The Yellow Wallpaper: Crash Course Literature 407 

I think it's interesting you didn't mention Jenny at all. She also lives in the house and spends time with the narrator, but because she's John's sister, she wholeheartedly believes the narrator is sick. I'm thinking she's a metaphor for those who don't realize they're oppressed and still agree with the oppressors. When you're trying to get better or get reform, it isn't always the oppressors that cause the most damage, it's the people who're like you and still don't fight back.

I'm disappointed that my school never pointed out that this was *based on a true story.* Or at least a real "treatment" that people were being subjected to at the time.

An ex-boyfriend of mine said the main character in this story reminded him of me and now knowing what the story is about I’m extremely concerned.

One thing I always took from this story, especially because of the unreliable narrator, is that she had been the woman she saw in the wall. The groove that she eventually finds herself following was of her own making. She had been doing the "creeping" for quite a while, not at all realizing that who she was seeing was herself. That was the most terrifying part of it for me. Additionally, because she would have been touching the wall so much at that point, the smell would of course have been following her.

The irony of having to read this novella for school while we're all isolated in our homes... don't know whether to laugh or cry.

I just finished reading the yellow wallpaper and Immediately turned on this video to try to contextualize/ make sense of what I just read. And only after the intro did I realize that the walls of the room in my uni are a weird pale yellow

Man I remember we read this in a summer writing class I took at a community college and it was handled so poorly. As someone who has suffered from depression I found myself really relating to the narrator, but all the professor had to say literally amounted to "lol it's a horror story because she's crazy and kills her husband. That's all there is to it she's just craaaazy." I felt gutted and honestly really hurt. I wanted to say something about how insensitive that interpretation was to those who suffered from mental illness, but between my shock and the worry that maybe I had missed something, that she (and by extension myself) was crazy after all kept me quiet. It's a minor thing but I still regret my silence. Needless to say I was glad when that course was over and I got the credit I needed to leave.

This was, with out a doubt John's most personal video. You can feel his pain and triumph. I love it.

I wrote an essay comparing Bertha from Jane Eyre and the woman in the Yellow Wallpaper (the whole "Madwoman in the Attic" theme) and it is by far my favorite essay I've written in college; love these two stories and how they connect.

I read "The Yellow Wallpaper" in high school, but my teacher totally didn't explain it well to any of us because we all just thought it was weird and nonsensical. And, as someone who suffers from mental illness, I really relate to this kind of story because it reflects my experiences with mental illness and my realization that the worse thing that can be done to mentally ill people is to isolate them because it removes all healthy frame of reference from our world which causes us to begin to believe the things that our minds are telling us and leaves us with no way to pull ourselves out of our own toxic ways of thinking.

I first read this story when I was 12 years old. The gender role/mental illness subtext understandably eluded me at the time - I simply found it to be one of the most frightening things I'd ever read (my mother never kept me from reading anything I could actually read). As an adult, I clearly recognized the greater meaning of the story, but still find it one of most disturbing stories I've read. God knows, I'll never hear the word 'creep' again without a shudder.

I first read The Yellow Wallpaper in high school Literature as a depressed 15-year-old. It impacted me tremendously. For the first time in my young life, there was a relatable representation of some of the things I was feeling. It was and still is truly, truly terrifying. I have re-read it since but have never lost that sense of terrible dread. When I saw the title for this episode, I nearly didn't watch it for the anxiety that I feel just reading the words "The Yellow Wallpaper". For me, this story re-enforced the fear and paranoia I experienced at the mere thought of telling anyone else about my terrifying thoughts. My worst and most irrational fear at that time was that I would be locked away in a padded room, a prisoner with no-one but my awful thoughts for company and no-one to believe me. The story explored that fear and showed me what could happen to my own mind if I didn't sink my fingers deep into my own reality. As I got older and feared to speak about what was happening or seek treatment, I became increasingly worse. In time I found myself lying on the floor of my bedroom for hours each night, staring at the shadows on the ceiling of my dimly lit bedroom. I unconsciously created my own captivity as a means to escape a perceived one. To say that The Yellow Wallpaper is a good exploration and representation of depression, while accurate, feels like an understatement. Today, 15 years later, reflecting on those experiences and considering what questions or answers I take away from The Yellow Wallpaper I am left with one overwhelmingly powerful answer: to give in to the madness is not freedom, but the ultimate prison. Whether a victim of circumstance through oppression, self-inflicted, both or neither; it is so vitally important to RESIST. To seize one's freedoms and to express, earnestly and without reservation the troubling (and equally the beautiful) thoughts within. Isolation is the road to madness, and ultimately death. Be it the death of one's 'self' or a true physical death, both seem as certain. 10+ years of various therapies have taught me the tremendous value of being able to express an idea, however troubling, and have it accepted, validated, and sometimes challenged by another human with whom you have a trusting connection. For these lessons, I am grateful and I am alive.

