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The Yellow Wallpaper [Bedford Cultural Edition]

by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, Dale M. Bauer (Editor)

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2115127,055 (4.28)1
Fiction. Short Stories. HTML:

Charlotte Perkins Gilman's 1892 short story, The Yellow Wallpaper is a valuable piece of American feminist literature that reveals attitudes toward the psychological health of women in the nineteenth century. Diagnosed with "temporary nervous depression - a slight hysterical tendency" by her physician husband, a woman is confined to an upstairs bedroom. Descending into psychosis at the complete lack of stimulation, she starts obsessing over the room's yellow wallpaper: "It is the strangest yellow, that wall-paper! It makes me think of all the yellow things I ever saw - not beautiful ones like buttercups, but old foul, bad yellow things. But there is something else about that paper - the smell! ... The only thing I can think of that it is like is the color of the paper! A yellow smell."

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Showing 5 of 5
The first time I read this story, it scared me so much that I vomited. ( )
  Travis_D._Johnson | Mar 4, 2023 |
There's an uncomfortable quality to knowing that Gilman's own experiences of marriage, motherhood, and post-partum depression informed this story of a woman whose physician husband and physician brother both, predictably, diagnose her illness as "hysteria" and prescribe involuntary confinement, and absolute rest without any sort of stimulation at all, particularly intellectual stimulation. For a writer, it has to have been hellish.

The protagonist goes slowly mad, confined to a room with yellow wallpaper that seems to move and shift, as though there is something behind it. She comes to believe that there's a woman there, behind the horrible yellow wallpaper, which gives off a horrible yellow smell. The woman is trying desperately to get out which is why the paper moves. (I trust I don't need to explain this, right?)

The story was written as a direct response to her own experiences at the hands of her husband, and the doctor who had prescribed a rest cure for her severe illness after her daughter's birth. She needed stimulation, she got solitary confinement. She actually sent a copy of The Yellow Wallpaper to her doctor. I wonder if he ever understood why. ( )
  Tracy_Rowan | Nov 1, 2017 |
The Yellow Wallpaper is a short story by author Charlotte Perkins Gilman. First published in 1892, it has been described variously as gothic, horror, and feminist literature. Gilman, herself, saw it as an indictment of the treatment of women by the medical profession. A woman, who is suffering from depression after the birth of her child, is brought by her husband to an isolated mansion for a ‘rest cure’. She is forbidden any activity including writing. As she sinks slowly into insanity, she becomes obsessed with the yellow wallpaper in one of the rooms. In a very few pages, Perkins manages to convey the treatment of women in the 19th c. not only in terms of mental illness but in their position in the professional as well as domestic life. Most of all, though, The Yellow Wallpaper may be the most chilling depiction of the descent into madness ever written. ( )
  lostinalibrary | Dec 16, 2015 |
"The Yellow Wall-Paper"

