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    The Yellow Wallpaper
    The Yellow Wallpaper
    The Yellow Wallpaper
    Ebook30 pages25 minutes

    The Yellow Wallpaper

    By Charlotte Perkins Gilman

    4/5

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    About this ebook

    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.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherStart Publishing LLC
    Release dateNov 27, 2013
    ISBN9781627933957
    Author

    Charlotte Perkins Gilman

    Charlotte Perkins Gilman was born in 1860 in Connecticut. Her father left when she was young and Gilman spent the rest of her childhood in poverty. As an adult she took classes at the Rhode Island School of Design and supported herself financially as a tutor, painter and artist. She had a short marriage with an artist and suffered serious postnatal depression after the birth of their daughter. In 1888 Gilman moved to California, where she became involved in feminist organizations. In California, she was inspired to write and she published The Yellow Wallpaper in The New England Magazine in 1892. In later life she was diagnosed with breast cancer and died by suicide in 1935.

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    Reviews for The Yellow Wallpaper

    4/5

    1,213 ratings70 reviews

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    • 3/5
      Read this short story in 1 sitting. It is the story of a woman's descent into madness following the birth of her child and the subsequent enforced rest. She is taken to a country house to recover and spends most of her time confined to a room with horrid yellow wallpaper. The description of the room makes me think what happens to the woman has happened in the past. A creepy, thought provoking read.
    • 4/5
      A woman and her husband and young child rent a house for a few months while their house is being renovated. They stay in an attic bedroom with confusingly-patterned yellow wallpaper. The woman, already dealing with mental health problems, slowly becomes delusional due to her husband keeping her in the room with nothing to do but stare at the wallpaper every day.I was expecting this story to speak to me much more than it actually did. I know what the generally accepted interpretation of this story is - the woman's husband is controlling and abusive and she projects that feeling on to the wallpaper as she goes crazy. However, if the reader is seeing things only from the woman's perspective, and the woman is definitely delusional by the end, and thus an unreliable narrator, who are we to say when exactly she turned delusional? I'm certainly among the first to point out when a man is too controlling of a woman, but I think if the woman was delusional and paranoid from before the narration begins this story would look exactly the same.The downside of listening to this story as an audiobook is that I had no sense of time passing. There were no dates or noticeable breaks in the narration, so one minute they are moving into the house for 3 months and the next minute they are a couple days from moving back home. The lack of sense of time might have had something to do with my interpretation. I did listen to it twice but that did not seem to help.
    • 4/5
      Wow, this is a great short story. Creepy, sinister and unbearably sad.
    • 4/5
      It's fascinating and also mystifying how people handled mental stress, or mental disorders years ago, what things helped some people, and drove others further into madness. From what I understand, this story is partially true, based on the author's experience and hallucinations, and the frustration from people who largely had good intentions. Of course, from a feminist point of view, it's terrible how little people listened to what she wanted, or worked to truly understand and help.
    • 4/5
      In The Yellow Wallpaper, Charlotte Perkins Gilman explores the rest cure through a story in which her unreliable narrator slowly unravels like the wallpaper on which she fixates. The tale begins with the narrator entering a gothic manse fallen on hard times as part of her physician husband John's prescription, "absolutely forbidden to 'work' until" she is well (pg. 3). Locked in a room with only the curling patterns on yellow wallpaper to occupy herself, she slowly begins imagining that they move and ascribing personalities to the patterns. The narrator looks out the window and offers insight into her life, but this fades as the wallpaper comes to dominate her world, until she must climb inside it. The story offers useful historical insight into the rest cure while also serving as a good example of nineteenth century gothic fiction.