Crash Course Literature is my favourite series on RU-vid.

"Plot summery: women stares at wall" 😂😂😂😂😂😂

When I read this I thought it was the saddest story I'd ever read.

My mom is a doctor and she pretty much was my John when I felt like I had ADHD, and was struggling to cope with it and still meet her expectations. She would also never let me go out as a child and only drag me out on her terms. I very much felt like "jane".

I , too, was deeply affected by this story when I first read it (and every time I have read it since). For as long as I can remember, I have suffered from bipolar disorder and mild agoraphobia, which went undiagnosed until postpartum depression exacerbated it to where I needed to get help. I now live with my daughter, also bipolar, and my parents' nine cats. We moved in with my parents years ago to help my mother look after my father who had Alzheimer's disease. After he died, it was not long before she, too, suffered from dementia. She passed away just before this past Halloween. i became aware, then, that for more than two years i had only been out of the house to get to or from the car to run errands. My prison had been just as real as the narrator's in the story, but I think it was of my own making. It is one of those instances where I had seen a phenomenon in someone else, even a fictional character, but had failed to recognize it when it happened to me. In the story, the narrator sees the woman in the wallpaper creeping about the edges of the room, and even creeping about outside in the garden. That always seemed to me to represent the narrator's desire and need to try to escape, and her fear of actually doing so. I know just how that feels. Sorry to have run on so long, but the story still gets to me, even just hearing someone talk about it.

I regularly teach this story in my junior English class with the full lit crit treatment. The only story that both freaks them out and fascinates them more is "A Rose for Emily".

One thing that the ending reminded me of when I read it was the way that animals in a zoo pace and fixate when they are understimulated

Oh, the Yellow Wallpaper! I have a lot of thoughts on this story. I loved it the first time I read it in high school, and then I went to a women's college and read it in about three more classes. I read it before I read Jane Eyre, and when I read that novel, the relationship between Jane and Bertha immediately struck with its similarty. Turns out Jane Eyre was an inspiration on Perkins-Gilman. Anyway! Good discussion, though I would add a couple of things. First, I feel like you left out one of the most interesting aspects of the story, which is that at some point, John takes away the narrator's notebook, and it's like, how's she even writing the story at that point? Also, I think there's a strong argument against the idea that the narrator is free at the end. Gilbert and Gubar wrote a criticism about how the house is representative of the woman's body, and at the end she's freed from systems of oppression because she's escaped into her own mind. But what I noticed when I reread the story is that there's a strong emphasis on the prison imagery in the last scene. There's a key, but the narrator has thrown it out the window and can no longer reach it. I took this to mean that she's become trapped within her own mind (which especially makes sense if you consider the house-as-body argument). She seems to have become incapable of rational thought, and more importantly, of communication with anyone around her; she can no longer reach beyond herself. Without a way to communicate, she has lost all influence over her own fate, and is completely at the mercy of those around her. Not that she had any power to begin with, but... Ironically, her insanity kind of speaks for itself-- there's a very satisfying feeling of "Told you so!" with that ending, haunting and sad as it is. Anyway! If you're interested in the story, but haven't read it (or even if you have) there's a good radio performance by Agnes Moorehead you should check out; it's very good.

"Maybe they're attempts to find meaning in an extremely limited experience"- what a perfect comparison to The Handmaid's Tale

We’re about to read this in English. Thanks so much John!

I read this in undergrad, shortly after suffering from postpartum depression for 2 years. Reading The Yellow Wallpaper was so raw and real for me. Charlotte really speaks to those feelings and others in my class completely missed the mental aspect of the story she tells. Its one of the best short stories I've ever read.

