yellow wallpaper extended essay

128 The Yellow Wallpaper Essay Prompts, Topics & Thesis Ideas

Looking for The Yellow Wallpaper essay topics? The most famous short story by Charlotte Perkins Gilman in definitely worth writing about!

• 🔝 Best Essay Topics
• 🟡 Essay Questions
• 💡 Thesis Ideas
• 🏆 Essay Examples & Titles
• ⚖️ Argumentative Essay Topics
• 📒 Essay Prompts
• 🔬Literary Analysis Essay Topics
• 🎭 Character Analysis Essay Topics
• 🌻 Themes Essay Topics

In your essay on The Yellow Wallpaper , you might want to make a character or theme analysis. The key themes of the story are freedom of expression, gender roles and feminism, and mental illness. Another idea is to write an argumentative essay on the story’s historical context.

Find here all you might need to write a paper on Gilman’s short story. The Yellow Wallpaper essay prompts, titles, writing tips, and Yellow Wallpaper essay examples.

🔝 The Yellow Wallpaper Essay Topics — Best Selection

• The Yellow Wallpaper
• Feminist Perspective on “The Yellow Wallpaper”
• Unreliable Narrator in Gilman’s The Yellow Wallpaper
• Comparing ‘The Story of an Hour’ and ‘The Yellow Wallpaper’ Essay
• Symbolism in “The Yellow Wallpaper” by Charlotte Perkins Gilman
• Psychology in Gilman’s “The Yellow Wallpaper”
• Gender Roles in the 19th Century Society: Charlotte Gilman’s The Yellow Wallpaper
• Gilman’s ‘The Yellow Wallpaper’: Point of View
• Symbols in “The Yellow Wallpaper” by C. P. Gilman
• Family Relationships in Gilman’s The Yellow Wallpaper

🟡 The Yellow Wallpaper Essay Questions

• Is the Narrator in The Yellow Wallpaper reliable? The narrator of the story has mental health issues. Her slide into madness happens in the middle of the story and speed up at the end. Examine her reliability in the very beginning of the story.
• Why doesn’t the main character have a name? Through the anonymity, the author might have wanted to show the readers that this is not an isolated event. Anyone who lived in the Victorian era could be the narrator and her husband.
• How is the Victorian-era medicine represented in The Yellow Wallpaper ? To answer this question, you should research how patients were treated in the Victorian era. As it was already mentioned above, anyone could be in the narrator and her husband’s place.
• How does The Yellow Wallpaper promote self-expression? Being unable to do the things you love is a frustrating thing. The narrator states a few times how much she enjoys writing but isn’t allowed to do that. Inability to express herself led to her isolation and her madness. In your essay, examine why is self-expression is vital to everyone. You can also investigate whether the narrator uses the wallpaper as a “paper” to write on. Can it be some self-expression? Think about it when you will write your thesis statement.
• How are gender roles represented in The Yellow Wallpaper ? You can find a lot of examples to support The Yellow Wallpaper essay thesis on subordination. Here are some of them: the narrator stays in the room with the yellow wallpaper, although, she doesn’t want to stay there. Her husband does not allow her to stay in one of the others. He sets plenty of rules she must follow.
• How do madness and creativity influence each other? You can use the idea that the inability to realize creative needs will lead to madness. You can compare and contrast the lives of many famous artists and writers’ destiny whose lives ended tragically when they were unable to express their ideas through creativity. Are all genius people mad?

💡 The Yellow Wallpaper Thesis Ideas

Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s story “The Yellow Wallpaper” offers some great ideas for college and high school students to work with. Here are examples of thesis statements you can use as the foundation for your paper on this literary work.

Feminist Critique of The Yellow Wallpaper: Thesis Statement

Your paper on this subject can review Gilman’s short work as a commentary on the state of women in the late 1800s and the author’s struggle to live in a patriarchal society.

Here’s a thesis example you can use:

Jane’s physical and mental isolation mirrors women’s imprisonment and subjugation by men. This essay will showcase how “The Yellow Wallpaper” reveals 19th-century norms and their influence on women’s mental health.

The Yellow Wallpaper Thesis on Historical Context

“The Yellow Wallpaper” describes the circumstances in which women lived at the time the novel was composed. Many of its elements came from Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s personal life, making the work semiautobiographical. You can delve into this topic, and here’s a thesis statement to use as a starting point:

This paper will evaluate the main character’s encounter with enforced bed rest, which was greatly inspired by the author’s personal experience.

Symbolism Thesis Statement for The Yellow Wallpaper

Gilman employs symbolism to depict the role of women in the societal hierarchy and how men fail to acknowledge their mental state and possible illnesses. The yellow wallpaper and the patterns Jane sees also embody her growing insanity. If you wish to focus on this topic, consider using a thesis like this:

This essay dives deep into the short story’s symbols and how Gilman employed them to draw attention to the state of women in the 19th century.

Psychological Analysis Thesis for The Yellow Wallpaper

Gilman’s work is rich in psychological themes. Isolation, psychosis, and hallucinations keep the chained Jane in a disrupted state of mind her husband seems oblivious to. In your essay, you can review this story from a psychoanalytic criticism theory. Here’s an illustrative thesis statement:

This paper will interpret Gilman’s “The Yellow Wallpaper” from the lens of psychoanalysis to demonstrate how the author used the story as an outlet for her own experience.

