Yellow Wallpaper lit and quote analysis 1 
Analysis Questions - Interpret and Infer
1. What is important about the title, “The Yellow Wallpaper”?
2. Could the wallpaper have been any other color? How would a change in color have changed the story? How does the color "yellow" affect you? Do you like (or dislike) it? What are the psychological implications of the color "yellow"? How would a different color change the story?
3. How does the narrator's description of the wallpaper change over time? How is the wallpaper representative of the domestic sphere?
4. Could the story have taken place in a different place (or at a different time)? Why does the narrator live in a "colonial mansion"? What does the setting mean? Is it important?
5. Why does Charlotte Perkins Gilman change the point of view? Is it an effective technique?
6. Why does the narrator say: "what can one do?"? How does that statement represent her state of mind?
7. Why do you think Charlotte Perkins Gilman wrote “The Yellow Wallpaper”? Historically, the story was based on personal experience (autobiographical)--how effectively does Gilman employ the events of her life to create this work of literature?
8. What are the conflicts in “The Yellow Wallpaper”? What types of conflict (physical, moral, intellectual, or emotional) did you notice? Is the conflict resolved?
9. How does Charlotte Perkins Gilman reveal character in “The Yellow Wallpaper”?
Quote Analysis – Explain what each quote means and the significance to the overall story.
1. "The color is repellent, almost revolting: a smouldering unclean yellow, strangely faded by the slow-turning sunlight.”
2. "This wallpaper has a kind of sub-pattern in a different shade, a particularly irritating one, for you can only see it in certain lights, and not clearly then."
3. "I'm getting really fond of the room in spite of the wallpaper. Perhaps because of the wallpaper."
4. "There are things in that wallpaper that nobody knows about but me, or ever will."
"You think you have mastered it, but just as you
1. What is important about the title, “The Yellow Wallpaper”?
2. Could the wallpaper have been any other color? How would a change in color have changed the story? How does the color "yellow" affect you? Do you like (or dislike) it? What are the psychological implications of the color "yellow"? How would a different color change the story?
3. How does the narrator's description of the wallpaper change over time? How is the wallpaper representative of the domestic sphere?
4. Could the story have taken place in a different place (or at a different time)? Why does the narrator live in a "colonial mansion"? What does the setting mean? Is it important?
5. Why does Charlotte Perkins Gilman change the point of view? Is it an effective technique?
6. Why does the narrator say: "what can one do?"? How does that statement represent her state of mind?
7. Why do you think Charlotte Perkins Gilman wrote “The Yellow Wallpaper”? Historically, the story was based on personal experience (autobiographical)--how effectively does Gilman employ the events of her life to create this work of literature?
8. What are the conflicts in “The Yellow Wallpaper”? What types of conflict (physical, moral, intellectual, or emotional) did you notice? Is the conflict resolved?
9. How does Charlotte Perkins Gilman reveal character in “The Yellow Wallpaper”?
Quote Analysis – Explain what each quote means and the significance to the overall story.
1. "The color is repellent, almost revolting: a smouldering unclean yellow, strangely faded by the slow-turning sunlight.”
2. "This wallpaper has a kind of sub-pattern in a different shade, a particularly irritating one, for you can only see it in certain lights, and not clearly then."
3. "I'm getting really fond of the room in spite of the wallpaper. Perhaps because of the wallpaper."
4. "There are things in that wallpaper that nobody knows about but me, or ever will."
"You think you have mastered it, but just as you