The Yellow Wallpaper

by Charlotte Perkins Gilman

19th CenturyFiction
6,085 words1 chapter~25 min read
Start Reading

A woman confined to her bedroom during a "rest cure" becomes obsessed with the room's yellow wallpaper in this haunting 19th-century fiction exploring mental health and women's autonomy. Gilman's psychological narrative reveals how isolation and medical paternalism can destroy the mind they claim to heal.

Opening lines

It is very seldom that mere ordinary people like John and myself secure ancestral halls for the summer. A colonial mansion, a hereditary estate, I would say a haunted house, and reach the height of romantic felicity—but that would be asking too much of fate! Still I will proudly declare that there is something queer about it.
Continue reading →

19th Century Fiction

Browse all Fiction · 19th Century works