    • 4/5
      John und seine Ehefrau mieten sich über den Sommer auf dem Land ein kleines Haus. John verordnet als Arzt seiner Frau Ruhe, denn sie hat eine stressige Zeit hinter sich. Doch in dem ihr zugewiesenen Zimmer findet sie diese zunächst nicht. Die Tapete macht ihrem Geist zu schaffen. Die Farbe ist nichts für Auge und das Muster sorgt für Verwirrung, denn es erschließt sich ihr nicht vollständig. Nur in der Nacht scheint es sich zu verändern und ein Geheimnis zu offenbaren.Charlotte Perkins Gilman verarbeitet in dieser Kurzgeschichte ihre eigenen Erfahrungen im Zusammenhang mit einer Nervenkrankheit. Die Frau in dieser Geschichte schreibt ihre Gedanken nieder, doch tut sie das heimlich, denn ihr Mann sieht es nicht gerne, wenn sie schreibt. Sie soll sich vollständig erholen. So erfährt der Leser nur auszugsweise aus der Gedankenwelt der Frau, die sich immer mehr in das Muster der Tapete steigert.Eine Geschichte über Wahnsinn, Einsamkeit und dem Unverständnis anderer Menschen. Sie kann mit niemandem darüber reden und so verstrickt sich ihre Welt immer mehr in den Wahnsinn.Eine großartige Geschichte. Man sollte sie genießen.
    • 4/5
      A short story chronicling one woman's descent into madness, poorly understood by those around her, and tormented by the ghastly yellow wallpaper in her bedroom. Very well told. I only wish it were longer.
    • 5/5
      The Yellow Wallpaper is a dark and powerfully written tale, first published in 1892, about a woman's descent into madness. Her psychosis is brought on by the social restrictions of the time, a controlling husband and the deteriorating yellow wallpaper that covers their bedroom.
    • 4/5
      This is an interesting short story about the psychological disintegration of a woman, seeing images in the eponymous object around her as she lays in her sickbed. Too short to exert a really powerful impact, though, for me. 3.5/5
    • 4/5
      “Yellow Wall-Paper” Review“ It is a dull yet lurid orange in some places, a sticky sulphur tint in others.” This quote, from the “Yellow Wall-Paper”, written by Charlotte Gilman in 1891, describes the wallpaper in Jane's room. John and Jane are a married couple and are renting an isolated country house. Jane is mentally ill, and she is locked up in her room for most of the day. John is a doctor and he thinks this is the best way for her to recover. While she sits in her room, she becomes insane. She is confused about the wallpaper, and eventually she gets the idea that a woman is trapped inside of the wallpaper. Jane’s condition is continually becoming worse. John denies it, and tells her she is improving. If you wish to learn more you should read this story. Charlotte Gilman was born on July 3, 1860 in Hartford, Connecticut. She died August 17, 1935 at the age of 75. When Charlotte was five years old, she taught herself to read because her mother was ill. Her father left her and her mom when she was young. “ For many years I suffered from a severe and continuous nervous breakdown tending to melancholia.” After writing the book, Charlotte said, “ It was not intended to drive people crazy, but to save people from being driven crazy, and it worked.” This quote from Charlotte explains why she wrote this short story. I liked reading this story, but it was very confusing. “ I’ve got out at last, in spite of you and Jane? And I’ve pulled off most of the paper, so you can’t put me back.” This is one quote that made this text so confusing. Overall, I enjoyed reading this piece. Many parts of this book were hard to understand, and that made me want to keep on reading to try to figure out what was happening. I was really confused when she talked about Jane because I didn’t know who she was talking about until the very end of the story. After reading the end of the book, and thinking about it for awhile, I then understood what the plot was all about. I would recommend this story to anybody who likes reading mystery books and books that are hard to follow. I also think any adults who like reading quick, short stories might enjoy this story. I would not recommend this book to people younger than high school students, because they may not be able to understand what is happening throughout the story.
    • 4/5
      Although this is a short story it is very powerful. You pick up on the slow deterioration of the main character, but like with the wallpaper it isn't that clear in the beginning.

