story to remain more enigmatic throughout, and it does have a rather abrupt ending, but that does not diminish feelings of claustrophobia and horror that the story induces. There is another question arising – does the yellow wallpaper stands for something in this story? Perhaps, it symbolises something. The yellow wallpaper in this story was interpreted to stand for a repressed sexual desire, violence happened in the past and now “confining” the narrator, an unfulfilled literary career, and even for “modern” anxieties about foreign migration. Another theory (for example, one by Tom Lutz) is that the yellow wallpaper is linked to arsenic and its use in the late nineteenth century in wall-paper making. The narrator does refer to the uncomfortable smell emanating from the wallpaper, and clearly she senses the danger within.

🟨 The Yellow Wallpaper may be a story of only eight or nine pages, but it has a distinct voice that takes the reader on one uncomfortable journey illuminating the paranoia and horror that stems from one disturbed mind. Clearly, Charlotte Perkins Gilman highlighted the monotony and boredom of women’s world at the end of the nineteenth century, as well as the distrust that men had for women who talked about their imagination and intellectual pursuits. It is astonishing how such an ordinary thing as wallpaper may become an object of horror in the story, but the author’s style is persuasive and The Yellow Wallpaper is a story not easily forgotten.  

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16 thoughts on “ review: the yellow wallpaper by charlotte perkins gilman ”.

Great choice for IWD. Very unsettling story.

Like Liked by 1 person

Nice review of a classic story. This is one of the few texts I read in high school that’s stuck with me over the years.

I am a bit jealous that people studied these texts in school. Odd, but I think I would have enjoyed that 🙂 I agree it is memorable.

I must read this!

Jolie critique ! merci Diana 🙂

Oh, yes, a beautifully creepy story! I read it way back when I was pretty young and really didn’t spot the subtexts at the time – I just saw it as a pure horror story. I’m often tempted to re-read it now that I’ve seen it hailed so often as a feminist text, but part of me doesn’t want to destroy the impression left by that simpler, less mature, reading of it. Maybe one day!

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This is an excellent review. I’ve never read this before but I do enjoy a book where it causes me to examine the mental stability of the characters. The fact that it could have been initially post partem that seems to be sent out of control or fueled by the wallpaper. Well it looks like I’m going to see if I can find this myself.

I’m also looking up The Color Coded Reading challenge…

It is a very short read, but not less powerful or intriguing for it. I would love to know your opinion.

This gives me a reason to buy some books now 😉

Good review I love this story.

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Wonderful review – this is a story that sticks with you (it has with me).

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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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Themes of ‘The Yellow Wallpaper’ Explained

By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University)

‘The Yellow Wallpaper’ is an 1892 short story by the American writer Charlotte Perkins Gilman. A powerful study of mental illness and the inhuman treatments administered in its name, the story explores a number of ‘big’ themes and ideas. Let’s take a look at some of the key themes of the story.

First, however, let’s briefly summarise the plot of the story: 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. His proposed (well, enforced ) treatment is to lock his wife away from everyone except him, and to withhold everything from her that might excite her.

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 outlines to us how she sometimes sits for hours in her room, tracing the patterns in the yellow wallpaper on the walls of her room.

She then tells us she thinks she can see a woman ‘stooping down and creeping about behind that pattern.’ She becomes obsessed with the wallpaper as her mental state deteriorates, before eventually locking herself within the room and crawling around on the floor.

Mental Illness.

Perhaps the most important theme of Gilman’s story is the narrator’s mental illness, which is present from the beginning of the story and gradually worsens as her narrative develops. Having the narrator tell her own story and provide her own observations in the form of a diary means we have unfiltered access to her thoughts and moods, and this can make parts of the story uncomfortable reading.

Gilman is obviously suggesting that the narrator’s husband, John – who as both a man and a qualified doctor is expected to ‘know what’s best’ for his wife – is misguided in his belief that rest and withdrawal from society, including her own family, is what his wife needs to improve her mental state.

At one point in ‘The Yellow Wallpaper’, the narrator mentions Weir Mitchell , who was a real person: a neurologist who viewed depression in women as a disorder of their nerves, or as ‘hysteria’ (a term which itself began as gendered: it comes from the ancient Greek word for ‘womb’, because only women were thought to suffer from the condition). Intellectual stimulation was frowned upon, and prolonged periods of rest were prescribed.

But although we can view the narrator’s madness as a tragic outcome of her husband’s misguided belief in his psychological, rational, and scientific approach to her illness, it is possible also to view the narrator’s ‘descent’ into madness as a perverse kind of liberation for her. In triumphantly asserting to John, ‘I’ve got out at last … in spite of you and Jane’, the narrator is taking back a form of control over her surroundings.

