1. Charlotte Perkins Gilman
“The Yellow Wallpaper”

2. Biography
Though she is best known for her short story "The Yellow Wallpaper," Charlotte Perkins Gilman was a novelist, poet, lecturer, social commentator, and journalist with a major influence on countless women past and present.

3. Bio
Born Charlotte Anna Perkins on July 3, 1860, in Hartford, Connecticut, Gilman was the great-niece of 19th-century writer Harriet Beecher Stowe (author of Uncle Tom's Cabin).
After two of Gilman's siblings died, her mother was told not to have any other children. Gilman's father soon left the family, perhaps from fear of killing his wife in childbirth.

4. Bio
Gilman attended college, but dropped out and married artist Charles Walter Stetson.
In 1885, the couple had a daughter, but Gilman had developed neurasthenia, an emotional disorder characterized by fatigue and depression.
Doctor Silas Weir Mitchell's unsuccessful prescription of a "rest cure" in 1887 prompted Gilman to write "The Yellow Wallpaper," a harrowing tale of a neurasthenic woman's growing insanity and feminist awareness.
Gilman later divorced her husband and earned a living by writing.

5. Bio
Gilman continued writing after her happy remarriage to her cousin George Houghton Gilman in 1900.
In 1932, she learned she had incurable breast cancer.
Wanting to be in charge of her own death, she committed suicide with an overdose of chloroform on August 17, 1935.

6. Major Themes in “The Yellow Wallpaper”
Female Imprisonment
In "The Yellow Wallpaper," wallpaper, a usually feminine, floral decoration on the interior of walls, is a symbol of female imprisonment.
When John curbs her creativity and writing, the narrator takes it upon herself to make some sense of the wallpaper.

7. Sunlight as oppressive, moonlight as liberating
Sunlight is associated with John's ordered, dominating schedule; he prescribes something for the narrator for every waking hour while he goes about his daily rounds.
More importantly, the mind roams free at night, as in during dreams. It is always by moonlight, a traditional symbol of femininity, that the narrator understands more about the figure trapped within the wallpaper.

8. Aesthetic changes through insanity
The narrator's tone changes from naïve and depressed to paranoid and excited, and as she grows insane, her sentences reflect the state of her mind.
Much like the chaotic pattern in the wallpaper, the sentences get choppy and confusing, grafting together disconnected one-line comments.

9. Characters in “The Yellow Wallpaper”
Narrator: The narrator (whose name we learn at the end is Jane) is married to John and dominated by him.
As she recuperates with neurasthenia in a room in a rented mansion, he does not allow her to do anything but rest, and especially forbids her from the creative work of writing.
She eventually goes completely crazy.

10. Characters
John: John, a doctor, is married to the narrator, but he treats her more like an infant. He frequently refers to her with the diminutive tag of "'little,'" and acts as if she cannot make any decisions on her own.
Modeled on Silas Weir Mitchell, the doctor who prescribed Gilman an ineffective "rest cure" in 1887, John forbids the narrator from working on anything creative while she recovers.
He believes in a strict divide between men and women.

11. Characters
Woman in the wallpaper: Although the narrator eventually believes she sees many women in the yellow wallpaper, she centers on one. The woman appears trapped within the bar-like pattern of the wallpaper, and she shakes the pattern as she tries to break out (and eventually succeeds).
The woman's habit of "creeping" about suggests that she, and other early feminists, must hide in the shadows for now while they plot their strategy, but soon will be able to stand tall.

12. Characters
Jennie: John's sister, Jennie is a perfect and enthusiastic housekeeper who wants nothing else out of life.
Mary: The nanny, Mary takes care of the narrator and John's baby. With her name a possible allusion to the Virgin Mary, Mary is the perfect mother-surrogate for the narrator.

13. Definitions Felicity: great happiness
Fancy: think ( I fancy it a good idea) or like (I fancy him)
Atrocious: revolting
Impertinence: rudeness
Querulous: always complaining