Project i did at school. The assignment was to design our own version of an existing magazine. We had to take all the pictures, design a front page and put i all together in Adobe InDesign. I chose...
(etext of the story by Gilman, originally published in May 1892, in The in The New England Magazine.) Magazine .) It is very seldom that mere ordinary people like John and myself secure ancestral halls for the summer summer.. A colonial mansion a hereditary estate I would say a haunted house and reach the height of romantic felicity!!"ut that would "e asking too much of fate# $till I will proudly declare that there is something %ueer a"out it. Else why should it "e let so cheaply& And why have stood so long untenanted& John laughs at me of course "ut one e'pects that in marriage. John is practical in the e'treme. (e has no patience with faith an intense horror of superstition and he sco)s openly at any talk of things not to "e felt and seen and put down in *gures. John is a physician and +E,(A+$!!-I would not say it to a living soul of course "ut this is dead paper and a great relief to my mind!!+E,(A+$ that is one reason I do not get well faster. /ou / ou see he does not "elieve I am sick# And what can one do& If a physician of high standing and one0s own hus"and assures friends and relatives that there is really nothing the matter with one "ut temporary nervous depression!!a slight hysterical tendency!!what is one to do& My "rother is also a physician and also of high standing and he says the same thing. $o I take phosphates or phosphites!!whichever it is and tonics and 1ourneys and air and e'ercise and am a"solutely for"idden to 2work2 until I am well again. +ersonally I disagree with their ideas. +ersonally I "elieve that congenial work with e'citement and change would do me good. 3ut what is one to do& I did write for a while in spite of them4 "ut it 56E$ e'haust me a good deal!!having to "e so sly a"out it or else meet with heavy opposition. I sometimes fancy that my condition if I had less opposition and more society and stimulus!!"ut John says the very worst thing I can do is to think a"out my condition and I confess it always makes me feel "ad. $o I will let it alone and talk a"out the house. The most "eautiful place# It is %uite alone standing well "ack from the road %uite three miles from the village. It makes me think of English places that you read a"out for there are hedges and walls and gates that lock and lots of separate little houses for the gardeners and people. There is a 5E7I8I69$ garden# garden# I never saw such a garden!!large garden!!large and shady full of "o'! "ordered paths and lined with long grape!covered ar"ors with seats under them. There were were greenhouses too "ut they are are all "roken now. now. There was some legal trou"le I "elieve something a"out the heirs and coheirs4 anyhow the place has "een empty for years. That spoils my ghostliness I am afraid "ut I don0t care!!there is something strange a"out the house!!I can feel it. I even said so to John one moonlight evening "ut he said what I felt was a 5,A9:(T and shut the window w indow.. I get unreasona"ly angry with John sometimes. I0m sure I never used to "e so sensitive. I think it is due to this nervous condition. 3ut John says if I feel so I shall neglect proper self!control4 so I take pains to control myself!!"efore myself!!"efor e him at least and that makes me very tired.
I don0t like our room a "it. I wanted one downstairs that opened on the piazza and had roses all over the window and such pretty old!fashioned chintz hangings# "ut John would not hear of it. (e said there was only one window and not room for two "eds and no near room for him if he took another. (e is very careful and loving and hardly lets me stir without special direction. I have a schedule prescription for each hour in the day4 he takes all care from me and so I feel "asely ungrateful not to value it more. (e said we came here solely on my account that I was to have perfect rest and all the air I could get. 2/our 2/our e'ercise e'ercise depends on your strength my dear2 said he 2and your food somewhat on your appetite4 "ut air you can a"sor" all the time.2 $o we took the nursery at the top of the house. It is a "ig airy room the whole ;oor nearly with windows that look all ways and air and sunshine galore. It was nursery *rst and then playroom and gymnasium I should 1udge4 for the windows are "arred for little children and there are rings and things in the walls. The paint and paper look as if a "oys0 school had used it. It is stripped o)!!the paper!!in great patches all around the head of my "ed a"out as far as I can reach and in a great place on the other side of the room low down. I never saw a worse paper in my life. 6ne of those sprawling ;am"oyant patterns committing every artistic sin. It is dull enough to confuse the eye in following pronounced enough to constantly irritate and provoke study and when you follow the lame uncertain curves for a little distance they suddenly commit suicide!!plunge o) at outrageous angles destroy themselves in unheard of contradictions. The color is repellent almost revolting4 a smouldering unclean yellow strangely faded "y the slow!turning sunlight. It is a dull yet lurid orange in some places a sickly sulphur tint in others. No wonder the children hated it# I should hate it myself if I had to live in this room long. There comes John and I must put this away!!he hates to have me write a word.