I read this in a gothic story compilation when I was about 11. At that age I had no clue about mental illnesses, but the story really stuck with me. It was definitely the one that stood out the most amid the assortment.

JOHN I THINK YOU FORGOT THAT WEIR (the dude who invented rest therapy) ALSO "TREATED" MARY SHELLY and ya wonder why the book *Frankenstein* has so much torture in it

As a literature professor myself, I love your videos! You strike a great balance between explaining the text, its background, and also its appeal!

Fantastic breakdown! This is one story I’ve always wanted to dig into a little deeper

Actually, reading this story precipitated a breakdown, when I was in grad school. I was admittedly near a break already, but this pushed me over. I have a vivid memory of sitting on the back of the classroom, laughing, and I didn't know why and I couldn't stop. And it was as though I was watching it all happen from outside myself. I went home, went to bed, and pretty much stayed there for about two weeks, until one of my daughters dragged me to the doctor. Was she really ill? Or was John gaslighting her? I was seriously getting the feeling that he was trying to convince her that she could not trust her own observations and judgement - because he had something going on the side. (Jane?) I was feeling like I was also being told not to trust myself, though for different reasons, and I had my own wallpaper to crawl under. Great post John!

I read this in one of my lit classes in college 5 or 6 years ago and it genuinely creeped me out. Anytime it mentioned the patterns looking like an imprisoned woman creeping about, chills ran up my spine as my imagination took flight. There was a horror movie playing in my mind and I was at the edge of my seat worrying about how dark the story was going to get. I had read horror before, but that was the first time I had such an intense visceral reaction to a story.

The female version of The Shining.

I'm so excited that you guys finally covered this story - it's one of my all-time favorites!

Brah, trust me. We wouldn't be frustrated cuz we're not hardcore lit crits. We would be frustrated cuz Freudian psychology is one of the most heavily misogynistic, twisted, and unreliable types of "psychology" ever to exist. Then again the comparison to this time period flies cuz that's what the point was anyway. You good

Gonna write an essay about this story in a Trauma in Literature course, so of course im here to be inspired and choosing on what i should focus. Thanks John Green!

This is a much better way to present this story than when I encountered it in my studies. The adjunct for my English 101 course had an approach as if she were prosecuting a case: she would ask questions, often too vague, sometimes with a followup, but generally conclude with, "interesting," or "I see," or, "is that what you think?" all the while her tone and attitude being very adversarial. She sometimes hinted that we were not on the right track, but never seemed to suggest that we might be getting something "right," (as it seemed there was a "right" and a "wrong" and not much else when it came to interpreting fiction in her course). Of course, this lead to decreasing participation, which was inevitably followed by her glaring around the room and demanding, "no one? no one has a response? very well," at which point, curiously enough, she would simply move on to her next point, without elaborating. After a few of these, she would go into the, "did any of you read this? do I have to waste my time and yours with quizzes every class?" before a couple of hesitant hands would go up and she would give an exasperated "thank you," and the whole routine would begin again. To say I learned nothing in that class would be inaccurate, however; I learned of my first out-gay jazz musician, which helped me feel more of a place within the genre, and I learned now not to engage a class in a discussion. I should probably re-read the story now.

Not only was this one of my favorite crash courses due to your team's excellent writing and your passion and presetation style, the comment thread here is facinating and brought me to tears a few times. The yellow wallpaper is one of my favorite books but also it scared me so much when I read it in highschool I had to hide it between other books because somehow just looking at it gave me the heebie jeebies. We read the yellow wallpaper and the bell jar the same semester and I remember really feeling like I was wrangling with my own mental illness at the time. Thank you so much for sharing.

You were right about "soon enough" seeing it "everywhere"

We're reading this for my Abnormal Psychology class for a paper and this was really useful. We're supposed to "diagnose" the main character and also discuss cultural norms and their effect on mental illness, so this confirmed my thoughts previous to watching this. Thanks John!

The end of this video really moved me john, thank you for being so open with how this story impacted you.

