The Yellow Wallpaper

1. The Yellow Wallpaper By: Charlotte Perkins Gilman

2. Outline of plot • The narrator and her husband rent a mansion for the summer and she feels uneasy and says “ I will proudly declare that there is something queer about it.” • Her husband and brother say she is sick and tell her she needs rest and so she is in the bedroom almost all day. • Throughout the days and nights she realizes that the wallpaper has different shapes and moves. She believes there is a women trapped behind it. • The narrator starts pealing off the wallpaper and soon Jennie starts looking at the wallpaper thinking something is up. • The narrator soon locks herself in her room to try and get all the paper off the walls. She even has a rope if the women behind the wallpaper tries to runaway. • John gets suspicious and when he find the key and opens the door he is amazed and faints. • The narrator keeps on pealing off the wallpaper, even where she has to creep over John.

3. Narrators • The narrator- The narrator is a women who is a wife and mother who is sick, or has issues. When she is trapped, or bedridden, in her room she starts seeing things in the wallpaper. The narrator is a well rounded character and is a dynamic character in my mind. She is also the main character. • John- John is the husband of the narrator and is a loving, but mean person. He loves his wife, and tries to make her better, but yet he doesn’t listen to when she says she is not sick and that there is something in the wallpaper. John is a rounded, and dynamic character. • Woman in the wallpaper- The woman is trapped behind the wallpaper and the narrator says she sees her walk around at night, and she is the one that moves or shakes the wallpaper. The women is a dynamic character. • Jennie- Jennie is the narrator’s sister-in-law. She is considered the housekeeper and helps the narrator while she is sick. By the end of the story Jennie starts becoming interested with the wallpaper. Jennie is a static character, but flat. • Mary- Mary takes care of the baby, and doesn’t come in to the text that often. Mary is a flat, static character.

4. Style and Tone • The style starts out with long sentences and well detailed ones. As the story progresses the sentences become shorter and less detailed. The narrator starts going insane thinking there is a women behind the wallpaper. • The tone of the story is whimsical- odd, strange, fun; quizzical- odd, amusing; gloomy- darkness, sadness, rejection.

5. Irony and symbolism • You see irony mostly in the narrator’s journal. She talks about how her husband laughs at her, and says her case isn’t serious. There is irony when she talks about the wallpaper, and the different features of the room. • The main symbol is the wallpaper. There is a women, and many others, that are trapped behind the wallpaper. Soon the narrator believes that she is trapped and tries to get out. The wallpaper symbolizes that women are usually trapped in a mans society and it symbolizes design and feelings.

6. Biographical Critique • This story has a lot to do with the authors life, and background. With the rest cure, marriages, child, depression, killing herself, and divorce. • This story went into much detail and it was a very good story to read, even though I didn’t understand it all the way and it just ends, it was written very well, and I like the meaning behind this story.

7. Relation • This story to me reminds me of Metamorphosis. The main characters go through the same thing and it has the same tone and writing style.