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The Yellow Wallpaper
In the decades since the long-lost text of "The Yellow Wall-Paper" was rediscovered and reprinted by The Feminist Press, Charlotte Perkins Gilman's classic narrative of confinement and madness has become essential to the canon of North American literature. First published in 1892, "The Yellow Wall-Paper" is written as the secret journal of a woman who, failing to relish the joys of marriage and motherhood, is sentenced to a country rest cure to remedy her "nervous condition" - which is actually postpartum depression. Though she longs to write, her husband and doctor forbid it, prescribing instead complete passivity. Locked in her bedroom, the heroine creates a reality of her own beyond the hypnotic pattern of the faded yellow wallpaper - a pattern that has come to symbolize her own imprisonment. Narrated with superb psychological and dramatic precision, "The Yellow Wall-Paper" stands out not only for the imaginative authenticity with which it depicts one woman's descent into insanity, but also for the power of its testimony to the importance of freedom and self-empowerment for women.
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Community Reviews
4.5/5
In The Yellow Wallpaper the narrator, who has been confined to strict rest to cure her "nervousness", finds herself obsessed with the yellow wallpaper in her room. First time reading this tale and I understand why it is such a well known and liked classic. You can really feel the frustration of the narrator as well as the crisis they're going through. It's also quite easy to understand the themes of this tale wiithout being spoon feed by the author. I felt so frustrated with how the narrator was treated by the men around her, it's awful when you learn that the same thing happened to the author. This one is a 5/5 for me.
The edition also contains two other stories by the same author. In The Rocking Chair a pair of friends rent rooms in a house after witnessing a mysterious young woman in one of the windows sitting in a rocking chair. The friends are haunted by this apparition that they only get small glimpses of, putting a strain on their relationship. I did not care much for this one to be honest, it wasn't bad just not something I enjoyed. 3.5/5
The last tale is Old Water. In it a poet grows obsessed with the daughter of a friend and tries to persue her to no avail. This one stressed me out. I think any woman has come across men like this poet and been persued simply for existing. I really liked the ending of this one. 4/5
There are things in that paper that nobody knows but me, or ever will.
In The Yellow Wallpaper the narrator, who has been confined to strict rest to cure her "nervousness", finds herself obsessed with the yellow wallpaper in her room. First time reading this tale and I understand why it is such a well known and liked classic. You can really feel the frustration of the narrator as well as the crisis they're going through. It's also quite easy to understand the themes of this tale wiithout being spoon feed by the author. I felt so frustrated with how the narrator was treated by the men around her, it's awful when you learn that the same thing happened to the author. This one is a 5/5 for me.
The edition also contains two other stories by the same author. In The Rocking Chair a pair of friends rent rooms in a house after witnessing a mysterious young woman in one of the windows sitting in a rocking chair. The friends are haunted by this apparition that they only get small glimpses of, putting a strain on their relationship. I did not care much for this one to be honest, it wasn't bad just not something I enjoyed. 3.5/5
The last tale is Old Water. In it a poet grows obsessed with the daughter of a friend and tries to persue her to no avail. This one stressed me out. I think any woman has come across men like this poet and been persued simply for existing. I really liked the ending of this one. 4/5
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