An introduction to
“The Yellow
Wallpaper”
But….through time:
What Women Want: To be
loved, to be listened to, to be
desired, to be respected, to be
needed, to be trusted, and
sometimes, just to be held.
What Men Want: Tickets for
the World Series.
~ Dave Barry
Remind me…
what is realism?
Review Video Lesson 
"Every kind of
creature is
developed by the
exercise of its
functions. If
denied the
exercise of its
functions, it can
not develop in
the fullest
degree."
—Charlotte Perkins
Stetson (Gilman)
A Woman's Qualities
•The accepted reasoning was that the career for women
was marriage.
•To get ready for courtship and marriage a girl was
groomed like a racehorse.
•In addition to being able to sing, play an instrument and
speak a little French or Italian . . .
•The qualities a young Victorian gentlewoman needed,
were to be innocent, virtuous, biddable, dutiful and be
ignorant of intellectual opinion.
Whether married or single all
women were expected to be. . .
•weak and helpless,
•a fragile delicate flower incapable of making
decisions beyond selecting the menu and ensuring
her many children were taught moral values.
•ensure that the home was a place of comfort for her
husband and family from the stresses of industrial
society.
In an age that valued will, control, and hard work, women who
suffered from hysteria were described as weak, undisciplined,
impressionable, flighty, self-indulgent, narcissistic, and childish.
Many 19th century doctors felt that women were emotionally
unstable by their very nature. The female nervous system was
more sensitive than a man’s, they claimed. Some doctors believed
that women had thinner blood than men, which contributed to their
nervousness. Other causes of hysteria were thought to be
menstrual pain, uterine tumors, vaginal infections, and sterility. A
woman’s anatomy, it seems, was enough to predispose her to
hysteria. Even the word hysteria comes from the Greek word for
the uterus.
A woman was to . . .
•bear a large family and maintain a smooth
family atmosphere where a man need not
bother himself about domestic matters.
•He assumed his house would run smoothly so
he could get on with making money.
Social Differences Between Classes of Women
The Rich:
A wealthy wife was supposed to spend
her time reading, sewing, receiving
guests, going visiting, letter writing,
seeing to the servants and dressing for
the part as her husband's social
representative.
The Rich:
A wealthy woman's day
was governed by etiquette
rules that encumbered her
with up to six wardrobe
changes a day and the
needs varied over three
seasons a year. A lady
changed through a wide
range of clothing as
occasion dictated.
The Rich:
There was morning and mourning dress,
walking dress, town dress, visiting dress,
receiving visitors dress, traveling dress, shooting
dress, golf dress, seaside dress, races dress,
concert dress, opera dress, dinner and ball
dress.
BASIC SOCIAL RULES FOR LADIES
ALWAYS
•Graciously accept gentlemanly offers of assistance
•Wear gloves on the street, at church & other formal occasions, except
when eating or drinking
NEVER
•Refer to another adult by his or her first name in public
•Grab your hoops or lift your skirts higher than is absolutely necessary to
go up stairs
•Lift your skirts up onto a chair or stool, etc.
•Sit with your legs crossed (except at the ankles if necessary for comfort
or habit)
•Lift your skirts up onto the seat of your chair when sitting down (Wait
for, or if necessary, ask for assistance when sitting down at a table or on a
small light chair)
But wait . . . .
BASIC There
are still rules for . . .
•Ballroom Dancing
•The Dining Room
•Conversation
•Funerals
•Christenings
•Neighborhood Customs
•Introductions
•Formal Correspondence
•Clubs and Club Etiquette
•Traveling Etiquette
•The Clothes of a Lady
•Telephoning, Smoking, and Out-In-Company manners . . . .
Guys treated the ladies like precious little flowers . . .
BASIC SOCIAL RULES FOR GENTLEMEN
•Stand up when a lady enters a room
•Stand up when a lady stands
•Offer a lady your seat if no others are available
•Assist a lady with her chair when she sits down or stands, especially
when at a table or when the chairs are small and light
•Retrieve dropped items for a lady
•Open doors for a lady
•Help a lady with her coat, cloak, shawl, etc.
•Offer to bring a lady refreshments if they are available
•Offer your arm to escort a lady (with whom you are acquainted) into or
out of a building or a room at all social events, and whenever walking
on uneven ground
•Remove your hat when entering a building
•Lift your hat to a lady when she greets you in public (Merely touching the
brim or a slight "tip" of the hat was very rude)
“The Yellow Wallpaper”
by Charlotte Perkins Gilman
No excellent soul is exempt
from a mixture of madness.
