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Short Summary
The narrator and her physician husband, John, have rented a mansion for the summer so she can recuperate from neurasthenia. She rests in a former nursery room and is forbidden from working or writing. The spacious, sunlit room has yellow wallpaper - stripped off in two places - with a hideous, chaotic pattern. Two weeks later, the narrator's condition worsens; fortunately, their nanny, Mary, can take care of their baby, and John's sister, Jennie, is a perfect housekeeper. The narrator's irritation with the wallpaper grows; it sometimes looks like a figure is stuck in the pattern. The narrator grows more anxious and depressed. The wallpaper provides her only stimulation as she studies its confusing patterns. The image of a woman stooping down and "creeping" (crawling) around clarifies each day. John denies the narrator's request to leave the house, and she does not open up to him about the wallpaper. By moonlight, she can see very clearly in the wallpaper the figure of a woman behind bars. The narrator grows paranoid that John and Jennie are interested in the wallpaper, too. The narrator's health improves as her interest in the wallpaper deepens. She thinks the "yellow smell" of the wallpaper has spread over the house. At night, the woman - or possibly many women - in the wallpaper shakes the bars in the pattern as she tries to break through them. But the pattern has strangled the heads of many women who have tried to get through. The narrator believes she has seen the woman creeping about outside surreptitiously in the sunlight. The narrator intends to peel off the wallpaper before she leaves the house in two days. At night, the narrator helps the shaking woman in the wallpaper by peeling off the wallpaper halfway around the room. The next day, Jennie is mildly shocked, but understands the desire to peel off the ugly wallpaper. The next night, the narrator locks her room and continues stripping the wallpaper. She hears shrieks within the wallpaper as she tears it off. She contemplates jumping out of a window, but the bars prevent that; besides, many women creep about outside. The narrator creeps around the room. John eventually gets into the room. The narrator tells him she has peeled off most of the wallpaper, and now no one can put her back inside. John faints, and the narrator continues creeping around the room over him.
ClassicNote on The Yellow Wallpaper
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