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The American Tradition in Literature, Volume 1 Book Cover
The American Tradition in Literature, Volume 1, 10/e
George Perkins, Eastern Michigan University
Barbara Perkins, University of Toledo-Toledo


Orientation

"The Yellow Wallpaper" is written in a dramatic monologue, featuring a woman who suffers from depression and an evolving hysteria. Removed by her husband, John, a physician, to a summerhouse in the countryside, the woman records her experiences and observations each day while falling deeper and deeper into schizophrenia. In her imagination, she conjures the figure of a woman who resides behind a patch of torn, yellow wallpaper in her bedroom. Little by little she comes to identify with the figure who creeps out from behind the wallpaper, around her room, and out into the grounds surrounding the house.