And given the gender dynamics at play in the story, we also need to engage with another key theme in the story: gender itself.

Women in Society.

In the late nineteenth century in the United States, women were still often dependent on men both financially and socially. John’s strict control over his wife’s behaviour and confinement needs to be understood (though not necessarily condoned) in this context.

Of course, it is worth bearing in mind the context of the narrator’s depression, too: it is postpartum depression – that is, depression that follows giving birth to her son. She has fulfilled the duty of a wife and mother, as nineteenth century society dictates, but the experience has left her suffering from depression.

It is also clear from the narrator’s diary that her own views about herself have been heavily shaped by the men in her life: not only her husband but also her brother. It is clear that she would like to keep writing to help her through her depression, but she is forbidden to do so, on the grounds that it would make her mental state worse.

Of course, there is something symbolic – when we analyse ‘The Yellow Wallpaper’ from a feminist perspective, as many critics have – about the female narrator being forbidden to write or express herself. And there is something quietly triumphant about the fact that she goes ahead and writes her journal despite being told not to do so.

Related to this theme of gender and the place of women in society is the theme of marriage, which is central to ‘The Yellow Wallpaper’ given the narrator’s marriage to John and his strict orders concerning what his wife is and is not allowed to do.

It is revealing that John often views and treats his wife not so much like a fellow adult as like a child: at one point, he even calls her a ‘little girl’. This belittling language indicates that, well-meaning though he might be, John also does not view his wife as his equal, intellectually or emotionally. She is weak and delicate and needs to be told what to do, for her own protection.

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“The Yellow Wallpaper” and Women’s Pain

Charlotte Gilman wrote her famous short story in response to her own experience having her pain belittled and misunderstood by a male physician.

The woman is ill, but nobody believes her. She sits in a room with yellow wallpaper, unable to convince the men around her that her suffering is real. “You see he does not believe I am sick!” she writes of her doctor husband.

That cry, uttered by the unnamed protagonist of Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s 1892 short story “The Yellow Wallpaper,” could just as well be that of Abby Norman, author of Ask Me About My Uterus , or Porochista Khakpour, author of Sick . Both memoirs, published this year, focus on women whose physical symptoms are downplayed and disbelieved. And both carry uncomfortable echoes of Gilman’s creepy story.

The tale, which follows its protagonist’s slow descent into madness as she gradually discerns a woman trapped inside the yellow wallpaper of her sickroom, has long been heralded as a feminist masterpiece, a cry against the silencing patriarchy. But literary scholar Jane F. Thrailkill warns against looking too hard for those meanings in the text . Instead, she focuses on Gilman’s own insistence that medical gender distinctions hurt female patients.

“The Yellow Wallpaper” comes from Gilman’s own struggle with a “nervous disorder,” a depression for which she was treated by a physician named S. Weir Mitchell. It was a new diagnosis at the time, and when physicians treated women with complaints for which they could find no obvious source, they turned to new diagnostic techniques and treatments.

Mitchell was entirely interested in the body, not what women had to say about their own symptoms. His signature “rest cure” relied on severe restriction of the body. Patients were kept completely isolated, fed rich, creamy foods and forbidden to do any kind of activity, from reading a book to going on a walk. “Complete submission to the authority of the physician” and enforced rest were seen as part of the cure.

But Mitchell was no women’s specialist. In fact, writes Thrailkill, he honed his medical skills during the Civil War, treating soldiers who became “hysterical” or developed symptoms like phantom limbs after amputations, surgeries, and traumatic battles. As a result, Gilman was treated with what Thrailkill calls “a model of disease articulated through experience with male bodies.” Mitchell likened the strain of the nineteenth-century home to that of war and his female patients to vampires who sucked the life out of everyone around them.

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Gilman bucked hard against her treatment and Mitchell’s misogynistic reign. Nonetheless, notes Thrailkill, she shared some of his views. Like Mitchell, Gilman believed that psychological conditions were physical ones. But she used that belief to push for equality both in medical treatment and in life. Women’s brains are no different than men’s, she argued, and women should be able to sidestep a stifling home life in favor of a professional career.

Today, it’s more common for women to document their pain through memoir as opposed to fiction. Books like Sick and Ask Me About My Uterus  insist on gender parity in medicine, while also situating women’s pain within a patriarchy that stifles and silences. Thrailkill encourages readers to try reading “ The Yellow Wallpaper” literally. Gilman, she writes, wanted the story to shock readers—specifically, her own doctor—into changing their treatment of women.