      What the attic room has been used for in the past is also up for discussion. I personally believe that although it might once have been used as nursery its previous function might be totally different.
    • 5/5
      One of my favorite short stories of all time! Beautifully haunting psychological thriller!
    • 5/5
      On the surface, it's a creepy, intriguing story about a woman and the wallpaper in her room, but it goes so much deeper to address how women were treated by their husbands and by doctors at the time. It's partially autobiographical and appalling and groundbreaking, especially for 1892, yet not as unrecognizable as one would hope for being well over 100 years old, which added to the disturbance level of this story for me.

      It's in the public domain and a really quick read, but I liked this edition for its introduction and afterword that set the historical context and gave a lot of information about Charlotte Perkins Gilman and her own experiences with the "rest cure." But the afterword does spoil "The Awakening" and "The House of Mirth," just FYI.
    • 5/5
      Brilliant work and I love how disturbing people thought it was when she wrote it. As if one would have to be insane to be able to write that brilliantly. Loved it and will read it again.
    • 5/5
      Amazing, painful, frightening. TV Tropes even refers to this short story from 1892... (especially in the "Room Full of Crazy" trope...)
    • 5/5
      The Yellow Wall-Paper was one of the first short novels that I read. I made the exception because of its status on the list of 1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die. I am glad that I read it. It is the perfect length for a cup of tea and the price is right. It is a part of Project Gutenberg, and an eBook can be obtained free of charge.
      The story is a series of journal entries told in first person by the narrator, a nameless woman who is locked in a room, after being diagnosed as ‘nervously depressed’ by her physician husband, John. I believe that John acts out of love, although questionable at times. His treatment of his wife is so oppressive, that it seems that the woman may have created her own sense of freedom, although it is seen as psychotic.
      The journal entries describe the woman’s descent into psychosis with the wallpaper in the room where she is locked in her own thoughts. The ending of the story has an odd, but feminist triumph of sorts. I can see that there are many ways that this story, albeit short, could be interpreted. The bottom line is that there is a lot of punch in this short little ditty.
    • 5/5
      I had picked this book up on a whim, largely due to how slim it was, but also because the little synopsis on the back of the book sounded interesting. Before I could start it, someone posted something on Facebook about how they'd read this book ages ago, and it had always stayed with them. I thought, "Huh. And I've never even heard of it...."
      I read it in one sitting, less than an hour's time. For me, that's VERY fast. I can see, now, why they said it always stayed with them. I don't know that I would have appreciated it if I'd read this when I was in my teens or twenties, or even in my thirties.... but at this exact point in my life, it DEFINITELY spoke to me!!!
      Another one I'll re-read again and again!!!
    • 5/5
      This is a classic of feminist literature. It tells of a woman suffering from depression which is made worse and worse by the paternalistic care of her "loving" husband who treats her as a child, manages every aspect of her life, discourages her writing career, and dismisses any concern she might have. His idea of a cure for depression seems to be that she sleep for 3 months and not trouble her pretty little brain. The result is a very moving, very creepy story.
    • 5/5
      I first came across this title when working on a project involving influential women. What little I heard about this story intrigued me, and now having read it, all I can say is "wow". This definitely has a mind-blowing quotient to it and begs discussion. I also loved how it felt gothic.
    • 5/5
      Chilling !A haunting tale of one womans descent into mental illness. Short but yet slightly eerie as you follow her decline into the madness. Loved it !
    • 4/5
      What a wonderfully creepy short story (novella?)! I had plenty of suspicions about what was going to happen, but wasn't even close...
    • 3/5
      This was a short story told from the point of view of a woman who was suffering what we would today call postpartum depression. Her husband and family force her to stay on bed rest in a strange room where she slowly loses her mind based on her surroundings - especially the wallpaper in the room. While short, the story does a nice job making the reader feel for the main character, and gives us a glimpse of what it might be like to suffer from that type of depression.
    • 4/5
      A journalized descent into a woman's madness . . . brought on yellow wallpaper.A quick, rather creepy sort of read.
    • 4/5
      A gradual descent into madness, as ‘journaled’ by a Victorian lady. Semi-autobiographical, and subtly written, this depression settling into something darker delivers chills along with the story.
    • 4/5
      Interesting story told in journal fashion of a woman compelled to take a rest cure by her p hysician hu s band and the result forced inactivity has on her mind.
    • 5/5
      I doubt I will ever read again such powerful descriptions of wallpaper. What vivid writing!
    • 4/5
      Originally published in 1899, the slight, 30-odd page story is one of the creepiest glimpses into the process of a mental breakdown I have ever read. Republished by The Feminist Press in 1973, the afterword of the edition I read spoke of the author’s prolific career as a writer, poet, publisher, and academic. She wrote several textbooks, opened her own school, and for several years of her life wrote, published, and edited her own magazine, which amounted to about 21,000 words per month. (Hedges, Afterword to the 1973 Feminist Press edition, 38.) In other words, Gilman was a total badass. However, the short story captures the prisoner-like aspects of the submissive role that many women lived at the time of publication, both in terms of marriage and societal expectations overall. The protagonist of the story is left in a room, with little to no social contact and no medical treatment. As the story progresses her mental condition worsens and those around her coddle her but do nothing proactive to alleviate her situation. It is scary, realistic, and her lack of choices and the guilt she is made to feel are heart-wrenching. Gilman's writing draws you right into the story and right down the slide of sanity in a way I will never forget. I absolutely recommend this work to anyone who enjoys short stories, people who like to read about mental illness, and anyone interested in 19th century feminism.
    • 4/5
      It starts so simply...a couple is on vacation. She is ill and taking a rest in the country. But is that true? She is scared, and trapped, and not allowed to leave. Her fear is palpable. Or, maybe, she is an extremely unreliable narrator?
    • 5/5
      Short and über creepy, this story is told from the point-of-view of a woman staying in the country with her husband. She’s recovering from an unnamed illness (possibly post-partum depression) and her husband has set her up in a room by herself. The walls are covered with an ugly yellow wallpaper and as the story progresses she becomes obsessed with it. She begins to believe she can see a woman lurking behind the designs in the wallpaper. The longer she remains confined to the room the deeper she descends into her madness, taking the reader along for the ride. The story was published in 1892 and is often called one of the first pieces of feminist literature. It’s a chilling look at the “treatment” women were often given and the lack of freedom they were permitted in these situations. It’s also just a great scary story, so there’s something for everyone.
    • 5/5
      I think that The Yellow Wallpaper is a really good short story. The way that the plot unravels on it's way to the ending is really skillful. I'm also impressed by the fact that the author went through a similar situation and was able to find her way out of it! Knowing that the author wrote from experience added a lot of credibility to the story as a whole.

