Yellow Wallpaper

The first edition of Charlotte Perkins Gilman's short story "The Yellow Wallpaper" appeared in The New England Magazine in January 1892. It is recognized as a key early work of American feminist writing because of the way it captures ideas toward women's mental and physical health in the 19th century. The young woman and her spouse are portrayed in the story. He makes her take a rest remedy after their child is born when she feels "short nervous depression." During their summertime vacation at a colonial mansion, the narrator spends the majority of the time in an upstairs nursery. The first-person narrative of the book consists of a variety of notes from a woman whose physician husband has rented an old home for the season. Instead of using other areas of the house, the pair retired into the nursery upstairs. The husband forbids the anonymous woman from working or writing and counsels her to eat healthily and get enough fresh air in order to help her recover from what he refers to as a "short nervous depression - a minor hysterical tendency," a common diagnosis among women at the time.