2Then do let us go downstairs2 I said 2there are such pretty rooms there.2 Then he took me in his arms and called me a "lessed little goose and said he would go down to the cellar if I wished and have it whitewashed into the "argain. 3ut he is right enough a"out the "eds and windows and things. It is an airy and comforta"le room as any one need wish and of course I would not "e so silly as to make him uncomforta"le 1ust for a whim. I0m really getting %uite fond of the "ig room all "ut that horrid paper. 6ut of one window I can see the garden those mysterious deep shaded ar"ors the riotous old!fashioned ;owers and "ushes and gnarly trees. 6ut of another I get a lovely view of the "ay and a little private wharf "elonging to the estate. There is a "eautiful shaded lane that runs down there from the house. I always fancy I see people walking in these numerous paths and ar"ors "ut John has cautioned me not to give way to fancy in the least. (e says that with my imaginative power and ha"it of story!making a nervous weakness like mine is sure to lead to all manner of e'cited fancies and that I ought to use my will and good sense to check the tendency. tendency. $o I try. I think sometimes that if I were only well enough to write a little it would relieve the press of ideas and rest me. 3ut I *nd I get pretty tired when I try. It is so discouraging not to have any advice and companionship a"out my work.
$he is a perfect and enthusiastic housekeeper and hopes for no "etter profession. I verily "elieve she thinks it is the writing which made me sick# 3ut I can write when she is out and see her a long way o) from these windows. There is one that commands the road a lovely shaded winding road road and one that 1ust looks o) over the country. A lovely country too full of great elms and velvet meadows. This wall!paper has a kind of su"!pattern in a di)erent shade a particularly irritating one for you can only see it in certain lights and not clearly then. 3ut in the places where it isn0t faded and where the sun is 1ust so!!I can see a strange provoking formless sort of *gure that seems to skulk a"out "ehind that silly and conspicuous front design. There0s sister on the stairs# ourth of July is over# The people are gone and I am tired out. John thought it might do me good to see a little company so we 1ust had mother and Nellie and the children down for a week. 6f course I didn0t do a thing. Jennie sees to everything now. 3ut it tired me all the same. John says if I don0t pick up faster he shall send me to
intermina"le grotes%ues seem to form around a common centre and rush o) in headlong plunges of e%ual distraction. It makes me tired to follow it. I will take a nap I guess. I don0t know why I should write this. I don0t want to. I don0t feel a"le. And I know John would think it a"surd. 3ut I M9$T say what I feel and think in some way!!it is such a relief# 3ut the e)ort is getting to "e greater than the relief. (alf the time now I am awfully lazy and lie down ever so much. John says I musn0t lose my strength and has me take cod liver oil and lots of tonics and things to say nothing of ale and wine and rare meat. 5ear John# (e loves me very dearly and hates to have me sick. I tried to have a real earnest reasona"le talk with him the other day and tell him how I wish he would let me go and make a visit to 8ousin (enry and Julia. 3ut he said I wasn0t a"le to go nor a"le to stand it after I got there4 and I did not make out a very good case for myself for I was crying "efore I had *nished. It is getting to "e a great e)ort for me to think straight. Just this nervous weakness I suppose. And dear John gathered me up in his arms and 1ust carried me upstairs and laid me on the "ed and sat "y me and read to me till it tired my head. (e said I was his darling and his comfort and all he had and that I must take care of myself for his sake and keep well. (e says no one "ut myself can help me out of it that I must use my will and self!control and not let any silly fancies run away with me. There0s one comfort the "a"y is well and happy and does not have to occupy this nursery with the t he horrid wall!paper wall!p aper.. If we had not used it that "lessed child would have#
2
Indeed he started the ha"it "y making me lie down for an hour after each meal. It is a very "ad ha"it I am convinced for you see I don0t sleep. And that cultivates deceit for I don0t tell them I0m awake!!6 no# The fact is I am getting a little afraid of John. (e seems very %ueer sometimes and even Jennie has an ine'plica"le look. It strikes me occasionally 1ust as a scienti*c hypothesis!!that perhaps it is the paper# I have watched John when he did not know I was looking and come into the room suddenly on the most m ost innocent e'cuses and I0ve caught him several times 766=IN: AT AT T(E +A+E,# +A+E,# And Jennie too. I caught Jennie with her hand on it once. $he didn0t know I was in the room and when I asked her in a %uiet a very %uiet voice with the most restrained manner possi"le what she was doing with the paper!!she turned around as if she had "een caught stealing and looked %uite angry!!asked me why I should frighten her so# Then she said that the paper stained everything it touched that she had found yellow smooches on all my clothes and John0s and she wished we would "e more careful# 