The Yellow Wallpaper created a stir when it was first published, and it’s been fun reading the original responses to the story both pre- and post-publication - Lovecraft had quite a bit to say, if you’re curious. It eventually faded from the American consciousness and was rediscovered in the early 1970s, when it became a permanent literary fixture of the feminist movement. However, in 1913, over a decade after the short story was published, Charlotte Perkins Gilman reflected on the story herself:
Previous Installments
YELLOW
By Anna Siri
Based on “The Yellow Wallpaper” by Charlotte Perkins Gilman
Part 3 of 4
October 30th
Dear Kiki –
It’s the saddest thing I’ve ever heard. She was lovely, the young Mrs. Gilman, but mentally fragile, and despite her spouse’s tender care, wasted away to madness, raving about creatures in the walls. And after she disappeared, her grief-stricken husband covered up the wallpaper that seemed to push her over the edge and killed himself in the living room.
Einstein: Chapter One (2017)
Though if she were really crazy, I’m sure the signs would have been there long before they arrived at the house, right? Also, who ever heard of wallpaper driving someone to suicide? I am, of course, speaking of the mysterious Great-Grandmother Charlotte, who vanished in a blink, leaving nothing but a bereaved husband and a shocking lack of interior design sense. You might wonder, dearest K, where she went? And why he didn’t just rip the paper down? No clue on the first, but for the second, I have an answer:
Because the fucking wallpaper is fused to the wall.
I’ve tried everything. Solvents, scrapers, sandpaper. It won’t budge. You haven’t seen pathetic until you’ve seen a grown woman sitting in a bathtub in near hysterics at ten o’clock at night as she uses her husband’s straight razor to try and slice off ribbons of wallpaper. Now it just looks like a serial killer took a machete to it, but it’s still not coming off. OMG, Conrad is so fucking mad at me. He yelled at me the other night and said we could just cover all the paper up, but I don’t think that’s going to work because I’ll know it’s still there, under whatever pretty Victorian roses or tasteful stripes or modern geometrics I pick.
That HIDEOUS. UNFORGIVING. MALEVOLENT. WALLPAPER. Mocking me and my efforts. It’s trying to make me fail, Kiki, I just know it.
Vengeance (2022)
I tried to convince Conrad to let me come to the city with him last week, but he said he was tied up in a case and didn’t need me distracting him. And when he’s here, he locks himself in his study for hours at a time, and he’s a bear if I interrupt him.
I caught him staring at the wallpaper yesterday, frowning at it as if trying to make sense of it, and I wondered if he could see her, too, the woman trapped behind. He told me not to speak nonsense and (now, don’t go all avenging Valkyrie on me, Ki, because it was an accident), stormed past me out of the room, knocking my shoulder hard enough to send me stumbling into that lovely armoire the Van Deans gave us as a wedding present. I’m fine, just a little cut at the hairline where I hit the edge – nothing a little make-up won’t cover.
Black Mirror - The Entire History of You (2011)
And he was so concerned and patched me up so sweetly. He just caught me at a bad angle, K, and he’s right that I should work on my balance a bit more. I haven’t done any yoga since I’ve been up here, and I would have been fine if I were more centered.
The leaves are changing color and if I were back in the city, we’d be stocking up on candy and figuring out our costumes for tomorrow night. Instead, I’m drinking pinot, eating microwave ramen, and nursing a headache while my husband heads back to the city – again. But don’t worry about me, Kiki. I have the wallpaper for company, and apparently, just like me, it’s not going anywhere.
Happy Fucking Halloween.
Francie
P.S. He took my phone. He said I was spending too much time obsessing over the lack of bars and he was worried about my stress levels. Don’t freak – it’s just his way of showing he loves me.
The Road Dance (2023)
Come back next week for the final installment of Yellow and a deeper dive into The Yellow Wallpaper’s troubled and troubling author!
I love the introduction to this 3rd installment and that she recovered her power through her writing!
Tensions rising...