The Yellow Wallpaper

Author Charlotte Perkins Gilman (1860-1935) mostly concentrated on writing non-fiction, magazine articles, poetry, and social theory. Her most famous work is a short story titled “The Yellow Wallpaper”, originally published in The New England Magazine in 1892. In 2015, Stephen King stated that the story terrified him. I have read numerous references to the work from influential writers citing it as an influence on their writing. Over the years I've never bothered to give it a whirl. Until today.

“The Yellow Wallpaper” is an epistolary story presented through journal entries that are narrated by the unnamed main character. For simplicity, I'll just refer to her as Jane. After giving birth to her baby, Jane descends into postpartum depression. In this Victorian age the best cure was thought to be extended rest. Jane's husband John rents a mansion for the summer in hopes this will cure her of her psychosis. 

Oddly, when the two arrive, alongside a housekeeper and John's sister Jennie, the narrator says that she is confined to a spacious upstairs nursery. Her descriptions of the room, which change over time, dominate the bulk of the narrative. Jane describes the living space as having metal rings in the walls, a floor that seems to have claw marks in it, barred windows, and a bed bolted to the floor. Seems suspicious.

The focus of course is the yellow wallpaper. Jane begins to see patterns and designs on the walls. Over the course of many days she believes the patterns are bending and being reshaped into new forms by a woman crawling inside the wall.

Needless to say “The Yellow Wallpaper” is disturbing. After the story's publication the author stated that her writing wasn't intended to drive people crazy, but to save people from being driven crazy. Gilman's motivation to write the story stems from her own mental anguish through postnatal depression and the treatment involved.

From the perspective of a horror or mystery fan, the story is wildly entertaining in its abstract style and open interpretation. No one really can provide a definitive answer on who the narrator is, if her baby is indeed alive, and if she is really in a summer home or a sanitarium. The possibilities are endless which is a testament to the story's secretive storytelling and the legacy it carries. Recommended.