The Yellow Wallpaper Thesis on Narrative Style

Since Gilman’s work tells the story from the position of a mentally unstable person, the narration becomes hard to follow. The narrator gets unreliable, and it’s impossible to understand which events happened and which were a mere figment of Jane’s imagination.

Check out a thesis example for your essay on this theme:

This paper determines whether the audience of “The Yellow Wallpaper” can rely on the narrator’s words or if she’s totally lost in delusion.

🏆 The Yellow Wallpaper Essay Examples & Titles

• A Rose for Emily and The Yellow Wallpaper: Compare & Contrast That is one of the main dangers that people should be aware of. This is one of the main points that can be made.
• Mental Illness as a Theme of The Yellow Wallpaper As it appears from the novel, the reason why the narrator and her husband John decided to spend their summer vacation in a secluded mansion is that this proved beneficial to the narrator’s mental condition.
• Narrator’s Changing Character in “The Yellow Wallpaper” The story thus portrays the transformative reading potential in that had the narrator failed to realize that the reading has the potential to transform her. The yellow paper helped to transform the narrator in that […]
• Madness in “The Yellow Wallpaper” Story by Gilman The source of the conflict and the main cause of the woman’s unfortunate fate is not so much the mental illness itself but, rather, the refusal to recognize it as such.
• Marriage in The Yellow Wallpaper She has failed to recognize that she is the driver of her own life, and blame should not be put on man. Therefore, she is not able to work her creativity and ends up drawing […]
• Gender Roles in The Yellow Wallpaper & Trifles The two texts; the short story ‘The Yellow Wallpaper’ by Charlotte Perkins and the play ‘Trifles’ by Susan Glaspell strategically illustrate this claim since they both aim at attracting the reader’s attention to the poor […]
• “The Yellow Wallpaper” by Gilman: Diary Form of Writing The context of the story and the extra attention to the peculiarities of the written language of the diary further complicate the interpretation of the story.
• “The Yellow Wallpaper” Short Story by Gilman In Gilman’s short story “The Yellow Wallpaper,” the unnamed female protagonist is instructed to rest in isolation and stillness in the large upper room of a remote country house that has bars on the windows […]
• Gilman’s “The Yellow Wallpaper” as a Gothic Horror Tale She does not, however, trust her own judgment, since, “If a physician of high standing, and one’s own husband, assures friends and relatives that there is really nothing the matter…what is one to do?
• Bradbury’s The Veldt & Gilman’s The Yellow Wallpaper At the beginning of the story we immediately know that something is wrong with the nursery, and we find out about the African Veldt and how it seems to be stuck in a rather wild […]
• Women’s Role in The Yellow Wallpaper, The Awakening, & The Revolt of Mother Sarah then decides to drop the matter because she knows that it is not her place to go against the wishes of her husband.
• Loneliness in The Yellow Wallpaper She is beginning to personify the wallpaper in her musings. To nearly the end, she is lucid about people’s roles in her life.
• “The Yellow Wallpaper” by Charlotte Perkins Gilman The value of the composition lies in the progressive moral it brought to the world of literature as well as social views, redirecting the social mind from the old patriarchal foundations to the recognition of […]
• Nineteenth-Century Women in “The Yellow Wallpaper” and “An Anarchist Looks at Life” These works shed light on the struggles of women in the late nineteenth century and emphasize the importance of continuing to advocate for gender equality and empowerment.
• Self-Expression in “The Yellow Wallpaper” by Gilman The core of the problem related to the protagonist’s health is undefined in the short story. Thus, as the protagonist decides to free the woman in the wallpaper at the end of the story, she […]
• Literary Criticism of The Yellow Wallpaper by Gilman When she is isolated in the room, she notices a shadow emerging from the wallpaper and creeping over the walls and floor.
• Psychological Analysis of Gilman’s The Yellow Wallpaper The article explores the impact of mental illness from the perspective of postpartum/ nervous depression in the woman. 1 7, Web.
• Chekhov’s “The Lady With the Little Dog” and Gilman’s “The Yellow Wallpaper” Malcolm’s magazine article named “The Kernel of Truth” supports the opinion that the explicit and intimate characters’ life description is the most interesting and significant part of the story.
• Charlotte Gilman’s “The Yellow Wallpaper” The main feature of this style is a sense of doom and often exaggeration to show the problems of ordinary people.
• Gilman’s “The Yellow Wallpaper” Story Analysis The magic of the story arises from the innovative transfer of the experience of insanity in the first-person storytelling, showing the evolution of the image of the wallpaper and indicating their symbolic significance and ending, […]
• “The Yellow Wallpaper” by Gilman and “My Last Duchess” by Browning The narrator soon found herself observing the patterns of the yellow wallpaper of the room she stayed in. Eventually, the narrator began to perform the same behavior she observed from the women in the wallpaper.
• Narrator’s Experience: “The Yellow Wallpaper” by Gilman The narrator is devastated by the fact that she is not allowed to write, as she is sure it would “relieve the press of ideas and rest” her.
• Interpreting “The Yellow Wallpaper” The theme and problem of woman’s rights looming over the society of that day is demonstrated as the main issue at the core of the story.
• “Yellow Wallpaper” – A Creepy Shade of Yellow A simultaneously heavy and light-hearted style of the writing is a significant part of the narrative, which demonstrates the sharp contrast between the perception of the main heroine and the rest of the characters.
• Chopin’s “The Story of an Hour”, Gilman’s “The Yellow Wallpaper”, and Walker’s “Everyday Use” It is remarkable that the language of The Story of An Hour speaks for the feelings of protagonist and the plot uncovering.

