The Yellow Wallpaper Notes

 

THE YELLOW WALLPAPER PLOT  The narrator begins her journal by marvelling at the the grandeur of the house and grounds her husband has taken for their summer vacation. She describes it in romantic terms as an aristocratic estate or even a haunted house and wonder how they were able to afford it, and why the house had been empty for so long. Her feeling that there is "something queer" about the situation leads her into a discussion of her illness- she is suffering from "nervous depression"- and of her marriage. She complains that her  husband, John, who is also her doctor, belittles both her  illness and her thoughts and concerns in general. She contrasts his practical, rationalistic manner with her own imaginative, sensitive ways. Her treatment requires that  she do almost nothing active, and she is especially  forbidden from working and writing. She feels that activity, freedom, and interesting work would help her condition and reveals that she has begun her secret journal in order  to "relieve her mind." In an attempt to do so, the narrator  begins describing the house. Her description is mostly   positive, but but disturbing disturbing elements such such as "rings "rings and things" things" in the bedroom walls, and the bars on the windows, keep showing up (could have been an asylum?). She is  particularly  particular ly disturbed disturbed by the yellow yellow wallpaper wallpaper in the bedroom, with its strange, formless pattern, and describes it as "revolting." Soon,approach, however and her thoughts are to stop interrupted by John's she is forced writing.  As the first few weeks of the summer summer pass pass,, the narrator  becomes good at hiding her journal, and thus hiding her  true thoughts from John. She continues to long for more stimulating company and activity, and she complains again about John's patronising controlling ways- although she immediately returns to the wallpaper, which begins to seem not only ugly, but oddly menacing. She mentions that   John is worried wo rried aboutto h her er becoming fixated t, and he has even refused repaper the room soon asiit, not to that  give

 

in to her neurotic worries. The narrator's imagination, however, has been aroused. She mentions that she enjoys  picturing people on the the walkways a around round the h house ouse and that John always discourages such fantasies. She also thinks back to her childhood, when she was able to work  herself into a terror by imagining things in the dark. As she describes the bedroom, which she says must have been a nursery for young children, she points out 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, her writing is interrupted again, this time by John's sitter, Jennie, who is acting as a housekeeper and nurse for the narrator.  As the Fourth Fourth of July passes, passes, the narra narrator tor reports th that at her  family has just visited, leaving her more tired than ever.  John threatens threatens to send h her er to Weir Mitc Mitchell, hell, the real-l real-life ife  physician under whose whose care Gilman Gilman had a nervous nervous breakdown. The narrator is alone most of the time and says that she has become almost fond of the wallpaper  and that attempting to figure out its pattern has become her primary 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 looks like the bars of a cage. Whenever the narrator tries to discuss leaving the house,  John makes light of her concerns, concerns, effecti effectively vely silencing silencing her. her. Each time he does so, her disgusted fascination with the  paper grows. grows. Soon the wallpaper dominates the narrator's imagination. She becomes possessive and secretive, hiding her interest  in the paper and making sure no one else examines it so that she can "find it out" on her own. At one point, she startles Jennie, who had been touching the wallpaper and who mentions that she had found yellow stains on their  clothes. Mistaking the narrator's fixation for tranquility,  John thin ks she isthat improving. improving. Bu t shethe sleeps les less s and and isthinks convinced she canBut smell paper all overless the

 

house, even outside. She discovers a strange smudge mark  on the paper, running all around the room, as if it had been rubbed by someone crawling against the wall. The sub-pattern now clearly resembles a woman who is trying to get out 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 escape briefly. The narrator mentions that she, too, creeps around at times. She suspects that John and Jennie are aware of  her obsession, and she resolves to destroy the paper once and for all, peeling much of it off during the night. The next  day she manages to be alone and 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 creeping woman around and that she herself has come out of the wallpaper- that she herself is the trapped woman. 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!"  ANALYSIS  ANALYSIS  At the beginning beginning of the story story,, the narrato narratorr is seen as a •