5id not that sound innocent& 3ut I know she was studying that pattern and I am determined that no"ody shall *nd it out "ut myself# 7ife is very much more e'citing now than it used u sed to "e. /ou /ou see I have something s omething more to e'pect to look forward to to watch. I really do eat "etter and am more %uiet than I was. John is so pleased to see me improve# (e laughed a little the other day and said I seemed to "e ;ourishing in spite of my wall!paper. I turned it o) with a laugh. I had no intention of telling him it was 3E8A9$E of the wall! paper!!he would make fun of me. (e might even want to take me away. away. I don0t want to leave now until I have found it out. There is a week more and I think that will "e enough. I0m feeling ever so much "etter# I don0t sleep much at night for it is so interesting to watch developments4 "ut I sleep a good deal in the daytime. In the daytime it is tiresome and perple'ing. There are always new shoots on the fungus and new shades of yellow all over it. I cannot keep count of them though I have tried conscientiously conscientiously.. It is the strangest yellow that wall!paper# It makes me think of all the yellow things I ever saw!!not "eautiful ones like "uttercups "ut old foul "ad yellow things. 3ut there is something else a"out that paper!!the smell# I noticed it the moment we came into the room "ut with so much air and sun it was not "ad. Now we have had a week of fog and rain and whether the windows are open or not the smell is here. It creeps all over the house. I *nd it hovering in the dining!room skulking in the parlor hiding in the hall lying in wait for me on the stairs. It gets into my hair. Even when I go to ride if I turn my head suddenly and surprise it!!there is that smell# $uch a peculiar odor too# I have spent hours in trying to analyze it to *nd what it smelled like. It is not "ad!!at *rst and very gentle "ut %uite the su"tlest most enduring odor I ever met. In this damp weather it is awful I wake up in the night and *nd it hanging over me. It used to distur" me at *rst. I thought seriously of "urning the house!!to reach the smell. 3ut now I am used to it. The only thing I can think of that it is like is the 8676, of the paper# A yellow smell.
There is a very funny mark on this wall low down near the mop"oard. A streak streak that runs round the room. It goes g oes "ehind every piece of furniture e'cept e'cept the "ed a long l ong straight even $M668( as if it had "een ru""ed over and over. I wonder how it was done and who did it and what they did it for. ,ound and round and round!!round and round and round!!it makes me dizzy# I really have discovered something at last. Through watching so much at night when it changes so I have *nally found out. The front pattern 56E$ move!!and no wonder# The woman "ehind shakes it# $ometimes I think there are a great many women "ehind and sometimes only one and she crawls around fast fas t and her crawling shakes it all over. Then in the very "right spots she keeps keeps still and in the very shady spots she 1ust takes hold of the "ars and shakes them hard. And she is all the time trying to clim" through. 3ut no"ody could clim" through that pattern!!it strangles so4 I think that is why it has so many heads. They get through and then the pattern pattern strangles them o) and turns them upside down and makes their eyes white# If those heads were covered or taken o) it would not "e half so "ad. I think that woman gets out in the daytime# And I0ll tell you why!!privately!!I0ve seen her# I can see her out of every one of my windows# It is the same woman I know for she is always creeping and most women do not creep "y daylight. I see her on that long road under the trees creeping along and when a carriage comes she hides under the "lack"erry vines. I don0t "lame her a "it. It must "e very humiliating to "e caught creeping "y daylight# I always lock the door when I creep "y daylight. I can0t do it at night for I know John would suspect something at once. And John is so %ueer now that I don0t want to irritate him. I wish he would take another room# 3esides I don0t want any"ody to get that woman out at night "ut myself. I often wonder if I could see her out of all the windows at once. 3ut turn as fast as I can I can only see out of one at a time. And though I always see her she MA/ "e a"le to creep faster than I can turn# I have watched her sometimes away o) in the open country creeping as fast as a cloud shadow in a high wind. If only that top pattern could "e gotten o) from the under one# I mean to try it little "y little. I have found out another funny thing "ut I shan0t tell it this time# It does not do to trust people too much. There are only only two more days to get this paper o) and I "elieve John is "eginning to notice. I don0t like the look in his eyes. And I heard him ask Jennie a lot of professional %uestions a"out me. $he had a very good report to give. $he said I slept a good deal in the daytime. John knows I don0t sleep very well at night for all I0m so %uiet# (e asked me all sorts of %uestions too and pretended to "e very loving and kind. As if I couldn0t see through him# $till I don0t wonder he acts so sleeping under this paper for three months. It only interests me "ut I feel sure John and Jennie are secretly a)ected "y it.
