1. In what ways is John to blame for his wife’s descent into madness? As physician and husband, John embodies the two prevailing cultural power structures that Gilman sought to criticize in “The Yellow Wallpaper”: the dispassionate and stolid medical community and the dominant male hierarchy of husband over wife. In these respects he is …
Charlotte Perkins Gilman was an eminent American writer of non-fiction and short stories, novelist, feminist social reformer, lecturer and commercial artist. Born in Hartford, Connecticut in 1860, Charlotte Anne Perkins was related through her father Beecher to the famous Lyman Beecher, Henry Ward Beecher, Catherine Beecher and Harriet Beecher Stowe. Soon after she was born, …
The Yellow Wallpaper: Biography: Charlotte Perkins Gilman Read More »
“I sometimes fancy that in my condition, if I had less opposition and more society and stimulus—but John says the very worst thing I can do is to think about my condition, and I confess it always makes me feel bad.” (758) Analysis of Quotation #1: This early statement reveals the Narrator’s desire to think …
The Narrator (possibly “Jane”) We can infer from the story that the Narrator is a young married woman of the upper-middle class suffering a “nervous condition” after the birth of her first child. At the start of the story she and her husband arrive at a run-down estate they have rented for the summer in …
Entry Seven It is their last day at the house and the Narrator is overjoyed because her husband will leave that evening and spend the whole night in town. To help the crouching woman, she pulls at the paper all night long and together they peel off many yards before the sun comes up. When …
The Narrator confesses to her journal that she has seen the woman from the pattern outside her windows during the daytime. The woman creeps in the daylight along the lane, in the gardens, the arbors…everywhere! Of course she hides when a carriage comes because it would be embarrassing to be caught creeping during the daytime. …
It is a week before their departure and the Narrator is feeling much better now that she has a project. John has noticed that she eats better and is much quieter and he takes these as positive signs. He casually remarks that she is improving despite “her wallpaper”. The Narrator laughs off this reference to …
An indeterminate amount of time has passed. With her strength ebbing, the Narrator spends at least half her time in bed. John has added cod liver oil, tonics, ale, wine and rare meat to her diet. After an earnest, reasonable talk with John he again refuses to let her go visit Cousin Henry and Julia. …
The Fourth of July holiday has just ended and their company – “Mother and Nellie and the children” – have departed. The Narrator is very tired though Jennie does all the housekeeping now. John has mentioned that if the Narrator’s condition does not improve faster he will send her to Weir Mitchell, a doctor whom …
It is two weeks later. The Narrator, now situated in the nursery, explains that she has not felt like writing since the first day. Her husband’s cases, however, keep him away most days and some nights so she is free to write whenever she has the strength. She confesses that her nervous condition is very …