    Book preview

    The Yellow Wallpaper - Charlotte Perkins Gilman

    THE YELLOW WALLPAPER

    By Charlotte Perkins Gilman

    Start Publishing LLC

    Copyright © 2012 by Start Publishing LLC

    All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this book or portions thereof in any form whatsoever.

    First Start Publishing eBook edition October 2012

    Start Publishing is a registered trademark of Start Publishing LLC

    Manufactured in the United States of America

    10   9   8   7   6   5   4   3   2   1

    ISBN 978-1-62793-395-7

    It is very seldom that mere ordinary people like John and myself secure ancestral halls for the summer.

    A colonial mansion, a hereditary estate, I would say a haunted house, and reach the height of romantic felicity—but that would be asking too much of fate!

    Still I will proudly declare that there is something queer about it.

    Else, why should it be let so cheaply? And why have stood so long untenanted?

    John laughs at me, of course, but one expects that in marriage.

    John is practical in the extreme. He has no patience with faith, an intense horror of superstition, and he scoffs openly at any talk of things not to be felt and seen and put down in figures.

    John is a physician, and PERHAPS—(I would not say it to a living soul, of course, but this is dead paper and a great relief to my mind)—PERHAPS that is one reason I do not get well faster.

    You see he does not believe I am sick!

    And what can one do?

    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—what is one to do?

    My brother is also a physician,

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