The Yellow Wallpaper Summary

The Yellow Wall-Paper is a story about a woman that knows she is sick, mentally (Stetson, 647). Her husband, John is a physician and he believes she can get better over time but in order for her to get better they had to move to a house that was fairly secluded from the town (Stetson, 647). John ensured that she would only be able to stay in her room which he had picked for her at the top of the house where she would not be able to do anything other than sleep and look out her window (Stetson, 647). Immediately, the narrator felt that something was wrong with the house (Stetson, 647). She states “Why should it be so cheaply? And why have stood so long untenanted?” (Stetson, 647). As, she is going through her so called treatment, she writes to make the time go by and tell her story of what is going on (Stetson, 647).
Although, she does admit that writing makes her lose all of her energy, along with many other simple tasks because she is out of habit from her mental illness (Stetson, 647). The narrator and her husband have a lease in the house for three months and over the three months she begins to go crazy in her room (Stetson, 647). There is yellow wall-paper that she can’t
John came around causing her to quickly stop talking about the coloring of the wall-paper “There comes John, and I must put this away. – he hates to have me write word.” (Stetson, 649). When people come around or she becomes exhausted she would end her entries abruptly, one also saying “I have watched her sometimes away off in the open country, creeping as fast as a cloud shadow in a high wind.” (Stetson, 655). She talks about she thinks John and Jennie feel about the paper and quickly ends her sentence saying “Still, I don’t wonder he acts so, sleeping under this paper for three months. It only interests me, but I feel sure John and Jennie are secretly affected by it.” (Stetson,