Julsbookdiaries

“The Yellow Wallpaper” by Charlotte Perkins Gilman

I’ve been meaning to pick this up for a while, so when it randomly crossed my mind the other night, I decided it was time.

I read from an online version, but the print versions of this story are usually somewhere around 20 pages. A perfect length for a quick read before bed.

The story is written as a series of secret entries from the main character, who remains unnamed. Her husband locks her away in a room on the top floor of their house because he claims she is sick. He continuously gives her various unknown tonics and tells her to stay inside.

The narrator quickly realizes there’s something severely wrong with her bedroom: the yellow wallpaper. She mentions her qualms with it in each entry, and describes it in more outlandish ways as the days go by.

The narrator quickly descends into madness as she is forbidden by her husband to roam about the house and the garden. All she has is that room, and its yellow wallpaper.

Studying English in school, I’ve always heard about this short story, but we never got to really dive into it in my classes. I’ve been curious about it for the past few years, and it was interesting to immediately recognize the mental distress that stemmed from the seclusion and oppression brought on by the narrator’s husband. I really do wish I was still in school, so I could hear my lit class discuss and debate other thoughts that came up while reading.

That’s all for now. Talk soon!