Gilman sounds like an amazing woman

Speaking as someone with severe depression who is struggling to get better, I kind of wish a modified rest cure was possible. Forbidden intellectual stimulation and forced health regimes, like the Yellow Wallpaper’s narrator suffered, are awful and just exacerbate the problems, but sometimes I feel like I would get better faster if I could just step back from daily life and focus on getting better, rather than being forced to fit treatment into the struggle of making ends meet and all the myriad difficulties of life. I know it sounds lazy and I feel guilty for thinking it, but figuring out how to feed myself is already almost too difficult...getting better from crippling depression while dealing with that and a thousand other problems is next to impossible.

Yellow wallpaper for me was the yellow spackle walls of the jail where they strapped me into a chair, restrained my movements, and left me to stare until I fell asleep sitting up. Not much metaphor needed.

I've loved this story ever since I read it in high school. Still one of my most favorites. Thank you for presenting this as a dystopia, I never thought of it that way.

to put it mildly she went completely bonkers from isolation.

i truly appreciate the literature series you're doing. I, myself, went through some, if not, most of the material you have presented so far in college. It's one thing having a crash-course and the other truly having to go through it as one's curriculum. It leaves you richer in empathy and more self-reflective. The Yellow Wallpaper is no exception to this. Especially, when the book itself is a manifest against a very popular, at that time, diagnosis that was hysteria.

Absolutely loved this episode. Thank you for everything that you do, John Green. Thank you for being you.

This season (and series) is one of the best crash course has ever made in any course. Good work guys!

I am a pharmacy technician.. and I sometimes wonder if the Yellow Wallpaper is in medications themselves? Seeing regular doctors - not psychologists - pass out controlled substances without a second thought is terrifying to me. I don't see it as a conniving conspiracy... but simple laziness and apathy committed by overworked doctors, and patients unwilling to take the time to extensive therapy they may need - the intention of which is to eventually wean OFF the medication, rather than continually rely on it. When I had my last physical appointment, I was stunned at how willing my doctor was to tell me I "might be depressed" because I lost sleep due to work according to the questioneer. Yes, I lost sleep due to work because someone got fired and two people quit - of course I was working more and sleeping less. No, I wasn't depressed. But I wonder how many give in to such a suggestion?

I love this story. It's been close to my heart since I found an anthology of stories that evoked gothic tropes or themes.

I always assumed that the pervasive smell was directly associated with her illness. Green Victorian wallpaper infamously contained arsenic, and in moist climates could kill people who slept in the room it was in. I assumed that the smell, which was attributed to moisture and mold, may have been a toxic mold of some kind, triggering hallucinations and exacerbating her (already fragile) condition.

This sounds amazing. The line about seeing over was devastating to me. I have been to that precipice and I know exactly how she felt but I have never heard it so well described.

I feel psychiatric wards (at least the ones ive experienced) can be compared to rest cure as it separates those with mental illnesses from the outside world and (at least for me) made the illnesses worse

John green is a legend after 4 years in high school I think that looking back I couldn't survive without him thank you so much

John! Thanks so much for sharing your own experience.

Something about John’s literature videos seems more serious than his history ones.

thank you SO MUCH for this new season! this vid came just in time for my midterm :)

One of my favourite short stories, ever... thanks Crash Course

I love this short story. One of my favorites!

wonderful analysis, really loved it!

Have been learning so much about English Literature! Thanks, guys!

Wow. I never heard of this book, and yet it seems right up my alley. Thanks for this!

Love this short story it makes great points good job pointing them out!

John, a personal thank you to this insightful video that you published. it has been helpful towards writing my english thesis.

Once again you've featured a book that i now have to read! Please make more Crash Course literature videos - i keep finding out about books i've never known and how amazing they seem.

Loved the Thought Bubble. The animation and the sound really creeped me out!!

The reading list for one of my 3000 level English classes actually has The Yellow Wallpaper on it and I'm so thankful that this popped up on my homepage again!!

Great series. Dystopians are one of my fave genres. Thanks for a few more books to add to my reading list John! X

A friend of mine recommended this book to me not long ago, when my own mental health was not all one might hope it would be, and this in no small way helped resolve me to make the changes I needed to recover. Interesting indeed to hear an analysis of it

Aaahhh The Yellow Wallpaper!!!! I read that for one of my university English classes (failing to remember which one) and absolutely fell in love with it!!!