⚖️ The Yellow Wallpaper Argumentative Essay Topics

Get inspired by the following excellent ideas for your argumentative essay about “The Yellow Wallpaper.”

• Argue About the Efficiency and Ethics of the Rest Cure Treatment in the Novel.
• Examine the Critique of Women’s Confinement in “The Yellow Wallpaper.”
• The Symbolism of the Wallpaper as a Depiction of the Protagonist’s Mental State.
• Discuss the Use of Unreliable Narration in “The Yellow Wallpaper.”
• Argue How Much Gilman’s Life Inspired “The Yellow Wallpaper.”
• Analyze Jane’s Use of Writing as a Means of Escape and Self-Expression.
• Explore the Roles of Female Characters in the Story.
• The Themes of Oppression and Resistance in “The Yellow Wallpaper.”
• Explain How Jane’s Character Evolves Throughout the Plot.
• Establish How “The Yellow Wallpaper” Describes the Effects of Patriarchy.

📒 The Yellow Wallpaper Essay Prompts

• Analysis of the Gilman’s “Yellow Wallpaper” From the way she describes and interacts with the room, one can notice that she has a dislike and immense hatred towards the room she is confined in.
• “The Yellow Wallpaper” by Charlotte Perkins Gilman The way she describes the wallpaper is symbolic of the evolution of her psychological problem: she gets to see herself through the wallpaper.
• Conflict in ‘The Yellow Wallpaper’ by C. Perkins Gilman The topic chosen from the story for analyzing is ‘To what extent is the protagonist of the story you have chosen responsible for the conflict or predicament he or she faces’.
• ”The Story of an Hour” by Kate Chopin & ”The Yellow Wallpaper” by Charlotte Gilman: Comparing The characters of Louise Mallard in “The Story of an Hour” and the storyteller for “The Yellow Wallpaper” are representative of what the authors want to express about themselves and their current situation.
• Depression in “The Yellow Wallpaper” by Gillman The paper provides a discussion of the short story and analyses the theme of emotion and depression that the main character Stetson Gilman undergoes and her advent into insanity caused by the wrong treatment given […]
• Gender and Illness in Gilman’s “The Yellow Wallpaper” Additionally, the main form of psychological imprisonment was the character’s obedience to her husband who did not believe in her sickness and did not allow her to think that it was something more than a […]
• Female Mental Health in Gilman’s “The Yellow Wallpaper” The main role of a 19th-century woman was a loving nurturer, serving the needs of her family and obedient to her husband/father.
• “The Yellow Wallpaper” and The Laugh of the Medusa The topic of a woman’s voice being silenced by society and becoming heard in writing appears to be among the similar themes of the critical essay “The Laugh of the Medusa” by Cixous and the […]
• Postpartum Depression Analysis in “Yellow Wallpaper” In reality, postpartum depression is the disease that has to be treated with the help of specific medications and therapies that are appropriate for a patient.
• Stetson’s “The Yellow Wallpaper” Criticism Since the woman who narrates is alienated from the community and not allowed to work or be engaged in any other activity, she describes her inner thoughts and feelings, and that makes the whole story […]
• “The Yellow Wallpaper” a Story by Charlotte Perkins Gilman She tries to convince her husband John and one of her minders Jennie, to see the patterns she notices in the wallpaper of her upstairs room, which they, of course, cannot see: the narrator has […]
• “The Yellow Wallpaper” Story by Charlotte Gilman Temporary nervous depression, as termed by the husband, is a factor that makes the husband prohibits her from roaming in the rest of the house but only upstairs.
• Male Chauvinism in “The Yellow Wallpaper” by Charlotte Perkins Gilman As it appears from the novel, the reason why the narrator and her husband John decided to spend their summer vacation in a secluded mansion is that this was assumed to prove beneficial to the […]
• “The Yellow Wallpaper” a Novel by Charlotte Perkins Gilman Thus, the imagery, particularly the woman behind the wallpaper, is a metonymic representation of social boundaries that most women had to face at the time, and a very powerful one at that Gilman clearly knew […]
• “The Yellow Wallpaper” by Charlotte Perkins Gilman Literature Analysis The same way as the woman behind the wall comes out, she also comes out of her slavery, and this shows that women can obtain freedom from social oppression they are undergoing as depicted in […]
• Woman’s Mental Breakdown: “The Yellow Wallpaper” by Charlotte Perkins Gilman I tried to explain her that she got tired with her own thoughts and her melancholic mood is not a disease, but one of the peculiarities of her temperament and worldview.
• Prosperity and Social Justice The short story was also the subject of debate when it was first written because it failed to fit in any particular genre at the time.”The Yellow Wallpaper” was mostly considered a horror story when […]
• Charlotte Gilman’s The Yellow Wallpaper: Themes & Symbols The fact that the patient is the physician’s wife ought to portray a picture of mutual agreements and understandings rather than subjecting one’s decision to the other with a reason for care and protection.
• The Need for Change in Ragged Dick and The Yellow Wallpaper However, the two authors articulate the importance of such changes that are vital for the development of the personality and the entire society.
• Depression due to Repression in The Yellow Wallpaper By the end of the same century, the patriarchal view of women as ‘natural born housewives’ and the objects of men’s sexual desire, had lost the remains of its former validity.
• Feminism in The Yellow Wallpaper In an attempt to free her, she rips apart the wallpaper and locks herself in the bedroom. The husband locks her wife in a room because of his beliefs that she needed a rest break.
• Women Struggling From Their Fate She gets upset by the sad news of the death of a loved one but when she comes out of the room she seem to have already accepted the situation and adapting to the new […]
• Feminist Criticism in “The Story of an Hour” and “The Yellow Wallpaper” This is because she is the only one who knew the suffering she was undergoing in that marriage and that she did not always love her husband.
• Solitude as a Theme in The Yellow Wallpaper & A Rose for Emily She is an embodiment of a great breakthrough in the fact that she rediscovers her new energy and point of view.
• Role of Women in Society: Charlotte P. Gilman’s “The Yellow Wallpaper” From the very beginning, it becomes evident that the protagonist of the short story is oppressed and the oppression is depicted symbolically.

