PROJECT

IN
ENGLISH

Submitted by:
Kaeychen P. Martinez

Level & Section:

Submitted to:
Ms. Reeka Jane Franchesca B. Aguilar
 Short Story:

The Yellow
Wallpaper

By Charlotte Perkins Gilman

Author’s Background …………………………… 01

Background of the Story ………………………. 02

Setting …………………………………………….. 02

Characters ………………………………………... 03

Plot …………………………………………………. 04

Conflicts …………………………………………… 07
Author’s Background
Author’s Background

Charlotte Perkins Gilman

(July 3, 1860 – August 17, 1935), was a

prominent American feminist, novelist,

writer short stories, and poetry. She was a

feminist and served as a role model for

future generations of feminists because of

her unorthodox concepts and lifestyle.”

Charlotte Perkins was born in July 3, 1860 and grew up in poverty, after her father abandoned

the family. Her education was irregular and limited, but she did attend the Rhode Island School

of Design for a time. In May 1884 she married Charles W. Stetson, an artist. She soon proved

to be totally unsuited to the domestic routine of marriage, and after a year or so she was

suffering from melancholia. She divorced her husband in 1894, but in 1900, Gilman had married

for the second time. She wed her cousin George Gilman, and the two stayed together until his

death in 1934. The next year she discovered that she had breast cancer. Charlotte Perkins

Gilman committed suicide on August 17, 1935.

One of her most prominent work today is her semi-autobiographical short story "The Yellow

Wallpaper", which she wrote after she suffered depression during her first marriage. This short

story depicts Gilman’s view of marriage and the life of a woman with postpartum psychosis.
Background of the Story
The story was written in 1892 or the period where the first women’s rights movement ended

and the second wave of women’s right was about to begin. The story was written to promote

feminism by portraying the hardships that women suffered during this period. The author

showed the readers her perspective of marriage and the mental health problems women face

such as depression, hysteria, and postpartum psychosis.

The story is about the descent of a young woman into madness. It portrays a type of mental

sickness which is only suffered by women who just gave birth. This illness was further

worsened by the woman’s husband as he convinces himself that his wife just needs rest and

continues not to listen to his wife’s complains. The ending of the story depicts a women who

has become mentally deranged and husband that was shocked at what he saw.

Setting

The story is set in America during the 1890s where the discrimination between men and women

was very prominent. The story takes place in the summer time at an isolated old mansion in a

rural district. Majority of the story takes place in the bedroom which was once a nursery where

there are a lot of windows that are barred and old, unclean and ripped yellow wallpaper covers

the wall. The story covers the experience of a woman in her everyday life inside the mansion

for a month or two.

 The one who tells the story in her story in the first – person point of view.

 She is the protagonist which is a young, upper-middle-class woman, newly married and

just became a mother, who is suffering from depression and hysteria. She is describe

through the conversation of the characters as weak, quiet and very imaginative person.

John

 The narrator’s husband and her physician. Unlike his wife, he is very practical and only

believes in facts.
  He serves as a supporting role in the story. Even though his behaviour and decisions

contributed to the worsening of the narrator’s condition, his underlying decision and

attitude was still out of love and care for his wife.

 He is described in the story through the main protagonist’s description.

Jennie

 She is John’s sister and functions as a supporting role because she sometimes helps

the narrator and cares for her.

 Through the narrator’s depiction, Jennie was viewed as a quiet and complacent

housekeeper for the couple.

 Her presence and her contentment with a domestic role in the story also contribute

to the narrator’s condition because she intensifies the narrator’s feelings of guilt over

her own inability to act as a traditional wife and mother. Jennie also seems, at times,

to suspect that the narrator is more troubled than she lets on.

Plot
Introduction

The narrator begins her journal by marveling at the grandeur of the house. She describes it in

romantic terms as an aristocratic estate or even a haunted house and wonders how his

husband were able to afford it, and why the house had been emptied 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”. 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.” Her description of where she is

staying is mostly positive, but disturbing elements such as the “rings and things” in the

bedroom walls, and the bars on the windows, keep showing up. She is particularly disturbed by

the yellow wallpaper in the bedroom, with its strange, formless pattern, and describes it as

“revolting.”

Are the events or incidents of the plot presented in flashback or in chronological order?

The way the story is constructed is primarily based on personal experiences of the author in

which was expressed in fictional characterization of herself in her struggle through post-partum

and depression. The story was unraveled with the help of the author’s journal for which is very

much in chronological order since it revolves around the day-to-day entries of her fight against

her illness.

Rising action

As the first few weeks of the summer 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 patronizing, controlling ways—

although she immediately returns to the wallpaper, which begins to seem not only ugly, but

oddly menacing. The narrator’s imagination, however, has been aroused. She mentions that she

enjoys picturing people on the walkways around the house 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. 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 sister,

Jennie, who is acting as housekeeper and nurse for the narrator. 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, effectively silencing her.

Each time he does so, her disgusted fascination with the paper grows.

Climax

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. She began to startle 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 thinks she is improving. But she sleeps less and less and is

convinced that she can smell the paper all over 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.

Falling Action

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.

Resolution

By the end, the narrator is hopelessly insane, convinced that there are many creeping women

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!”
Conflicts
1. Man vs. Man

- The conflict Man vs. Man was depicted in the story through the relationship of the

narrator and the husband. In the story, the narrator wants leave the house and

argues with her husband. The husband then argues with the wife that they will stay

in the house until the lease ends and her condition improves. The conflict was
 resolved by the wife agreeing with the husband and ultimately neglecting her true

feelings about the matter.