I found this channel because my daughter was reading John Green. We need more writers like John Green. Thank you .

I’m so glad you did this video, I have to analyse this and the period for my a level I’m taking next year. Thanks mate.

This analysis helped so much! Thank you!

I am really appreciative that John got kind of personal in this episode. Obviously I am aware that everyone can experience mental health issues but to hear John talk about it the way he did I just feel very grateful. It gave me some peace about my own. Thanks John!

Jane is John's sister who lives with them and helps with the baby while our main character is in her room alone.

Just wow! Thanks for sharing I've never heard of this book or the " hand maids tale"

This has been my favorite short story since we read it in eighth grade! Awesome video, thanks!

I completely forgot that I had read this last year in my American Literature class. I'm so glad this brought back to my mind.

Well HELLO!!!!! I do enjoy the conversations we have been having around these dystopian novels. Thanks Crash Course team for keeping these videos and conversations coming! And thanks John for making them fun and interesting!

this is absolutely brilliant, i love this series so much y'all should do one on one of the books from one of the beatnik writers, like naked lunch or on the road

I'm a lit graduate and I still re-read some of the books or stories I studied and then get back to this page and enjoy watching videos about all the things I've read. Thank you for creating this Channel 💕

Am I the only one who was reminded of Bertha (from Jane Eyre) while reading this story? She was locked up in the attic all day, having literally nothing to do, so this might just as well be the cause of her getting as mad as she is at the end.

I read this in college and was haunted by it. I love it to this day. I like that you can apply the yellow wallpaper to almost any situation you feel trapped by. I don't think I'll ever get out of mine without going crazy.

That sounds so deeply scary and sad

Wow. It's more dramatic, obviously- being a novel and all- but this really rings true to how I felt and what I experienced after my 1st child's birth (and to some degree am still experiencing). Thankfully though, my husband iss a supportive partner and helps me as much as possible. I am curious and also terrified to read this. But mostly curious. Thanks for the video! Sometimes your videos even help people who graduated 18 years ago, not just high school kids ;-)

“Rest Cure” literally is just isolation. It is a form of torture. The truest form of madness for a human being. :(

Don't often watch CC Lit, glad this one caught me.

I read this story in high school and I remember it was so beautiful and sad and tragic and triumphant. I haven't read it since then, but with my own mental health struggles now, it sure does hit home.

I really like this video and think you're insights, John, are very helpful. But I wanted to answer the question at the end about what's my 'yellow wallpaper', and I think many people won't understand it. See, my dad works in the UN, so we move around a lot - I've lived in Bolivia, Nicaragua, Kenya, and now the US. Many people I've talked to seem to think it's such a great experience and opportunity, and sure, it is, but I feel trapped in the sense that I can't get attached to people anymore, because I'll just leave again, so what's the point? I know my mom struggles with this a lot, but my sister seems to be fine with it - I guess because she's more extroverted than I am - so I thought maybe I could explain my view to people here. Maybe someone here might understand a little better.

That was a beautiful explanation.

Loved the analysis, especially nuanced interpretation of the "odour."

Thank you for this. It was very helpful to me better understand this story.

Last year I performed as the woman in an acting interpretation of the yellow wallpaper. It took a lot of research about the “rest cure” of and Gilman herself, but this video is so helpful and I wish I could’ve seen it beforehand!

Great breakdown of a brilliant work.

We read the yellow wallpaper in my class as an introduction for our dystopian societies unit in school and this helped me a lot to understand it! 😄

Thank you John Green! I was able to write my thesis after only having watched 1:32 of this video

This will help ace my passage analysis... thank you very much!

Brilliant synopsis. I read this twice in college and was later commissioned to compose music for a dance piece based on it. In my psychology class yesterday, I was reminded of it and brought it up. It's such a gripping, painful yet enlightening story that takes on new meaning every time I return to it from a different and more evolved angle. Love your take on it. Subbed.:)

Thank you for doing this video! I only came across the story a few months ago and immediately realized it is based on postpartum psychosis - it is pretty realistic!!!

good choice of work! fascinating graphics by TC~

This story is just so creative and artistic in the manner it is written.

I read Yellow Wallpaper last month and I couldn't make our what really is happenning. So Thank You Crash Course for this wonderful video