The Yellow Wallpaper (Charlotte Perkins Gilman) — graded reader B1–B2

The Yellow Wallpaper

A graded reader · Charlotte Perkins Gilman · B1–B2

Warm-up

• Do you keep a diary or a journal? Have you ever kept one?

• Which colours make you feel calm? Which make you uncomfortable?

• If you had to stay in one room all summer, what would you need?

• Do you like stories set in big old houses? Why or why not?

The author and the book

Charlotte Perkins Gilman (1860–1935)

Charlotte Perkins Gilman was born on 3 July 1860 in Hartford, Connecticut, in the USA. Her father left the family when she was a baby, and she grew up poor. Harriet Beecher Stowe, the famous author of Uncle Tom's Cabin, was her father's aunt.

In 1884 she married an artist, Charles Walter Stetson, and in 1885 their daughter Katharine was born. After the birth, Charlotte fell into a deep depression. In 1887 she saw a famous doctor, Silas Weir Mitchell. He prescribed a "rest cure" and told her never to touch a pen, brush or pencil again. She obeyed for about three months and came close to a complete breakdown. Then she went back to work, and slowly got better.

The editor of The Atlantic Monthly turned the story down: it had made him too miserable, he said. It finally appeared in The New England Magazine in January 1892. Gilman sent a copy to Dr Mitchell. He never replied. She died in Pasadena, California, in 1935.

Key words

physician

nursery

rest cure

a medical doctor

a room in a house where small children sleep and play

an old treatment for women's "nerves": lying in bed, no work, no reading and no writing

pattern

creep

a design of lines and shapes that repeats, for example on wallpaper or cloth

to move slowly and quietly, low down, so that nobody notices you

Let's talk

• Gilman was told never to write again. How would you feel, banned from what you love?

• In the 1890s, doctors and husbands often decided for women. Who decides about your health?

• Have you ever felt that nobody was really listening to you? What happened?

• The story is called "The Yellow Wallpaper". How could wallpaper be frightening?

PART 1 OF 4

Dead paper

PART 1 · DEAD PAPER

It is very rare for ordinary people like John and me to get a grand old house for the summer.

A colonial mansion! I would like to say a haunted house, but that would be asking too much. Still, there is something strange about it. Why is it so cheap? And why has it stood empty for so long?

John laughs at me, of course. But you expect that in marriage.

John is a physician, and perhaps (I would not say it to a living soul, but this is dead paper, and a great relief to my mind) perhaps that is one reason I do not get well faster.

You see, he does not believe I am sick!

My husband is a respected doctor.

He tells our friends and family that nothing is really the matter with me. Just a temporary nervous depression. My brother is also a doctor, and he says the same thing.

So I take tonics, and breathe the air, and I am absolutely forbidden to "work" until I am well again.

Personally, I disagree with them. Personally, I believe that interesting work, with excitement and change, would do me good.

But what can I do?

I did write for a while, in spite of them. But it tires me, having to be so secret about it.

John says we came here for my sake, so I must have perfect rest and all the air I can get. So we took the nursery at the top of the house.

PART 1 · DEAD PAPER

It is a big, airy room. The windows are barred, for little children, and there are rings and things in the walls.

And the wallpaper! It is torn off in great patches around the head of my bed. I never saw a worse paper in my life. You follow its weak, uncertain curves for a little way, and suddenly they throw themselves off at crazy angles and destroy themselves.

And the colour! A dirty, smouldering yellow. A dull orange in some places, a sickly sulphur in others.

There comes John. I must put this away. He hates to have me write a word.

We have been here two weeks. John is away all day, and some nights too, when his cases are serious.

I am glad my case is not serious!

At first John meant to change the wallpaper. Then he said I was letting it get the better of me.

"Then let us go downstairs," I said. "There are such pretty rooms there."

He took me in his arms and called me a blessed little goose.

But this paper! In one place the pattern hangs like a broken neck, and two round eyes stare at you upside-down.

Behind the front pattern there is another one, in a different shade, that you can only see in certain lights. When the sun is just right, I can see a strange, shapeless sort of figure, hiding behind that silly front design.

There's John's sister on the stairs!

Book club

PART 1 · DEAD PAPER

1. Why does the narrator have to hide her writing?

2. What does John say is wrong with her? What does she believe would help?

3. Describe the nursery. What is strange about it as a bedroom for an adult?

4. Her husband and her brother are both doctors. Could she argue with them? Why not?

5. Is it ever right to stop someone doing what they love "for their own good"?

6. What do you think the figure behind the pattern could be?

PART 2 OF 4

Silly fancies

PART 2 · SILLY FANCIES

Well, the Fourth of July is over! The visitors have gone, and I am tired out. John thought a little company might do me good, so Mother and Nellie and the children came for a week. Of course I didn't do a thing. Jennie, John's sister, sees to everything now. But it tired me all the same.

