The narrator and her husband John rent a house for the summer. The narrator is suffering from nervous depression. Her husband, who is a doctor, forbids her from writing and confines her to a room in the house to rest. The narrator becomes obsessed with the pattern on the yellow wallpaper in her room. She starts believing that there is a woman trapped within the wallpaper. By the end, the narrator strips the wallpaper off the walls, declaring that she has freed the woman, revealing that she has descended into madness.
1. The Yellow WallPaper
By Gaston Posse, Salvador Castagnino, Matias Giambruni and Juan Stordeur
2. The story begins with the narrator and her husband John are renting a beautiful, estate for the summer. The
narrator suffers from what her husband believes is a temporary nervous depression.
He orders her to rest as much as possible, and picks a room in the house for the two of them. The narrator
feels really uncomfortable with the estate, but obeys her husband’s decision for the two of them to stay there.
She also obeys him when he chooses the room on the top floor instead of another one that she prefers. Since
her husband is a doctor, he wins all their arguments.
Also the narrator would like to spend her time writing, but her husband, brother, and the rest of her family think
this is a terrible idea. So the narrator is living in a house in which she feels uncomfortable, in a room she
hasn’t picked out, and is forbidden to do the only activity she enjoys. Although all these things, she becomes
absolutely obsessed with the yellow wallpaper in her room. She begins fanatically tracing the pattern of the
wallpaper and soon becomes convinced that there is a woman trapped within the paper.
Before the narrator is due to depart the house, she decides that she must free the trapped woman by stripping
the wallpaper off. When her husband comes into the room, the narrator declares that she is now free.
Furthermore, seeing his wife creeping around the room peeling the paper off the walls, he faints.
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5. Vocabulary
Tonic: a medicine that helps with our body's strength.
Fancy: think about something, imagine.
Congenial: suitable to your needs.
Flamboyant: tending to attract the attention.
Lurid: shining with an unnatural glow.
AtrociousNo : in bad conditions.
6. Vocabulary
Whim: an odd idea.
Riotous: that grow in extreme abundance.
Loll: hang loosely.
Querulous: all the time complaining
Misconstrue: interpret in a wrong way
Debase: making something impure
8. Gothic Elements
- Isolated Mansion: As any other gothic novel, the story is set in the narrator's mansion by her
own.
- Supernatural Presence: The yellow wallpaper, besides a simple decoration, has its supernatural
qualities too, like having a pattern that moves and having a woman inside of it.
- Insane Character: Our narrator is isolated from society and is only able to communicate to
people that she fears, John and his sister. As any sick person that is alone all the time, she ends
up mad.
- Mystery: There is a mystery towards the wallpaper and what it is its relation to John and his
sister, the woman that seems to be trapped inside of it and why our narrator has such a strong
fascination for it.
TONE: IRONIC, UNCERTAIN
9. Characters
● The narrator: married to john, and already a mother, the narrator is a
woman which is undergoing a case of depression. She is imaginative and a
has hysterical tendencies
● John: The narrator´s husband. He is loving and caring for his wife. He is a
physician, and restricts her movement around the house to help her
treatment. He is also a very fancy man
● Jennie: John´s sister. She is also loving and caring, like his brother. She
acts as her housekeeper, to help her while she undergoes her treatment
10. Themes
The theme of this story is the madness that grows inside the narrator as the
story progresses. This madness is created by the confined environment in
which she is put in, and how this makes her lose her sanity. What is most
important about this is that since this is first person story, we can see her
insanity from her own eyes.
