“The Yellow Wallpaper ” -a view as a horror story

I won’t say “The Yellow Wallpaper” by Gilman fits in the category of typical horror stories, which fascinates or shocks the readers by introducing them to supernatural powers, bloodshed, or scary scenes. But this story shares some properties with the horror collections. There are incidents in the story where author has created weird and scary situations in a fascinating manner.

The story is about the author herself who suffers from physiological disorder and her struggle during the phase with her own imaginary scary activities. When the author starts narrating the story, it feels like as if she is going to narrate a horror story. In the second paragraph of the story she start saying “A colonial mansion, a hereditary estate, I would say a haunted house,” The author leads the story with the description of the house which she and her husband have rented for summer.  Describing the house as old and haunted she is conveying message to the readers that the house carries some unusual environment. Again to support her statement that there is something wrong with the house she adds “Else, why should it be let so cheaply? And why have stood so long untenanted?” In this way Gilman creates a horror story type scenario and presents a dark scary image in front of the readers. As the story moves on, the author gets disturb by the wallpaper in a room and she starts seeing unusual activities “There is a recurrent spot where the pattern lolls like a broken neck and two bulbous eyes stares at you upside down.” Here using the words like broken neck and bulbous eyes, author is presenting a disturbed image to the readers like in horror stories. Like the unusual activities intensifies in the horror stories, Gilman’s fear intensifies and she starts seeing a character, a woman creeping on the wall and haunting her “It creeps all over the house. I find it hovering in the dining-room, skulking in the parlor, hiding in the hall, lying in wait for me on the stairs.” No one except Gilman witness the woman and the activities. Only she is being haunted by the woman figure. Till the end of the story the imaginary woman character keeps haunting the author for the freedom. And finally she gets rid of the fear by peeling off the wall paper. Looking at these points I would definitely say that “The Yellow Wall Paper” has the taste of a horror story.

7 thoughts on ““The Yellow Wallpaper ” -a view as a horror story

  1. I happen to agree with you that there are snippets of horror all over this piece and your reading into the words and seeing all of the different horror inducing images is something that everyone can take away from reading this story. I however think the horror is more so exuded in the psyche of the protagonist. At first she seems to be a regular person who is just following the orders of her doctor but as we progress she becomes lost in her mind and insanity starts to show. I do agree with you that the creepy house must have played some sort of role in leading to the complete mental break down we see in her at the end of the piece. This however is just touching on some of the minor factors affecting her. The most horrifying thing to me is her ideology about the wallpaper in the end; to me it seems as if she becomes possessed by the woman in the wallpaper. That she is in an attic in an old house crawling on the ground talking to the wall and herself doesn’t really help her case at all.

  2. I happen to agree with you that there are snippets of horror all over this piece and your reading into the words and seeing all of the different horror inducing images is something that everyone can take away from reading this story. I however think the horror is more so exuded in the psyche of the protagonist. At first she seems to be a regular person who is just following the orders of her doctor but as we progress she becomes lost in her mind and insanity starts to show. I do agree with you that the creepy house must have played some sort of role in leading to the complete mental break down we see in her at the end of the piece. This however is just touching on some of the minor factors affecting her. The most horrifying thing to me is her ideology about the wallpaper in the end; to me it seems as if she becomes possessed by the woman in the wallpaper. That she is in an attic in an old house crawling on the ground talking to the wall and herself doesn’t really help her case at all.

  3. I like how you both identify horrific aspects of “The Yellow Wall-Paper,” both the setting and the thoughts of the narrator-protagonist. What about the narrator-protagonist’s interactions with other characters–how does that inform our consideration of the horror elements of the story? Another point to discuss: what’s with that woman in the wallpaper, and what happens at the end?

    • I think the story, especially, the identity of the woman creeping about behind the pattern of the wallpaper, can be interpreted in a several way. but I interpret the story as follows.

      The woman in the wall is the protagonist, John’s wife’s own projection. She never be conscious that the woman who is confined in the pattern is actually herself. However, the reader is becoming aware as we progress. we can find many common ground between “I” and ” the woman”. For instance, John’s wife is under observation by John and Jene in a room which has barred window. She can do what she is obsessed, which is striping off the wall paper, only during the night, and sleep during the day. “the woman” in the wall also creep around after dark and hide herself during the day. And at the end of the story, “I” integrate with “the woman” which is her own shadow at last, and She says “I’ve got out at last, inspite of you and Jane. And I’ve puled off most of the paper, so you can’t put me back!”

      I believe that the story is very skillfully constructed that the reader can take it both fantasy scary fiction and the story representing madness of collapse of one’s identity by mental disease.

    • Well her interactions are at first somewhat normal in that she is just talking and thinking about what her life has become because of her illness but as we move along we see her interactions with the other characters become a bit more deep and her feelings about them start to change. The biggest change is her reaction to her husband I think because where at first he was a good man who was trying to help her he became a sort of warden keeping her in prison. He as she said became very queer and couldn’t talk to him because she believed he was not listening to her. It shows how her mental breakdown made her really become very paranoid to the point where she doesn’t feel like she could talk to him anymore. She became enamored with her secret and wanting to keep it for herself. This in itself is creepy. As it pertains to the woman in the wallpaper I think she is a representation of the protagonist and how she feels trapped by her husband. It is her trying to get freedom like the woman is trying to get out of the wallpaper. In the end I think she starts to view the woman’s freedom as her own and will do anything to get that. She finally frees the woman and I sort of saw like I mentioned that she became possessed by the woman in the paper..

  4. I agree with the point that readers are easily drawn into the setting of this horror story by the author’s ingenious portrayal from the beginning. These descriptions make us visually imagine the atmosphere of the mansion, her nursery room, and the creepy yellow wall in the manner of horror story.
    For example, “repellent, almost revolting, a smoldering unclean yellow, strangely faded by the slow-turing sunlight” “dull yet lurid orange” “a sickly sulphur tint”. Even just representing the wall colors, the author shows the detail very distinctively. Not only those visual depictions, her description of smell shows us the the sign that protagonist (“I”) is falling in to insanity. “I” describes the smell of the wall as “Yellow smell” which is “hovering in the dining room, skulking in the parlor, hiding in the hall, lying in wait form on the stairs, and get in to my hair….” I think those expressions make us horrified but thrilled and fascinated with the story.

  5. I’m kinda agreed in the part when the narrator try to bring us into horror setting, but I disagree that this is a view of horror story because the whole thing is just an illusion from the protagonist. John’s wife is having mental disorder and John is over protecting him that made her go even worst on her illness. “He is very careful and loving, and hardly lets me stir without special direction. I have a schedule prescription for each hour in the day; he takes all care from me, and so I feel basely ungrateful not to value it more.” (pg2 paragraph 1). And this is the part shows the protagonist has illusion through imagation “He says that with my imaginative power and habit of story-making, a nervous weakness like mine is sure to lead to all manner of excited fancies, and that I ought to use my will and good sense to check the tendency. So I try.” (pg3 paragraph 3). And the part of story-making is including the scenes that his wife saw through the yellow wallpaper and so on.

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