John says if I don't get better faster, he will send me to Weir Mitchell in the autumn. I don't want to go at all. A friend of mine was his patient once, and she says he is just like John and my brother, only more so!

I cry at nothing, and I cry most of the time. Of course I don't when John is here, or anybody else. Only when I am alone.

I lie on this great bed (it is nailed to the floor, I believe) and follow that pattern for hours. For the thousandth time, I decide I will follow it to some sort of end.

I don't know why I write this. I don't want to. I don't feel able. And I know John would think it silly. But I must say what I feel and think in some way. It is such a relief!

But the effort is getting to be greater than the relief.

The other day I tried to have a real, sensible talk with John. I asked him to let me visit Cousin Henry and Julia. But he said I wasn't strong enough to go. I didn't argue very well, because I was crying before I had finished.

PART 2 · SILLY FANCIES

So dear John carried me upstairs, laid me on the bed, and read to me until my head was tired. He said I was his darling and his comfort, and all he had, and I must take care of myself for his sake.

He says nobody but me can help me out of it. I must use my will and self-control, and not let any silly fancies run away with me.

It is lucky Mary is so good with the baby. Such a dear baby! And yet I cannot be with him. It makes me so nervous.

There's one comfort. The baby is well and happy, and does not have to live in this nursery with the horrible wallpaper.

I can stand it much more easily than a baby, you see.

Of course I never talk about it to them any more. I am too wise. But I watch it all the same.

There are things in that paper that nobody knows but me, or ever will.

Behind that outside pattern, the dim shapes get clearer every day.

It is always the same shape, only very many of them.

And it is like a woman, bending down and creeping about behind that pattern.

I don't like it a bit. I wonder... I begin to think... I wish John would take me away from here!

Book club

PART 2 · SILLY FANCIES

1. Why doesn't she want to go to Dr Weir Mitchell?

2. What happened when she asked to visit Cousin Henry and Julia?

3. What does she now see behind the front pattern?

4. John is loving, but is he listening? Can love and control go together?

5. Why do you think she cries only when she is alone?

6. She wants to leave. Do you think John will agree? What will she do next?

PART 3 OF 4

A woman behind the bars

PART 3 · A WOMAN BEHIND THE BARS

Last night there was a moon. John was asleep, and I watched the moonlight on that moving wallpaper until I felt creepy. The faint figure behind seemed to shake the pattern, just as if she wanted to get out.

I got up quietly to feel if the paper did move. When I came back, John was awake.

"What is it, little girl?" he said. "Don't go walking about like that. You'll get cold."

I told him I was not getting better here, and I wished he would take me away.

"Why, darling! Our lease is up in three weeks. Really, dear, you are better, whether you can see it or not. I am a doctor, dear, and I know."

"I don't weigh a bit more," I said.

"Bless her little heart!" he said with a big hug. "She shall be as sick as she pleases!"

"Better in body perhaps—" I began, and stopped. He sat up and gave me such a stern look that I could not say another word.

"My darling," he said, "I beg you, for my sake and for our child's sake, never let that idea enter your mind for one moment! Can you not trust me as a physician when I tell you so?"

So of course I said no more.

At night, in moonlight, the outside pattern becomes bars! And the woman behind it is as clear as can be. By day she is quiet. I think it is the pattern that keeps her so still.

John makes me lie down for an hour after every meal. But I don't sleep. And I don't tell them I'm awake. Oh, no!

PART 3 · A WOMAN BEHIND THE BARS

The fact is, I am getting a little afraid of John.

I have caught him looking at the paper! And Jennie too. Once I found Jennie with her hand on it. She jumped, and said the paper left yellow marks on all our clothes.

Did that not sound innocent? But I know she was studying that pattern. And I have decided that nobody shall find it out but me!

Life is much more exciting now. I eat better, and I am quieter. John is so pleased to see me improve!

There is a strange mark low down on the wall. It runs round the room, behind every piece of furniture, as if something had rubbed it, over and over. Round and round and round. It makes me dizzy!

I have found out at last. The front pattern does move, and no wonder! The woman behind shakes it!

And I think that woman gets out in the daytime! I've seen her, creeping along the lane under the trees, creeping all round the garden.

I always lock the door when I creep by daylight. I can't do it at night, because John would suspect something at once.

If only that top pattern could be pulled off the one underneath! I mean to try it, little by little.

