Thesis Statement: In the story, “The Yellow Wallpaper,” by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, the plot is written in first person. The unnamed narrator, through her depression and illness feels trapped in her life being locked in a room with this yellow wallpaper. After tearing off the wallpaper and seeing the woman behind the design escape she too has the epiphany that she is also free.
I. Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s depression and treatment influenced her writing.
A. Charlotte Gilman endured a rough childhood.
B. Her married life and her child have influenced her writing.
C. She suffered from severe post-partum depression after the birth of her daughter.
II. The narrator and protagonist of “The Yellow Wallpaper,” reveals parts of her own life in this story.
A. She suffers from a mental illness, and she beings to turn mad.
B. Gilman expressed her illness but the husband dismissed what she was saying.
III. The narrator and her husband move into a country house for the summer.
A. The narrator discusses her husband John and how he is the reason that she has not gotten better.
B. The narrator, Jane, discusses her husband John and her sister in law Jennie and what they do for her.
IV. John believes that the best way to cure his wife is with bed rest, for which he keeps her locked up in the room.
A. We learn more about the “rest cure,” and explain how it was used in Gilman’s life as well as in “The Yellow Wallpaper.”
B. Since the woman in the story is on bed rest, she is bored often so she becomes obsessed with the wall paper.
V. There are many symbols in “The Yellow Wallpaper,” but the most important seems to be the yellow wallpaper itself.
A. Critics perceive the symbols in the story, “The Yellow Wallpaper.”
B. The narrator believes there is a woman trapped behind the wallpaper.
VI. Charlotte Perkins Gilman wrote “The Yellow Wallpaper,” in hopes of, “saving people from being driven crazy,” (Rena Korb/Short Stories