🔬 The Yellow Wallpaper: Literary Analysis Essay Topics

• Irony and Imagery in “The Yellow Wallpaper”
• The Significance of First-Person Narration in “The Yellow Wallpaper”
• The Window as a Symbol of “The Yellow Wallpaper”
• Color Symbolism in “The Yellow Wallpaper”
• Would “The Yellow Wallpaper” Be Different if Told from John’s Point of View?
• What Are the Meanings Behind the Color of the Wallpaper?
• Imagery and Allegory in “The Yellow Wallpaper”
• What Are the Examples of Irony in “The Yellow Wallpaper”?
• Gothic Elements in “The Yellow Wallpaper”
• “The Yellow Wallpaper”: Metaphor Analysis
• Setting Symbolism of “The Yellow Wallpaper” by Charlotte Perkins Gilman
• What Is the Style of “The Yellow Wallpaper”?
• What Instruments Does the Author Use to Create an Atmosphere of Suspense & Horror in “The Yellow Wallpaper”?
• What Does the Mysterious Figure Symbolize in “The Yellow Wallpaper”?
• Why Does the Description of the Wallpaper Change over Time?

🎭 The Yellow Wallpaper: Character Analysis Essay Topics

• What Is The Narrator’s Inner Conflict in “The Yellow Wallpaper”?
• Is John the Villain in “The Yellow Wallpaper”? Why or Why Not?
• Who Is to Blame for the Narrator’s Descent into Madness? Why?
• What Is the Significance of the Minor Female Characters in “The Yellow Wallpaper”?
• What Happens to the Narrator after the Story Ends?
• Who Is the Protagonist in “The Yellow Wallpaper”?
• John in “The Yellow Wallpaper”: Character Analysis
• Why Does the Narrator Remain Unnamed in the Story? What Does This Symbolize?
• What Is the Connection between the Narrator & the Woman behind the Wallpaper?
• How Does John Treat His Wife in “The Yellow Wallpaper”?
• Is the Narrator Reliable in “The Yellow Wallpaper”?
• Why Does John Faint at the End of “The Yellow Wallpaper”?
• Jane’s Depression in “The Yellow Wallpaper”
• What Does the Woman behind the Wallpaper Represent in “The Yellow Wallpaper”?

🌻 The Yellow Wallpaper: Themes Essay Topics

• “The Yellow Wallpaper”: Insanity as a Theme
• Postpartum Depression in “The Yellow Wallpaper” by Charlotte Perkins Gilman
• “The Yellow Wallpaper”: Women & Mental Illness
• Does “The Yellow Wallpaper” Have a Happy or Sad Ending?
• “The Yellow Wallpaper”: Feminist Critique
• “The Yellow Wallpaper”: Perception vs. Reality
• Freedom of Expression in “The Yellow Wallpaper”
• “The Yellow Wallpaper”: The Three Stages Towards Feminine Freedom
• “The Yellow Wallpaper” as a Feminist Story
• Creativity vs. Madness in “The Yellow Wallpaper”
• Marriage & Family as a Theme in “The Yellow Wallpaper”
• How Does “The Yellow Wallpaper” Present the Conflict Between Rationality & Creativity?
• Feminist Theory in “The Yellow Wallpaper”
• Feminist Criticism in Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s “The Yellow Wallpaper”
• Main Questions in “The Yellow Wallpaper”: Analysis Essay
• Social Surroundings and Interactions in “The Yellow Wallpaper”
• In What Ways Does the Wallpaper Embody the Theme of the Story?
• The Historical Context In Charlotte Gilman’s “The Yellow Wallpaper”
• Victorian Gender Roles in “The Yellow Wallpaper”
• “The Yellow Wallpaper” as an Autobiography
• Describe the Time Period When “The Yellow Wallpaper” Was Written
• What Was Gilman’s Intention When She Wrote “The Yellow Wallpaper”?
• Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Tell-Tale Heart” & Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s “The Yellow Wallpaper”: Mood Comparison
• Summary & Analysis
• Themes & Symbols
• Quotes Explained
• Questions & Answers
• Charlotte Perkins Gilman: Biography
• A Raisin in the Sun Essay Titles
• A Rose for Emily Research Topics
• The Bluest Eye Titles
• The Alchemist Questions
• Jane Eyre Ideas
• The Fall of the House of Usher Research Ideas
• The Story of an Hour Essay Ideas
• The Lottery Topics
• Chicago (A-D)
• Chicago (N-B)

IvyPanda. (2024, November 26). 128 The Yellow Wallpaper Essay Prompts, Topics & Thesis Ideas. https://ivypanda.com/essays/topic/the-yellow-wallpaper-essay-examples/

"128 The Yellow Wallpaper Essay Prompts, Topics & Thesis Ideas." IvyPanda , 26 Nov. 2024, ivypanda.com/essays/topic/the-yellow-wallpaper-essay-examples/.