2. Man vs. Himself

- The story depicted the conflict Man vs. Himself by portraying the narrator’s inner

struggle to keep being sane. In the story, we saw that the narrator suffers from

depression and as time goes on she losses her mind until she becomes completely

insane.

Theme
Subordination of Women in Marriage

- The story revolves around the concept that wives must stay at home and care for

the children. We see in the story that one of the reasons of why the protagonist
 went mad was her insecurity that she is not comfortable being a domestic person

and being trapped at home.

- An example of a story with the same theme is Stepmom” by Gigi Levangie

Importance of Self Expression

- One of the main points that the author wants portray was to express one’s feelings.

The story depicts the narrator’s attitude of repressing one’s feelings and not telling

and fighting for them which resulted to the tragedy of losing her mind and sanity.

- An example of a story with the same theme is “The Hate U Give” by Angie Thomas.

Feminism

- The story is heavily influenced by the social rights movement of women in the 1840

and it depicts the current state of women in this time period. The story first and

foremost is a very feministic one.

- An example of a story with the same theme is “The Awakening” by Kate Chopin.

Moral
For me the moral of the story is that communication is the key to understanding each other. In

the story we see that the husband and wife have trouble understanding each other. The wife

suffers from mental illness and has trouble explaining to her husband what she feels or what

she is going through. On the other hand, the husband does not listen or try to understand his
wife but instead tries to do what he thinks is best for his wife. The whole situation in the ending

would have been avoided if they had just communicated properly.

I learned in the story that women in that period were discriminated and gender roles were truly

followed in that era. I also learned that mental illnesses are serious and that it is difficult for

people to notice that they actually have mental illness. This brand new lesson I learned will help

me become more mature as I grow up and as I encounter things in the future. As a boy, I will

have more respect towards women and I will try to disregard society’s perception about women

and defy the gender roles laid down upon us by the social standards that we adhere. I will also

be more open – minded towards people with mental health issues because while many people

look at it lightly I will try my best to understand them and provide support to the extent of my

abilities.

Others
1. `The story is titled “The Yellow Wallpaper” because it revolves around the obsession of

the narrator to that wallpaper. In the story, the wallpaper itself was the thing that

causes the hallucinations of the protagonist and it served as a reminder to the

protagonist that she was trapped but not in a physical way rather she was trapped in a
mental way, she trapped herself in her own illusions and imaginations causing her to fall

into madness.

If the title were to be deconstructed, the usage of the color yellow and the wallpaper

has deeper meaning to the text. For me, the usage of the colour yellow signifies

happiness because this is used in paintings or art to portray happiness or bring about a

feeling of joy to whoever look upon it. On the other hand, the usage of wallpaper

signifies covering for something because wallpapers main purpose is to cover or hide

inconsistencies and imperfections on the wall. With these symbolisms we can infer that

it was yellow because it served as a source of happiness and joy for the protagonist who

became obsessed with it because it is treating her depression by indulging into

something that could make her happy and good about herself, however, yellow just

causes the feeling of happiness it goes way immediately therefore it is false happiness

that she is trying to yearn instead of true happiness. Meanwhile, the author used

wallpaper because it was used to cover that fact that what she was feeling, the joy and

the happiness, was something that was not true. The wallpaper creates an illusion that

she was trapped by a false perception that when she gets rid of the wallpaper she

would feel the joy that she yearns and the freedom from sadness. That is why when she

ripped the yellow wallpaper she was overwhelmed with the feeling of liberation,

liberation from that sadness, anxieties and illusions. She was free but she did not obtain

happiness because it was not true, she instead went mad and completely loss herself.

2. The story is true to life because the general theme of the text was based on the

experience of the author. Mental issues are serious problems in today’s society and a lot

of people have it without knowing they have it. This story is also true because according

to historical records people going mad were frequent because back then the society’s

awareness and knowledge of mental health were in sufficient and we all know that back

then gender roles where social standards that people must follow.
3.

1. Figurative language found in the story:

• Personification

- “I remember what a kindly wink the knobs of our big, old bureau used to

have,”

• Similie

- “ And there was one chair that seemed like a strong friend”

• Symbolism

- Yellow = happiness

- John = patriarchy

- Jeannie = complacency

2. My favourite character in the story was the husband, John. I like his

character because throughout the story it seemed like he was the only one to

blame for what was happening to the protagonist despite the fact that it was not

entirely his fault. He was a physician so he looked at his wife’s condition

physically not mentally so when the protagonist showed physical signs of getting

better, in the point of view of a physician, it might look okay but if you factor in

her mental state she was getting worse. Take in mind that in this time period

mental health awareness was not yet widely known so when John decided that

the protagonist just needed rest and insist that she do nothing instead of

bringing her to a psychologist, it was the most logical and right decision to make

based on the circumstances. The story also portrays that he belittles women but

that is not his fault it is the fault of the society that enforced its gender
discrimination onto him and when he got married he just acted on what the

society expects him to act .However, the bottom line is that every decision he

made was out of love for his wife even though it might not be the most right

decision but the main reason why he made those choices was to give his wife

everything she needs to be happy again. For me , he did aspire to become the

husband who cares for his wife in sickness or in health.