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Everyday Psychology. Critical Thinking and Skepticism.

“The Yellow Wallpaper” – Book Review

“The Yellow Wallpaper” is a short story written by Charlotte Perkins Gilman in 1892. It depicts the experience of a woman who, while spending Summer together with her husband and his sister in a beautiful colonial mansion, struggles to deal with the monotonous daily life she is constrained to live as a result of a resting cure prescribed to her as a mean of treatment for her “nervous depression – a slight hysterical tendency” .

The experience, narrated from this woman’s perspective in the form of her journal, portrays the negative implications of the all so limited Victorian understanding and treatment of a woman’s psychological functioning and the expression of her psyche in the everyday life. At the end of the 19th Century, women were still considered psychologically frail and their intellectual aspirations were not recognized, but rather mocked and smothered.

The main character of “The Yellow Paper” is such a woman, whose intellectual needs cannot find the proper expression in her married life, especially when her husband, a well-known physician, is the one observing, diagnosing and recommending treatment for what he considers a nervous condition. Isolated in this big house, but mainly to only one room, a former nursery, with nearly no pastime activities aside from her writing in her journal, though not allowed, she starts to develop an increased interest regarding the room’s wallpaper and especially its pattern. Although little in comparison to her needs, aspirations, and capacities, the wallpaper becomes the sole mental stimulation and soon, the interactions take a darker turn as new aspects emerge.

Although it is very tempting,  I will keep away from character analysis for this book so that I will not spoil your reading experience and most of all,  that of finding out what the major twist of this short story is.

Even though the text’s main role was that of criticizing the oppressive attitude the medical profession endorsed regarding women and their intellectual potential, the book has a ghost-story feel to it as well.

“The Yellow Wallpaper”  is a very short, and yet very generous piece of writing. There is a lot to be understood from this story about the Victorian society, women’s role and rights, marriage, mental health, inner psychological dimensions, the cognitive stimulation-health ratio and many more. The portrayal of the initial mechanism of projection is wonderful in this short story, comparable to that in “The Picture of Dorian Gray” by Oscar Wilde.

I really enjoyed reading “The Yellow Paper”. It provides the right amount of unexpected in the middle of an otherwise idyllic setting.

In short, I would describe it as an intense thriller compressed in several pages.

Have you read “The Yellow Wallpaper”? If so, I would be glad to read your opinions.

* You can get a free electronic copy of “ The Yellow Wallpaper ” on Gutenberg.Org.

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Home — Essay Samples — Literature — The Yellow Wallpaper — Literary Analysis Of The Yellow Wallpaper By Charlotte Perkins Gillman

Literary Analysis of The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gillman

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The Yellow Wallpaper

Charlotte perkins gilman, ask litcharts ai: the answer to your questions.

Arts | Nature gets a slick, high-tech treatment at the…

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Arts | nature gets a slick, high-tech treatment at the denver art museum, “biophilia” delivers multi-sensory objects that come in blazing colors.

An installation by David Wiseman that explores the varied patterns of nature. (Provided by the Denver Art Museum)

Two gowns by Dutch fashion designer Iris van Herpen. (Ray Mark Rinaldi, Special to The Denver Post)

“Biophilia” continues through Aug.. 11 at the Denver Art Museum. (Provided by the Denver Art Museum)

“Biophilia” visitors are greeted by artist Jason DeMarte’s “Arcadia,” a digital college culled from photos taken in Costa Rica. (Provided by the Denver Art Museum)

A model of Studio Gang’s aspen-inspired Populus building, currently going up next to Denver’s Civic Center. (Provided by the Denver Art Museum)

TeamLab's “Flowers and People — A Whole Year Per Hour,” responds to the movement of human in the gallery. (Provided by the Denver Art Museum)

It is an interactive and high-tech affair, and about as far away from a traditional display of pretty pictures hanging on a gallery wall as you can get. “Biophilia” is a cool show that might make for a swell outing on a hot summer day.

Consider the installation “Meadow,” created by the Dutch design team Drift, for which “advanced robotics and complex software create a field of blooms in perpetual motion.” The piece consists of a few dozen pendant lamps, shaped like fluffy flowers, whose fabric petals open and close in a speeded-up rhythm meant to mirror the change from day to night.

Low, flat sofas are placed strategically on the gallery floor, directly beneath the piece, and visitors can lie on their backs and stare up at the light show hanging from the ceiling.

