Monday, July 12, 2010

The Yellow Wallpaper ~ Charlotte Perkins Gilman

Gilman chronicles the descent into madness of a young mother obviously suffering post natal depression which was not recognized as such in Victorian times.


Installed in a room papered with yellow wallpaper where a madwoman was once kept, the delicate young mother spends her time tracing the pattern of the wallpaper with her eyes, making out shapes and trying to find a sequence to it.

She notices that the colour of the ‘hideous paper’ changes when the light changes and she imagines that she can see a faint figure behind it, shaking the pattern, wanting to get out. The hysteria that builds up to the finale is spine tingling.

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