IvyPanda . (2024) '128 The Yellow Wallpaper Essay Prompts, Topics & Thesis Ideas'. 26 November.

IvyPanda . 2024. "128 The Yellow Wallpaper Essay Prompts, Topics & Thesis Ideas." November 26, 2024. https://ivypanda.com/essays/topic/the-yellow-wallpaper-essay-examples/.

1. IvyPanda . "128 The Yellow Wallpaper Essay Prompts, Topics & Thesis Ideas." November 26, 2024. https://ivypanda.com/essays/topic/the-yellow-wallpaper-essay-examples/.

Bibliography

IvyPanda . "128 The Yellow Wallpaper Essay Prompts, Topics & Thesis Ideas." November 26, 2024. https://ivypanda.com/essays/topic/the-yellow-wallpaper-essay-examples/.

Home — Essay Samples — Literature — The Yellow Wallpaper — The Yellow Wallpaper: A Literary Exploration of Mental Health

The Yellow Wallpaper: a Literary Exploration of Mental Health

• Categories: Book Review Mental Health The Yellow Wallpaper

About this sample

Words: 741 |

Published: Dec 3, 2020

Words: 741 | Pages: 2 | 4 min read

Cite this Essay

To export a reference to this article please select a referencing style below:

Let us write you an essay from scratch

• 450+ experts on 30 subjects ready to help
• Custom essay delivered in as few as 3 hours

Get high-quality help

Dr. Heisenberg

Verified writer

• Expert in: Literature Nursing & Health

+ 120 experts online

By clicking “Check Writers’ Offers”, you agree to our terms of service and privacy policy . We’ll occasionally send you promo and account related email

No need to pay just yet!

Related Essays

3.5 pages / 1624 words

5.5 pages / 2521 words

2 pages / 871 words

1.5 pages / 674 words

Remember! This is just a sample.

You can get your custom paper by one of our expert writers.

121 writers online

Still can’t find what you need?

Browse our vast selection of original essay samples, each expertly formatted and styled

Related Essays on The Yellow Wallpaper

Charlotte Perkins Gilman's short story, "The Yellow Wallpaper," is a compelling exploration of the restrictive gender roles imposed on women in the late 19th century. Through the protagonist's descent into madness, Gilman [...]

The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman is a classic piece of literature that explores themes of mental health, gender roles, and the power dynamics within a marriage. One of the most striking aspects of the story is [...]

Charlotte Perkins Gilman's "The Yellow Wallpaper" is a captivating and thought-provoking short story that delves into the complexities of mental illness and the societal constraints placed upon women in the late 19th century. [...]

Charlotte Perkins Gilman's "The Yellow Wallpaper" is a haunting tale that delves into the mind of a woman suffering from postpartum depression. Throughout the story, the narrator becomes increasingly fixated on the wallpaper in [...]

Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s literary work ‘The Yellow Wallpaper’ is often considered as an important early work of American feminist literature which illustrates common social and physiological attitudes towards women during the [...]

Overview of "The Yellow Wallpaper" by Charlotte Perkins Gilman Theme of a woman restrained by her husband The use of first-person point of view to emphasize the woman's situation Presentation of the story as a [...]

Related Topics

By clicking “Send”, you agree to our Terms of service and Privacy statement . We will occasionally send you account related emails.

Where do you want us to send this sample?

By clicking “Continue”, you agree to our terms of service and privacy policy.

Be careful. This essay is not unique

This essay was donated by a student and is likely to have been used and submitted before

Download this Sample

Free samples may contain mistakes and not unique parts

Sorry, we could not paraphrase this essay. Our professional writers can rewrite it and get you a unique paper.

Please check your inbox.

We can write you a custom essay that will follow your exact instructions and meet the deadlines. Let's fix your grades together!

Get Your Personalized Essay in 3 Hours or Less!

We use cookies to personalyze your web-site experience. By continuing we’ll assume you board with our cookie policy .

• Instructions Followed To The Letter
• Deadlines Met At Every Stage
• Unique And Plagiarism Free

Presentations made painless

• Get Premium

109 The Yellow Wallpaper Essay Topic Ideas & Examples

Inside This Article

The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman is a classic piece of feminist literature that explores themes of mental illness, gender roles, and the oppression of women in the 19th century. If you're tasked with writing an essay on this iconic short story, you may be wondering where to start. To help you get the creative juices flowing, we've compiled a list of 109 The Yellow Wallpaper essay topic ideas and examples that you can use as inspiration for your own writing.