(urrah# This is the last day "ut it is enough. John is to stay in town over night and won0t "e out until this evening. Jennie wanted to sleep with me!!the sly thing# "ut I told her I should undou"tedly rest "etter for a night all alone. That was clever for really I wasn0t alone a "it# As soon as it was moonlight and that poor thing "egan 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 "efore morning we had peeled o) yards of that paper paper.. A strip a"out as high as my head and half around the room. And then when the sun came and that awful pattern "egan to laugh at me I declared I would *nish it to!day#
It is so pleasant to "e out in this great room and creep around as I please# I don0t want to go outside. I won0t even if Jennie asks me to. >or outside you have to creep on the ground and everything is green instead of yellow. 3ut here I can creep smoothly on the ;oor and my shoulder 1ust *ts in that long smooch around the wall so I cannot lose my way. way. or :od0s sake what are you doing#2 I kept on creeping 1ust the same sam e "ut I looked at him h im over my shoulder. 2I0ve got out at last2 said I 2in spite of you and Jane. And I0ve pulled o) most of the paper so you can0t put me "ack#2 Now why should that man have fainted& 3ut he did and right across my path "y the wall so that I had to creep over him every time#
POINT OF VIEW @
As the main characters *ctional 1ournal 1ournal the story is told in strict *rst!person narration focusing e'clusively on her own thoughts feelings and perceptions. Everything that we learn or see in the story is *ltered through the narrators shifting consciousness and since the narrator goes insane over the course of the story her perception of reality is often completely at odds with that of the other characters.
TONE @
The narrator is in a state of an'iety for much of the story with ;ashes of sarcasm anger and desperationBa tone :ilman wants the reader to share.
TENSE @
The story stays close to the narrators narrators thoughts at the moment and is thus mostly in the present tense.
SETTING (TIE! @
7ate nineteenth century
SETTING (P"#CE! @
America in a large summer home -or possi"ly an old asylum primarily in one "edroom within the house.
P$OT#GONIST @
The narrator a young upper!middle!class woman who is su)ering from what is most likely postpartum depression and whose illness gives her insight into her -and other womens situation in society and in marriage even as the treatment she undergoes ro"s her of her sanity.
#%O$ CONF"ICT @
The struggle "etween the narrator and her hus"and who is also her doctor over the nature and treatment of her illness leads to a con;ict within the narrators mind "etween her growing understanding of her own powerlessness and her desire to repress this awareness.
$ISING #CTION @
The narrator decides to keep a secret 1ournal in which she descri"es her forced passivity and e'presses her dislike for her "edroom wallpaper a dislike that gradually intensi*es into o"session. o"session.
C"I#& @
The narrator narrator completely identi*es herself with the woman imprisoned in the wallpaper. F#""ING #CTION @
The narrator now completely identi*ed identi*ed with the woman in the wallpaperspends her time crawling on all fours around the room. (er hus"and discovers her and collapses in shock and she keeps crawling right over his fallen "ody. T'EES @
The su"ordination of women in marriage4 the importance of self! e'pression4 the evils of the C,esting 8ureD
OTIFS @
Irony4 the 1ournal
SYO"S @
The wallpaper
FO$ES'#)OWING @
The discovery of the teeth marks on the "edstead foreshadows foreshadows the narrators own insanity and suggests the narrator is not revealing everything a"out her "ehavior4 the *rst use of the word CcreepyD foreshadows the increasing desperation of the narrators situation and her own eventual Ccreeping.D