Just imagine being in a house out in the hilly country around the 1800’s. Seems fine right? Well for this woman this is a horrible place to be. This is how “The Yellow Wall-paper” by Charlotte Perkins Gilman in 1891 begins. A man named John is trying to help his wife who has a mental illness. She feels that she is fine and doesn’t need to be at the house where she is being kept for her illness. Her sister, Jennie, comes by some days to check on her. The woman wants to desperately go outside but John refuses to let her. John refuses to let her to go outside because he says that she needs to stay inside to get better. She has to be locked up for three months in a room that is plain, dull, and boring. She starts to see things appear such as a woman. She desperately wants to go outside to see the woman. She can’t see the woman in person because John told her she can’t. The woman inside the room goes berzerk.
Charlotte was an American writer of short stories, novelist, poet, and an American feminist. She was born on July 3rd, 1860 in Hartford, CT and died on August 17th, 1935 in Pasadena, CA. Charlotte Perkins Gilman released her story, “The Yellow Wall-paper,” in 1891 to a New England magazine. A Physician from Kansas told her, “It was the best description of insanity that I have ever read.” Charlotte wrote this story because she had a nervous breakdown before. She based this short story on herself, because she was told not to work for three months. She wrote, “The Yellow Wall-paper”, not to drive people crazy, but to keep people from driving crazy.”
I liked the story because it explains how women were treated back in the 1800’s and how people go insane if they are not allowed to be a part of the world and to explore new things. The men were looked at as the main dominance and women were treated disrespectfully. People need to explore new things in the world so they won’t go insane. This story could be looked at as a mystery book. I usually don’t like to read mystery books, but I enjoyed this one because you have to read this precisely. This requires some thinking to understand the story and the text. The text is written in the 1800’s so the english is different than today’s english. The reader must read the story slowly.
I would encourage others to read this story because it’s very interesting to read although at times the story can be confusing. Some people who like mysteries or confusing books may like “The Yellow Wall-paper.” You learn about how women were treated back in the 1800’s. This book is meant for young adults to adults. I think the older people would like this story more because some people may have known someone such as a grandma or great grandma during that time where they were treated poorly. The older adults would be the better audience for this story because they could possibly relate to this and/or understand what the author is telling them.
  ryanhooverson | Sep 25, 2013 |
Basically, from start to finish “The Yellow Wallpaper” by Charlotte Perkins Stetson is about a woman who is crazed going from slightly crazy to insane. As the tale progresses we see her form into a new, more psychotic woman, and we also seeing more into how she’s treated in her time period. By this, I mean she goes along with how childlike she’s treated but after awhile, I could almost say she’s sick of it in a way. Standing up for herself is one of the final details, but not nearly the whole final factor.
Charlotte Perkins Stetson was writing the character as herself had her condition continued. As she said in “Why I wrote The Yellow Wallpaper?” “I never had hallucinations or objections to my mural decorations,” which I can only observe as that she caught herself just in time to stop herself from going insane. Suffering from nervous breakdowns she could write first hand what the patient would experience and continued to also make a statement about the treatment option given. “…I cast the specialist’s advice to the winds and went to work again-work, the normal life of every human being…ultimately recovering some measure of power.” With those words she made a statement about how women were being treated, how they were not taken seriously and how she decided to take a stand and treat herself.
My ultimate reaction to the story as a whole was mostly surprise. Surprise that the story of this woman’s insanity could hold so much truth about how the way of life was back then. After some explanation I could fully grasp the entire concept but at first I was utterly confused. I had thought to myself, what’s the point of it? Then I saw it, connections were made. She was pushed to the brink of insanity and pushed over it. It was a tid bit of history wrapped up with an adventure and a hint of rebellion. “…I have to be sly about it, or else meet with heavy opposition.”
It’s a more complex book, probably aimed more at women who just obey and let things pass without regard. This is definitely not a book for kids in middle school and debatably not for high school students. The reason it is debatably for high school students is because it’s a little tangled but great for giving a different perspective on how things were done in the past.
  dieselgirl | Sep 24, 2013 |
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Charlotte Perkins Gilmanprimary authorall editionscalculated
Bauer, Dale M.Editormain authorall editionsconfirmed
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Fiction. Short Stories. HTML:

Charlotte Perkins Gilman's 1892 short story, The Yellow Wallpaper is a valuable piece of American feminist literature that reveals attitudes toward the psychological health of women in the nineteenth century. Diagnosed with "temporary nervous depression - a slight hysterical tendency" by her physician husband, a woman is confined to an upstairs bedroom. Descending into psychosis at the complete lack of stimulation, she starts obsessing over the room's yellow wallpaper: "It is the strangest yellow, that wall-paper! It makes me think of all the yellow things I ever saw - not beautiful ones like buttercups, but old foul, bad yellow things. But there is something else about that paper - the smell! ... The only thing I can think of that it is like is the color of the paper! A yellow smell."

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