• Analyze the symbolism of the yellow wallpaper in the story.
• Discuss the theme of confinement and freedom in The Yellow Wallpaper.
• Explore the narrator's descent into madness throughout the story.
• Examine the role of gender in The Yellow Wallpaper.
• Compare and contrast the narrator's husband and the mysterious figure in the wallpaper.
• Discuss the significance of the nursery in the story.
• Analyze the relationship between the narrator and her husband.
• Explore the theme of power dynamics in The Yellow Wallpaper.
• Discuss the role of mental illness in the story.
• Examine the theme of isolation in The Yellow Wallpaper.
• Compare and contrast the narrator's experience with mental illness to modern-day understandings of mental health.
• Discuss the role of the female body in The Yellow Wallpaper.
• Analyze the narrator's relationship with her baby.
• Explore the significance of the house in the story.
• Discuss the theme of creativity and self-expression in The Yellow Wallpaper.
• Analyze the narrator's use of language and imagery in the story.
• Discuss the role of writing and storytelling in The Yellow Wallpaper.
• Explore the theme of identity in the story.
• Analyze the narrator's changing perception of the wallpaper throughout the story.
• Discuss the significance of the color yellow in The Yellow Wallpaper.
• Analyze the narrator's internal conflict between societal expectations and her own desires.
• Discuss the theme of agency and autonomy in The Yellow Wallpaper.
• Examine the role of the female gaze in the story.
• Analyze the narrator's relationship with the wallpaper and how it reflects her own mental state.
• Discuss the theme of resistance in The Yellow Wallpaper.
• Explore the theme of madness in the story.
• Analyze the role of the domestic sphere in The Yellow Wallpaper.
• Discuss the theme of motherhood in the story.
• Examine the narrator's relationship with her own body.
• Discuss the role of medicine and medical treatment in The Yellow Wallpaper.
• Analyze the significance of the ending of the story.
• Discuss the theme of self-discovery in The Yellow Wallpaper.
• Explore the theme of subversion in the story.
• Analyze the narrator's relationship with her own creativity.
• Discuss the theme of captivity in The Yellow Wallpaper.
• Examine the role of the narrator's sister-in-law in the story.
• Analyze the narrator's relationship with the wallpaper as a form of communication.
• Discuss the theme of domesticity in The Yellow Wallpaper.
• Explore the theme of agency and control in the story.
• Analyze the narrator's relationship with her own mental illness.
• Discuss the theme of confinement and liberation in The Yellow Wallpaper.
• Examine the narrator's relationship with the wallpaper as a form of artistic expression.
• Analyze the role of the male gaze in the story.
• Discuss the theme of self-destruction in The Yellow Wallpaper.
• Explore the theme of resistance and rebellion in the story.
• Analyze the narrator's relationship with her own body and physicality.
• Discuss the theme of female solidarity in The Yellow Wallpaper.
• Examine the role of the wallpaper as a symbol of the narrator's own psyche.
• Analyze the narrator's relationship with her husband as a form of control and manipulation.
• Discuss the theme of agency and empowerment in The Yellow Wallpaper.
• Explore the theme of confinement and escape in the story.
• Analyze the narrator's relationship with the wallpaper as a mirror of her own inner turmoil.
• Discuss the theme of domestic abuse in The Yellow Wallpaper.
• Examine the role of gaslighting in the story.
• Analyze the narrator's relationship with her own mental health.
• Discuss the theme of gender roles and expectations in The Yellow Wallpaper.
• Explore the theme of sisterhood and solidarity in the story.
• Analyze the narrator's relationship with the wallpaper as a form of resistance.
• Discuss the theme of repression and liberation in The Yellow Wallpaper.
• Examine the role of the nursery as a symbol of the narrator's own confinement.
• Analyze the narrator's relationship with her own creativity and artistic expression.
• Discuss the theme of control and submission in The Yellow Wallpaper.
• Explore the theme of femininity and womanhood in the story.
• Analyze the narrator's relationship with the wallpaper as a reflection of her own mental state.
• Discuss the theme of mental illness and stigma in The Yellow Wallpaper.
• Examine the role of the wallpaper as a symbol of the narrator's own imprisonment.
• Analyze the narrator's relationship with her husband as a form of emotional abuse.
• Discuss the theme of independence and autonomy in The Yellow Wallpaper.
• Explore the theme of mental health and self-care in the story.
• Analyze the narrator's relationship with her own body and physical appearance.
• Discuss the theme of confinement and release in The Yellow Wallpaper.
• Examine the role of the wallpaper as a symbol of the narrator's own mental anguish.
• Analyze the narrator's relationship with her own creativity and self-expression.
• Discuss the theme of patriarchy and misogyny in The Yellow Wallpaper.
• Explore the theme of repression and liberation in the story.
• Analyze the narrator's relationship with her husband as a reflection of societal gender norms.
• Discuss the theme of control and power dynamics in The Yellow Wallpaper.
• Examine the role of the wallpaper as a symbol of the narrator's own inner turmoil.
• Analyze the narrator's relationship with her own mental health and well-being.
• Analyze the narrator's relationship with the wallpaper as a form of resistance and rebellion.
• Discuss the theme of female agency and empowerment in The Yellow Wallpaper.
• Examine the role of the nursery as a symbol of the narrator's own confinement and captivity.
• Examine the role of the wallpaper as a symbol of the narrator's own imprisonment and entrapment.
• Analyze the narrator's relationship with her husband as a form of emotional abuse and manipulation.
• Examine the role of the wallpaper as a symbol of the narrator's own mental anguish and suffering.
• Analyze the narrator's relationship with her husband as a reflection of societal gender norms and expectations.
• Examine the role of the wallpaper as a symbol of the narrator's own inner turmoil and conflict.
• Analyze the narrator's relationship with the wallpaper as a form of resistance and rebellion against societal norms.
• Analyze the narrator's relationship with her own creativity and artistic expression in the story.

With these 109 The Yellow Wallpaper essay topic ideas and examples, you're sure to find something that sparks your interest and helps you write a compelling and thought-provoking essay on this timeless piece of literature. Good luck with your writing!

Want to research companies faster?