The point: to reflect and reconnect with nature, according to the museum’s signage. Thus, “Meadow” is right in line with “Biophilia’s” overall theme of demonstrating how designers and artists respond to nature.

As a concept for an exhibition, that is not deep and it is not new. Nature has always been a dominant theme in design, probably the most persistent source of inspiration that ever existed, and there is millennia-long tour through the history of art, textiles, fashion and furniture to prove the point.

We could start, late in the game, with the flowery patterns of medieval tapestries; stop randomly at the flowery patterns of wallpaper created by still-adored British designer William Morris in the 19th century; and complete the trip right where “Biophilia” picks it up, with the display of a pair of flowery, runway-ready gowns by Iris van Herpen, one of the brightest stars of the fashion world right now.

What is closer to new is the use of technology in the creation and display of many works. Clothing designers used to rely on silk and wool, products manufactured by animals themselves. Van Herpen’s dresses are made from laser-cut Mylar and cotton that has been “heat-bonded onto organza.” The dresses are a marvel — bouncy, sexy, comfy and lighter-than-air. This show could use more of them.

“Biophilia,” organized by the museum’s design curator Darrin Alfred, has a variety of objects on its checklist. There are bowls, tables, sofas and chandeliers in the mix. Fans of what museums used to commonly call decorative arts will find plenty to like, as well as familiar materials, in the show’s inclusion of delicate marble “Tau” vases, by the late Iraqi-British architect Zaha Hadid; or in Czech designer David Valner’s “Fungus” vases, made from glass.

There are also wool rugs from Argentinian weaver Alexandra Kehayoglou that resemble topographical maps of threatened land in the Amazon forest; and a bight, red leather “Bulbo” chair, formed into a flower bud, from Brazilian brothers Humberto and Fernando Campana.

But visitors are more likely to fixate on the digital, or interactive, attractions, and those are the stars of this show. That includes the 2020 piece “Flowers and People — A Whole Year Per Hour,” by the art collective TeamLab, which formed in Tokyo. The work is a six-channel, digital projection of an animated field of pink and yellow petals that float across the gallery wall. It comes with instructions for viewers: “Stand still at a certain distance and the flowers grow more abundantly — move around, and they fade.”

Again, the purpose is quite simple, and even hackneyed, suggesting that humans and nature are inseparable. The piece does not break any artistic or intellectual ground, but it is thrilling to look at, and to play with.

Where “Biophilia” succeeds best is in ambition. Curator Alfred has a handle on the international design scene and brought in some of the most respected, and in-demand, global names. In addition to van Herpen and Drift, there are “Remolten” stools and tables, from the Chilean design firm gt2P, made from local volcanic rock that has been pulverized and used as a ceramic glaze.

There is Spanish designer Nacho Carbonell’s “One-seater Concrete Tree,” a table-lamp combo that visitors can actually sit in (and take photos); a petal-covered “Hortensia” armchair by Argentine artist Andrés Reisinger, who is known best for his digital works; and a model of Beijing-based MAD Architects’ urban design masterpiece, the Nanjing Zendai Himalayas Center, a set of sky-scraping buildings whose silhouettes come together to resemble a mountain landscape.

MAD is the same firm that designed One River North, the new residential building — with the giant canyon cut into its facade — that just opened in Denver’s RiNo neighborhood, and that gives the exhibition a local hook.

In the same vein, there is an impressive architectural model of Populus, the building — designed by Chicago’s Studio Gang — that is currently going up next to Denver’s Civic Center, that resembles the trunk of an aspen tree. The model offers new insight to anyone who is curious about the thinking behind the structure.

Art exhibitions that attempt to show new technologies are difficult to pull off. Technology changes so quickly now that even relatively new works lack an edge. The pendant light-based “Meadow,” for example, was made way back in 2017 and it already feels like an old-school classic, rather than something new.

In that way, new is a lot to ask for here — maybe too much, if you want to be fair. But “Biophilia” delivers in other ways.

Design shows that cover so much ground rely on good taste to come together, and this outing has a lot of that on display — for example, Mathieu Lehanneur’s “50 Seas” ceramic plates, whose blue-ish color palette borrows from the world’s great oceans; or Marc Fish’s “Ethereal Double Console” table, which lives up to its name by appearing practical but lighter than air.

It comes together as a grand effort, a treat for local audiences who want to beat the heat and be around some cool stuff.

“Biophilia: Nature Reimagined” continues through Aug. 11 at the Denver Art Museum. Info: 720-865-5000 or denverartmuseum.org.

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