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hysteric with an illness of some sort. "I did write for a while; but it does exhaust me a good deal." This line suggests the narrator was once a writer, but due to her illness has been forced to stop. She tires easily  and is made to stay home to rest, where her husband treats her unequally and childishly. The narrator and her husband are residing in a rental mansion as their  home is being renovated, and this is where the story  takes place.  John's attitude attitude is careless careless towards his his wide and in in more ways than one, mistreating. "You see, he does not  believe I am sick!" This indicated that John is sceptical

 

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about the narrator's condition and does not treat her  with the medication she truly needs. "What is it little girl? You little goose." He patronises his wife by  treating her as a child. Thus, the nursery, where the narrator and John stay, is proved significant. Conflict arises between the narrator and her husband in cases where he prevents her from fulfilling her  smallest wishes. "You know the place is doing you good, and really dear, I don't care to renovate the house just for a three months' rental." When the narrator requests to change the awful wallpaper, her  husband disagrees, thinking she will feel the need to change the whole house afterwards. The narrator's feelings towards her husband are ones of  frustration and guilt. "John does not know how much I really suffer." She is frustrated with him for denying her condition and not treating her to health again. "I mean to be such a help to John, such a real rest and comfort, and here I am, a comparative burden already!" She feels guilts at not fulfilling her duties as a housewife of that time. This feeling is not helped by  the fact that John's sister, Jennie, seems to be content  with life of that age, and is doing everything the narrator should have been doing.  John is not not trying to drive drive to drive the the narrator to insanity  on purpose. He is in a state of denial and disbelief at  her illness. John is a product of that time period, where doctors as he, did extreme. not believe mental illnesses. "John is such practical in the Heinhas no patience with faith, an intense horror of superstition, and he scoffs openly at any talk of things not to be felt, seen and put down in figures." As he does not physically  see evidence of a mental breakdown, he assumes his wife is just acting up. This is dangerous as he unknowingly contributes to the narrator's destruction. The woman in the story is not entirely "reliable" as the ready can only see from her point of view. The narrator is known to be mentally ill, so her judgements and descriptions may not always be sensible. "John

 

asked me all sorts of questions, too, and pretended to be very loving and kind. As if I couldn't see through him!" The narrator develops paranoia. She believes her husband, as well as his sister, are out to solve the mystery of the wallpaper, which she desires to do herself. The reader cannot trust the narrator to •

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interpret situations situations as they really are. The wallpaper plays many roles in the story. At times, it is a monster with bulbous eyes watching. Other times it  is a cage where figures are trapped behind the bars. "And it is like a woman stooping down and creeping about behind the pattern." Towards the end of the story, however, the wallpaper plays a mirror, reflecting the narrator's situation. It never changes in reality, but  in the world of our narrator, it is shifting every time. The creeping figure in the wallpaper represents the women of that time, the narrator included. It tells the age-old tale of oppression and inequality in marriages. The women are afraid and hide from society, not  wanting to be noticed or in the limelight. The principal social institution against which the narrator  struggles is marriage and being a woman. She is under the oppression brought down to her by her  husband. Society of that time also plays its role as women were considered "inferior" and did not have the freedom then they have today. The ending in the story is both a victory and a defeat. The narrator victorious inher. escaping the confinement husband is had made for However, her price washer  her  sanity and her reason. She became the woman she was hallucinating, losing all track on who was who. The narrator's situation is different to that of the other  woman as she was not real, but similar as both are trapped by a representation of domestic life- the wallpaper. Both are not free and act as though they  wish not to be seen.

QUOTES ⁃  John

laughs atSarcasm. laughs me, of course, cou rse,does but not one expect expects expectssuch thatthings in in marriageOne

 

in a healthy marriage. ⁃  John is practical practical in the extreme…… extreme……down down in fig figuresuresDescription of John, as contrasted to the narrator's. ⁃ My brother is also a physician, and also of high standing, and he says the same thing- Shows what all doctors thought in that time period. I wanted one downstairs……..But John would not hear of  it- Patronising. John does not listen to even the simplest of needs. ⁃ I am glad my case is not serious- Sarcasm. The narrator is realising how serious her case really is. ⁃ I meant to be such a help to John…..a comparative burden already- She feels guilt in not fulfilling her  duties as a traditional wife and mother. ⁃  At first he meant meant to repaper the the room…..give room…..give way to s such uch  Again, John displays ignorance ignorance of his his wife's fancies- Again, fanciesneeds. try-  John stops stops her  ⁃ I always fancy I see people……So I try- John from imagining even harmless fantasies. ⁃ I wish I could get well faster. There is a recurrent spot….The narrator frequently brings up the wallpaper, showcasing her obsession with it. ⁃ I used to lie awake as a child and get more entertainment…..- The narrator has a vivid imagination ⁃ Big old bureau- alliteration to show the security and kindness ⁃