Instantly access industry insights

Let PitchGrade do this for me

Leverage powerful AI research capabilities

We will create your text and designs for you. Sit back and relax while we do the work.

Explore More Content

• Privacy Policy
• Terms of Service

© 2024 Pitchgrade

A Summary and Analysis of Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s ‘The Yellow Wallpaper’

By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University)

‘The Yellow Wallpaper’, an 1892 short story by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, has the structure and style of a diary. This is in keeping with what the female narrator tells us: that she can only write down her experiences when her husband John is not around, since he has forbidden her to write until she is well again, believing it will overexcite her.

Through a series of short instalments, we learn more about the narrator’s situation, and her treatment at the hands of her doctor husband and her sister-in-law.

To summarise the story, then: the narrator and her husband John, a doctor, have come to stay at a large country house. As the story develops, we realise that the woman’s husband has brought her to the house in order to try to cure her of her mental illness (he has told her that repairs are being carried out on their home, which is why they have had to relocate to a mansion).

His solution, or treatment, is effectively to lock her away from everyone – including her own family, except for him – and to forbid her anything that might excite her, such as writing. (She writes her account of what happens to her, and the effect it has on her, in secret, hiding her pen and paper when her husband or his sister come into the room.)

John’s suggested treatment for his wife also extends to relieving her of maternal duties: their baby is taken out of her hands and looked after by John’s sister, Jennie. Jennie also does all of the cooking and housework.

It becomes clear, as the story develops, that depriving the female narrator of anything to occupy her mind is making her mental illness worse, not better.

The narrator confides that she cannot even cry in her husband’s company, or when anyone else is present, because that will be interpreted as a sign that her condition is worsening – and her husband has promised (threatened?) to send her to another doctor, Weir Mitchell, if her condition doesn’t show signs of improving. And according to a female friend who has been treated by him, Weir Mitchell is like her husband and brother ‘only more so’ (i.e. stricter).

The narrator then outlines in detail how she sometimes sits for hours on end in her room, tracing the patterns in the yellow wallpaper. She then tells us she thinks she can see a woman ‘stooping down and creeping about behind that pattern.’ At this point, she changes her mind, and goes from being fond of the pattern in the yellow wallpaper to wishing she could go away from the place.

She tells John that she isn’t getting any better in this house and that she would like to leave, but he tells her she is looking healthier and that they cannot return home for another three weeks, until their lease is up and the ‘repairs’ at home have been completed.

Despondent, the narrator tells us how she is becoming more obsessed by the yellow wallpaper, especially at night when she is unable to sleep and so lies awake watching the pattern in the wallpaper, which she says resembles a fungus.

She starts to fear her husband. She becomes paranoid that her husband and sister-in-law, Jennie, are trying to decipher the pattern in the yellow wallpaper, and she becomes determined to beat them to it. (Jennie was actually checking the wallpaper because the thought it was staining their clothes; this is the reason she gives to the narrator when asked about it, anyway. However, the more likely reason is that she and John have noticed the narrator’s obsession with looking at the wallpaper, and are becoming concerned.)

Next, the narrator tells us she has noticed the strange smell of the wallpaper, and tells us she seriously considered burning down the house to try to solve the mystery of what she smell was. She concludes that it is simply ‘a yellow smell!’ We now realise that the narrator is losing her mind rather badly.

She becomes convinced that the ‘woman behind’ the yellow wallpaper is shaking it, thus moving the front pattern of the paper. She says she has seen this woman creeping about the grounds of the house during the day; she returns to behind the wallpaper at night.

The narrator then tells us that she believes John and Jennie have become ‘affected’ by the wallpaper – that they are losing their minds from being exposed to it. So the narrator begins stripping the yellow wallpaper from the walls, much to the consternation of Jennie. John has all of his wife’s things moved out of the room, ready for them to leave the house. While John is out, the narrator locks herself inside the now bare room and throws the key out the window, so she cannot be disturbed.

She has become convinced that there are many creeping women roaming the grounds of the house, all of them originating from behind the yellow wallpaper, and that she is one of them. The story ends with her husband banging on the door to be let in, fetching the key when she tells him it’s down by the front door mat, and bursting into the room – whereupon he faints, at the sight of his wife creeping around the room.

That concludes a summary of the ‘plot’ of ‘The Yellow Wallpaper’. But what does it all mean?

‘The Yellow Wallpaper’ begins by dangling the idea that what we are about to read is a haunted house story, a Gothic tale, a piece of horror. Why else, wonders the story’s female narrator, would the house be available so cheaply unless it was haunted? And why had it remained unoccupied for so long? This is how many haunted house tales begin.

And this will turn out to be true, in many ways – the story is often included in anthologies of horror fiction, and there is a ‘haunting’ of a kind going on in the story – but as ‘The Yellow Wallpaper’ develops we realise we’re reading something far more unsettling than a run-of-the-mill haunted house story, because the real ghosts and demons are either inside the narrator’s troubled mind or else her own husband and her sister-in-law.

Of course, these two things are linked. Because one of the ‘morals’ of ‘The Yellow Wallpaper’ – if ‘moral’ is not too strong a word to use of such a story – is that the husband’s treatment of his wife’s mental illness only succeeds in making her worse , rather than better, until her condition reaches the point where she is completely mad, suffering from hallucinations, delusions, and paranoia. So ‘The Yellow Wallpaper’ is a haunted house story … but the only ghosts are inside the narrator’s head.