- Aristotle
“It [“The Yellow Wallpaper”] was not
intended to drive people crazy, but to
save people from being driven crazy,
and it worked.”
- CPG
Why I Wrote “The Yellow Wallpaper”
Many and many a reader has asked that. When the story first came out,
in the New England Magazine about 1891, a Boston physician made
protest in The Transcript. Such a story ought not to be written, he said; it
was enough to drive anyone mad to read it.
Another physician, in Kansas I think, wrote to say that it was the best
description of incipient insanity he had ever seen, and begging my pardon
had I been there?
Now the story of the story is this:
Why I Wrote “The Yellow Wallpaper”
For many years I suffered from a severe and continuous nervous
breakdown tending to melancholia and beyond. During about the third
year of this trouble I went, in devout faith and some faint stir of hope, to a
noted specialist in nervous diseases, the best known in the country. This
wise man put me to bed and applied the rest cure, to which a still-good
physique responded so promptly that he concluded there was nothing
much the matter with me, and sent me home with solemn advice to "live as
domestic life as far as possible," to "have but two hours' intellectual life a
day," and "never to touch pen, or pencil again" as long as I lived. This was
in 1887.
Why I Wrote “The Yellow Wallpaper”
I went home and obeyed those directions for some three months, and came
so near the borderline of utter mental ruin that I could see over.
Then, using the remnants of intelligence that remained, and helped by a
wise friend, I cast the noted specialist's advice to the winds and went to
work again work, the normal life of every human being; work, in which is
joy and growth and service, without which one is a pauper and a parasite
ultimately recovering some measure of power.
Why I Wrote “The Yellow Wallpaper”
Being naturally moved to rejoicing by this narrow escape, I wrote, "The
Yellow Wallpaper," with its embellishments and additions, to carry out
the ideal (I never had hallucinations or objections to my mural
decorations) and sent a copy to the physician who so nearly drove me
mad. He never acknowledged it.
The little book is valued by alienists (psychiatrists) and as a good
specimen of one kind of literature. It has, to my knowledge, saved one
woman from a similar fate so terrifying her family that they let her out
into normal activity and she recovered.
Why I Wrote “The Yellow Wallpaper”
But the best result is this. Many years later I was told that the great
specialist had admitted to friends of his that he had altered his treatment of
neurasthenia since reading "The Yellow Wallpaper."
It was not intended to drive people crazy, but to save people from begin
driven crazy, and it worked.
Questions:
1. Describe the basic situation that the narrator
finds herself in at the beginning of the story.
Use textual evidence for support.
2. Discuss John’s attitude and behavior towards
his wife, especially in terms of her illness. In the
course of thinking about this issue, consider the
symbolism of the “nursery.”
3. Identify some of the ways (at least 3) in which
the conflict between the narrator and her
husband are established. Use specific textual
quotes in your response.
Questions:
4. Discuss the general nature of the narrator’s
feelings toward her husband throughout the
story. Support using textual evidence.
5. What clues suggest that the woman in the
story is not an entirely “reliable” narrator?
Use textual evidence for support. Is there
any irony to this fact?
6. Discuss the symbolism of the following:
summer residence/house, greenhouses, her
journal, and the bars on the windows
upstairs.
Questions:
7. Consider the multiple functions that the
wallpaper plays in the story. Also, does
the wallpaper stay the same throughout
the story, or does it change? Explain.
8. Who is the figure in the wallpaper?
Defend your reasoning using textual
evidence.
9. What is the principle social institution
against which the narrator of the story
struggles?
Questions:
10.In what ways might the ending of the story be
seen as both a victory and a defeat for the
narrator? In what ways is her situation both
similar to and different from that of the creeping
woman in the wallpaper?
11.How does this piece show aspects of realism?
12. What is the writing style of the author? How
does the writing style change as the mental state
of the woman changes? Why would Gilman do
this?
13. What is her tone throughout the selection?
How does it all tie together?
Write a paragraph (9-11 academic sentences)
synthesizing Gilman’s Bio. (link on Video Lesson), “Why I
Wrote ‘The Yellow Wallpaper,’” Weir Mitchell link, and the
Realism Video Lesson to comment on the essential
question: How have women’s thoughts, values, and
oppression 100+ years ago affected present gender roles?
Use textual evidence for support.
Turn in ONE assignment per group (make sure ALL group
members’ names are on document) to turnitin.com. +36 c/p