The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman
It is very seldom that mere ordinary people like John and myself
secure ancestral halls for the summer.
A colonial mansion, a hereditary estate, I would say a haunted
house, and reach the height of romantic felicity—but that would
be asking too much of fate!
Still I will proudly declare that there is something queer about it.
Else, why should it be let so cheaply? And why have stood so long
untenanted?
John laughs at me, of course, but one expects that in marriage.
John is practical in the extreme. He has no patience with faith, an
intense horror of superstition, and he scoffs openly at any talk of
things not to be felt and seen and put down in figures.
John is a physician, and PERHAPS—(I would not say it to a living
soul, of course, but this is dead paper and a great relief to my
mind)—PERHAPS that is one reason I do not get well faster.
You see he does not believe I am sick!
And what can one do?
If a physician of high standing, and one's own husband, assures
friends and relatives that there is really nothing the matter with
one but temporary nervous depression—a slight hysterical
tendency—what is one to do?
My brother is also a physician, and also of high standing, and he
says the same thing.
So I take phosphates or phosphites—whichever it is, and tonics,
and journeys, and air, and exercise, and am absolutely forbidden
to "work" until I am well again.
, Personally, I disagree with their ideas.
Personally, I believe that congenial work, with excitement and
change, would do me good.
But what is one to do?
I did write for a while in spite of them; but it DOES exhaust me a
good deal—having to be so sly about it, or else meet with heavy
opposition.
I sometimes fancy that in my condition if I had less opposition and
more society and stimulus—but John says the very worst thing I
can do is to think about my condition, and I confess it always
makes me feel bad.
So I will let it alone and talk about the house.
The most beautiful place! It is quite alone, standing well back from
the road, quite three miles from the village. It makes me think of
English places that you read about, for there are hedges and walls
and gates that lock, and lots of separate little houses for the
gardeners and people.
There is a DELICIOUS garden! I never saw such a garden—large
and shady, full of box-bordered paths, and lined with long grape-
covered arbors with seats under them.
There were greenhouses, too, but they are all broken now.
There was some legal trouble, I believe, something about the heirs
and coheirs; anyhow, the place has been empty for years.
That spoils my ghostliness, I am afraid, but I don't care—there is
something strange about the house—I can feel it.
I even said so to John one moonlight evening, but he said what I
felt was a DRAUGHT, and shut the window.
It is very seldom that mere ordinary people like John and myself
secure ancestral halls for the summer.
A colonial mansion, a hereditary estate, I would say a haunted
house, and reach the height of romantic felicity—but that would
be asking too much of fate!
Still I will proudly declare that there is something queer about it.
Else, why should it be let so cheaply? And why have stood so long
untenanted?
John laughs at me, of course, but one expects that in marriage.
John is practical in the extreme. He has no patience with faith, an
intense horror of superstition, and he scoffs openly at any talk of
things not to be felt and seen and put down in figures.
John is a physician, and PERHAPS—(I would not say it to a living
soul, of course, but this is dead paper and a great relief to my
mind)—PERHAPS that is one reason I do not get well faster.
You see he does not believe I am sick!
And what can one do?
If a physician of high standing, and one's own husband, assures
friends and relatives that there is really nothing the matter with
one but temporary nervous depression—a slight hysterical
tendency—what is one to do?
My brother is also a physician, and also of high standing, and he
says the same thing.
So I take phosphates or phosphites—whichever it is, and tonics,
and journeys, and air, and exercise, and am absolutely forbidden
to "work" until I am well again.
, Personally, I disagree with their ideas.
Personally, I believe that congenial work, with excitement and
change, would do me good.
But what is one to do?
I did write for a while in spite of them; but it DOES exhaust me a
good deal—having to be so sly about it, or else meet with heavy
opposition.
I sometimes fancy that in my condition if I had less opposition and
more society and stimulus—but John says the very worst thing I
can do is to think about my condition, and I confess it always
makes me feel bad.
So I will let it alone and talk about the house.
The most beautiful place! It is quite alone, standing well back from
the road, quite three miles from the village. It makes me think of
English places that you read about, for there are hedges and walls
and gates that lock, and lots of separate little houses for the
gardeners and people.
There is a DELICIOUS garden! I never saw such a garden—large
and shady, full of box-bordered paths, and lined with long grape-
covered arbors with seats under them.
There were greenhouses, too, but they are all broken now.
There was some legal trouble, I believe, something about the heirs
and coheirs; anyhow, the place has been empty for years.
That spoils my ghostliness, I am afraid, but I don't care—there is
something strange about the house—I can feel it.
I even said so to John one moonlight evening, but he said what I
felt was a DRAUGHT, and shut the window.
