The Yellow Wall-Paper

A lady is advised to spend the summer at an ancient colonial home after her husband, a physician, diagnoses her with a "temporary nervous depression—a slight hysterical tendency" after the birth of her kid. She spends her days in the old nursery of the home, complete with barred windows, a damaged floor, and peeling yellow wallpaper, and is forbidden from performing any type of labor.

The lady writes about her increasing infatuation with the "horrid" wallpaper in a personal notebook. In the moonlight, its peculiar pattern changes, exposing what seems to be a human form. The lady decides to unravel the wallpaper's secret as she has nothing better to do. But instead of finding the truth, her search plunges her into the depths of insanity.

The Yellow Wallpaper, a critique of patriarchy, deftly examines the deliberate marginalization, severe misinterpretation, and subjugation of women in late nineteenth-century society.

first appeared in The New England Magazine in January 1892.

Excerpt: From another, I have a beautiful view of the bay and the estate's small, private pier. There is a lovely, shaded road that leads from the home down there. I constantly imagine that I see people strolling down these many roads and arbors, but John has warned me not to let my imagination get the better of me. He tells me that my creative ability and storytelling habit combined with my nervous weakness would inevitably result in a variety of irrational fantasies and that I should use common sense and willpower to restrain the urge. I try, then.