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IRavages, could always hop into that chair and be through safe- insecure scratched, gouged, splintered, the wars- violent descriptions from a struggling mind Such a dear girl as she is- Feels guilty for not appreciating her  I must not let her find me writing- fear of being discovered She is a perfect, an enthusiastic housekeeper, and hopes for no better profession- Exactly what the narrator  does NOT want to be From these windows…..lovely country…- She wants to be a part of it all

 

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lovely country country,, too, full of great…….This great…….This wallpaper has has a kind of sub-pattern….- The wallpaper is brought up again. ⁃ I can see a strange, provoking formless sort of figure- The  progression  progressio n of the story where where she becomes becomes a part of  the wallpaper  ⁃  John

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says if if I don't pick up up faster he sh shall all send me to to Weir  Mitchell in the fall- Patronising. An example of what a  parent might might say to a child. child. "If you don't clean your  your  room, you shan't have any food" I follow that pattern by the hour- The narrator's obsession is growing. He said I was his darling, his comfort and all he had, and I must take care of myself for his sake, and keep wellThis increases the narrator's guilt for being a burden. He manipulates her. There are things in that paper that nobody knows but me, or ever will- Her obsession talking. What is it little girl?- Patronising. I am a doctor, dear, and I know/ Can you not trust me as a patronising ronising her  her   physician  physicia n when I tell you you so?- John so?- John is pat again, and is acting superior to her. I beg of you, for my sake and for our child's sake, as well guilt. as for your own- Again, own- Again, he increases increases her guilt. I've caught him several times looking at the paper! And  Jennie too. I caught caught Jennie Jennie with her h hand and on it once/ once/ As if I couldn't…..him- The narrator's obsession and

 paranoia begins to begins sho show w evidently. evidently . the smell/ I got  I thought of burning the houseto reach so angry I bit off a little piece at one corner/ For  outside you have to creep…….instead of yellow- Pure insanity. ⁃ Now why should that man have fainted? I had to creep over him every time!- John time!- John is no longer recognisable, recognisable, she is far too gone. He has now become an inconvenience. ⁃

OTHER NOTES Dramatic Irony: occurs when there is a contrast between the reader's knowledge and the knowledge of the

 

character's in the work. For example, when the narrator  first describes the bedroom she attributes the room's bizarre features- the "rings and things" in the walls, the nailed-down furniture, the bars on the windows, and the torn wallpaper- to the fact that it must have once been a nursery. Even this early in the story, the reader sees that  there is an equally plausible explanation for these details; the room had been used to house an insane person.  Another example example is when the the narrator a assumes ssumes that that Jennie shares her interest in the wallpaper, while it is clear that   Jennie is only only now not noticing icing the source source of the yellow yellow stains on their clothing. The effect intensifies towards the end of  the story, as the narrator sinks further into her fantasy and the reader remains able to see her actions from the "outside." By the time the narrator fully identifies the trapped woman she sees in the wallpaper, the reader can appreciate the narrator's experience from her point of view as well as John's shock at what he sees when he breaks down the door to the bedroom. Situational Irony: refers to moments when a character's actions have the opposite of their intended effect. For  example, John's course of treatment backfires, worsening the depression he was trying to cure and actually driving his wife insane. Similarly there is a deep irony in the way  the narrator's fate develops. She gains a kind of power and insight only by losing what we would call her self-control and reason. The story is an epistolary, in which the narrator writes to herself. Gilman uses this technique to show the narrator's descent into madness both subjectively and objectivelythat is, from both the inside and the outside. The journal used gives the story an intense intimacy and immediacy, especially in those moments when the narrative is interrupted by the approach of John or Jennie.