‘The Yellow Wallpaper’ borrows familiar tropes from a Gothic horror story – it ends with the husband taking an axe to the bedroom door where his cowering wife is imprisoned – but the twist is that, by the end of the story, she has imprisoned herself in her deluded belief that she is protecting her husband from the ‘creeping women’ from behind the wallpaper, and he is prepared to beat down the door with an axe out of genuine concern for his sick wife, rather than to butcher her, in the style of Bluebeard or Jack Torrance.

Narrative Style

As we mentioned at the beginning of this analysis, ‘The Yellow Wallpaper’ has the structure and style of a diary. This is in keeping with what the female narrator tells us: that she can only write down her experiences when her husband John is not around. But it also has the effect of shifting the narrative tense: from the usual past tense to the more unusual present tense.

Only one year separates ‘The Yellow Wallpaper’ from George Egerton’s first volume of short stories , which made similarly pioneering use of present-tense narration in order to depict female consciousness.

The literary critic Ruth Robbins has made the argument that the past tense (or ‘perfect tense’) is unsuited to some modes of fiction because it offers the ‘perspective that leads to judgment’: because events have already occurred, we feel in a position to judge the characters involved.

Present-tense narration deters us from doing this so readily, for two reasons. First, we are thrown in amongst the events, experiencing them as they happen almost, so we feel complicit in them. Second, because things are still unfolding seemingly before our very eyes, we feel that to attempt to pass judgment on what’s happening would be too rash and premature: we don’t know for sure how things are going to play out yet.

Given that Gilman is writing about a mentally unstable woman being mistreated by her male husband (and therefore, given his profession, by the medical world too), her decision to plunge us headlong into the events of the story encourages us to listen to what the narrator is telling us before we attempt to pronounce on what’s going on.

The fact that ‘The Yellow Wallpaper’ is narrated in the first person, from the woman’s own perspective and in her own voice, is also a factor: the only access we have to her treatment (or mistreatment) and to her husband’s behaviour and personality is through her: what she tells us and how she tells it to us.

But there is another narrative advantage to this present-tense diary structure: we as readers are forced to appraise everything we are told by the narrator, and scrutinise it carefully, deciding whether we are being told the whole story or whether the narrator, in her nervous and unstable state, may not be seeing things as they really are.

A good example of this is when, having told us at length how she follows the patterns on the yellow wallpaper on the walls of her room, sometimes for hours on end, the narrator then tells us she is glad her baby doesn’t have to live in the same room, because someone as ‘impressionable’ as her child wouldn’t do well in such a room.

The dramatic irony which the narrator cannot see but which we, tragically, can, is that she is every bit as impressionable as a small child, and the yellow wallpaper – and, more broadly, her effective incarceration – is clearly having a deleterious effect on her mental health. (The story isn’t perfect: Gilman telegraphs the irony a little too strongly when, in the next breath, she has her narrator tell us, with misplaced confidence, ‘I can stand it so much easier than a baby, you see.’)

In the last analysis, ‘The Yellow Wallpaper’ is so unsettling because it plays with established Gothic horror conventions and then subverts them in order to expose the misguided medical practices used in an attempt to ‘treat’ or ‘cure’ women who are suffering from mental or nervous disorders. It has become a popular feminist text about the male mistreatment of women partly because the ‘villain’, the narrator’s husband John, is acting out of a genuine (if hubristic) belief that he knows what’s best for her.

The whole field of nineteenth-century patriarchal society and the way it treats women thus comes under scrutiny, in a story that is all the more powerful for refusing to preach, even while it lets one such mistreated woman speak for herself.

Discover more from Interesting Literature

Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.

Type your email…

10 thoughts on “A Summary and Analysis of Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s ‘The Yellow Wallpaper’”

I absolutely loved this story. read it a few times in a row when I first crossed paths with it a few years ago –

“The Yellow Wallpaper” remains one of the most disturbing books I’ve ever read. Excellent analysis!

Fantastic book.

I cringe every time this story appears on a reading list or in a curriculum textbook. It’s almost hysterical in tone and quite disturbing in how overstated the “abuse” of the wife is supposed to be. It’s right up there with “The Awakening” as feminist literature that hinders, instead of promoting, the dilemma of 19th century women.

How is it overstated?

To witness the woman’s unraveling and how ignored she is, to me, a profound statement how people with emotional distress are not treated with respect.

• Pingback: ‘The Yellow Wallpaper’: A Summary of Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s Story – Interesting Literature

Terrific analysis. Gothic fiction is always open to many forms of reading and particularly for feminist reading – as openly presented by Angela Carter’ neo-gothic stories (which I would love to read your analyses of one day Oliver!). ‘the Yellow Wallpaper’ I think is the go-to story for most feminist commentators on Gothic fiction – and rightly so. I can’t help notice the connections between this story and the (mis)treatments of Sigmund Freud. Soooo much in this story to think about that I feel like a kiddie in sweet shop!

Thank you as always, Ken, for the thoughtful comment – and I completely agree about the links with Freud. The 1890s really was a pioneering age for psychiatric treatment/analysis, though we cringe at some of the ideas that were seriously considered (and put into practice). Oddly enough I’ve just been rearranging the pile of books on the floor of my study here at IL Towers, and The Bloody Chamber is near the top of my list of books to cover in due course!

I will wait with abated breath for your thoughts! I love Angela Carter :)

Comments are closed.

Subscribe now to keep reading and get access to the full archive.

Continue reading