Book club

PART 3 · A WOMAN BEHIND THE BARS

1. What did John say when she asked to leave the house?

2. What did she find Jennie doing, and how did Jennie explain it?

3. What does the woman behind the pattern do, by night and by day?

4. "I am a doctor, dear, and I know." How would you feel if someone said that to you?

5. She now keeps everything secret. Why might secrets feel safer than the truth to her?

6. Who do you think "creeps by daylight"? What will she do with the wallpaper?

PART 4 OF 4

Out at last

PART 4 · OUT AT LAST

There are only two more days to get this paper off, and I believe John is beginning to notice. I don't like the look in his eyes.

Hurrah! This is the last day. John won't be back until this evening.

Jennie wanted to sleep with me, the sly thing! But I told her I would rest better alone.

That was clever, because I wasn't alone at all! As soon as the moon came out, and that poor thing began to crawl and shake the pattern, I got up and ran to help her.

I pulled and she shook. I shook and she pulled. And before morning we had peeled off yards of that paper.

When Jennie saw the wall, she looked amazed. I told her cheerfully that I did it because I hated the horrible thing.

But I am here, and nobody touches this paper but me. Not alive!

Tomorrow we go home, and they have moved all the furniture out. There is nothing left but the great bed, nailed down.

I have locked the door and thrown the key down into the front path. I don't want anybody to come in until John comes. I want to astonish him.

I've got a rope up here that even Jennie did not find. If that woman does get out and tries to get away, I can tie her!

But I can't reach the top without something to stand on, and this bed will not move! I pushed it until I was lame. Then I got so angry I bit a little piece off one corner. It hurt my teeth.

PART 4 · OUT AT LAST

I don't like to look out of the windows. There are so many of those creeping women, and they creep so fast.

I wonder if they all came out of that wallpaper, as I did?

It is so pleasant to be out in this great room and creep around as I please! My shoulder fits just right in that long mark around the wall, so I cannot lose my way.

Why, there's John at the door!

It is no use, young man. You can't open it!

How he calls and pounds! Now he's crying for an axe.

"John, dear!" I said in the gentlest voice. "The key is down by the front steps, under a plantain leaf!"

I said it again and again, very gently and slowly, until he had to go and see. He got it, of course, and came in. He stopped short by the door.

"What is the matter?" he cried. "For God's sake, what are you doing!"

I kept on creeping just the same, but I looked at him over my shoulder.

"I've got out at last," I said, "in spite of you and Jane! And I've pulled off most of the paper, so you can't put me back!"

Now why should that man have fainted? But he did, and right across my path by the wall, so that I had to creep over him every time!

Book club

PART 4 · OUT AT LAST

1. How did she and "the woman" spend the last night?

2. What did she do with the key, and why?

3. What did she say to John when he came in?

4. "I've got out at last." Who does she believe she is now?

5. Why does John faint? Does he finally understand what has happened to his wife?

6. Is the ending a defeat, a kind of escape, or both?

Big questions

1

Was John cruel, or a loving husband trusting the medicine of his time?

2

Did the rest cure make her worse? What do you think she really needed?

3

Who is the woman behind the paper? What could the wallpaper stand for?

4

At the end she says "you and Jane". There is no Jane in the story. Who might she be?

5

Gilman wrote it "to save people from being driven crazy". Can one story change how doctors work?

6

Are people, especially women, listened to by doctors today? What has changed, and what hasn't?

TEACHER'S REFERENCE · SKIP OR DELETE BEFORE CLASS

Answer key

Part 1 · 1 She is forbidden to "work" until she is well, and John hates her to write a word.

Part 1 · 2 Just a temporary nervous depression, nothing really the matter. She believes interesting work, with excitement and change, would do her good.

Part 1 · 3 It is a big, airy nursery at the top of the house, with barred windows, rings in the walls and torn, ugly yellow wallpaper.

Part 2 · 1 A friend who was his patient says he is just like John and her brother, only more so.

Part 2 · 2 John said she wasn't strong enough. She cried, and he carried her upstairs and read to her.

Part 2 · 3 The shape of a woman, bending down and creeping about.

Part 3 · 1 Their lease was up in three weeks, she really was better, and he was a doctor so he knew. She must trust him.

Part 3 · 2 Jennie had her hand on the paper. She said it left yellow marks on their clothes.

Part 3 · 3 At night she shakes the pattern, which looks like bars, and tries to get out. By day she is quiet, or gets out and creeps along the lane and around the garden.

Part 4 · 1 They pulled and shook together and peeled off yards of the paper.

Part 4 · 2 She locked the door and threw the key into the front path, so nobody could come in until John came. She wanted to astonish him.

Part 4 · 3 "I've got out at last, in spite of you and Jane! And I've pulled off most of the paper, so you can't put me back!"