Plot
Where does the story take place?
In a rented summer mansion, specifically a nursery-turned-bedroom.
What treatment method is criticized in the story?
The “rest cure” developed by Dr. S. Weir Mitchell.
What major theme is represented by the narrator’s loss of identity?
The dangers of suppressing self-expression.
What does the yellow wallpaper most clearly symbolize?
The narrator’s mental imprisonment and societal repression of women.
How does the story portray the power dynamic between men and women?
Men control and silence women “for their own good.”
Who is John?
The narrator’s husband and physician.
What did the "rest cure" entail?
Bed Rest, Isolation, Electrotherapy and Suppression of Intellectual Activity
What theme is reflected in the narrator’s isolation?
The damaging effects of enforced isolation on women.
What does the woman behind the wallpaper represent?
The narrator, and more largely the trapped and silenced women of the era.
What social issues influenced Gilman’s writing of this story?
Gender inequality, the treatment of mental illness, and the role of women in marriage.
Why is the narrator confined to the room?
John believes rest will cure her nervous condition.
What was the expected role of upper-middle-class women in the Victorian era?
To be submissive, domestic, and dependent on men.
What theme does the ending best illustrate?
The consequences of ignoring women’s voices.
Why is the color yellow significant in the wallpaper?
It connotes illness, decay, and madness.
How does "The Yellow Wallpaper" critique Victorian ideals of womanhood?
By showing how silencing women contribute to psychological breakdown.
What does the narrator begin to see in the wallpaper?
A woman trapped behind bars, trying to escape.
How were women’s mental health issues viewed in the Victorian period?
Often dismissed as emotional weakness requiring rest and isolation.
What theme is developed through John’s dismissive attitude?
The dangers of male dominance and condescension in patriarchal relationships.
What does the creeping figure symbolize?
The narrator’s own descent into psychosis (madness) and the hidden lives of women.
Why is the narrator unnamed?
To represent the loss of identity imposed on women.
What is the climax of the story?
The narrator tearing down the wallpaper, crawling around the room and declaring her freedom from John’s control.
What did Gilman do in real life to counter her own experience with depression?
She rejected the rest cure, got divorced and returned to writing and activism.
What theme does the story critique through the narrator’s “rest cure”?
The dehumanization of women through medical and societal control.
What symbolic meaning is tied to the barred windows and nailed-down bed?
Confinement, control, and imprisonment.
Who was Charlotte Perkins Gilman?
A feminist writer and social reformer who wrote based on her own mental health experience.