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FOR PUBLIC DOMAIN ETEXTS*Ver.04.29.93*END* + + + + + +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 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. + +I get unreasonably angry with John sometimes. I'm sure I +never used to be so sensitive. I think it is due to this nervous +condition. + +But John says if I feel so, I shall neglect proper +self-control; so I take pains to control myself--before him, at +least, and that makes me very tired. + +I don't like our room a bit. I wanted one downstairs that +opened on the piazza and had roses all over the window, and such +pretty old-fashioned chintz hangings! but John would not hear of +it. + +He said there was only one window and not room for two beds, +and no near room for him if he took another. + +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. + +He said we came here solely on my account, that I was to +have perfect rest and all the air I could get. "Your exercise +depends on your strength, my dear," said he, "and your food +somewhat on your appetite; but air you can absorb all the time." +So we took the nursery at the top of the house. + +It is a big, airy room, the whole floor nearly, with windows +that look all ways, and air and sunshine galore. It was nursery +first and then playroom and gymnasium, I should judge; for the +windows are barred for little children, and there are rings and +things in the walls. + +The paint and paper look as if a boys' school had used it. +It is stripped off--the paper--in great patches all around the +head of my bed, about as far as I can reach, and in a great place +on the other side of the room low down. I never saw a worse +paper in my life. + +One of those sprawling flamboyant patterns committing every +artistic sin. + +It is dull enough to confuse the eye in following, +pronounced enough to constantly irritate and provoke study, and +when you follow the lame uncertain curves for a little distance +they suddenly commit suicide--plunge off at outrageous angles, +destroy themselves in unheard of contradictions. + +The color is repellent, almost revolting; a smouldering +unclean yellow, strangely faded by the slow-turning sunlight. + +It is a dull yet lurid orange in some places, a sickly +sulphur tint in others. + +No wonder the children hated it! I should hate it myself if +I had to live in this room long. + +There comes John, and I must put this away,--he hates to +have me write a word. + + +We have been here two weeks, and I haven't felt like writing +before, since that first day. + +I am sitting by the window now, up in this atrocious +nursery, and there is nothing to hinder my writing as much as I +please, save lack of strength. + +John is away all day, and even some nights when his cases +are serious. + +I am glad my case is not serious! + +But these nervous troubles are dreadfully depressing. + +John does not know how much I really suffer. He knows there +is no REASON to suffer, and that satisfies him. + +Of course it is only nervousness. It does weigh on me so +not to do my duty in any way! + +I meant to be such a help to John, such a real rest and +comfort, and here I am a comparative burden already! + +Nobody would believe what an effort it is to do what little +I am able,--to dress and entertain, and other things. + +It is fortunate Mary is so good with the baby. Such a dear +baby! + +And yet I CANNOT be with him, it makes me so nervous. + +I suppose John never was nervous in his life. He laughs at +me so about this wall-paper! + +At first he meant to repaper the room, but afterwards he +said that I was letting it get the better of me, and that nothing +was worse for a nervous patient than to give way to such fancies. + +He said that after the wall-paper was changed it would be +the heavy bedstead, and then the barred windows, and then that +gate at the head of the stairs, and so on. + +"You know the place is doing you good," he said, "and +really, dear, I don't care to renovate the house just for a three +months' rental." + +"Then do let us go downstairs," I said, "there are such +pretty rooms there." + +Then he took me in his arms and called me a blessed little +goose, and said he would go down to the cellar, if I wished, and +have it whitewashed into the bargain. + +But he is right enough about the beds and windows and +things. + +It is an airy and comfortable room as any one need wish, +and, of course, I would not be so silly as to make him +uncomfortable just for a whim. + +I'm really getting quite fond of the big room, all but that +horrid paper. + +Out of one window I can see the garden, those mysterious +deepshaded arbors, the riotous old-fashioned flowers, and bushes +and gnarly trees. + +Out of another I get a lovely view of the bay and a little +private wharf belonging to the estate. There is a beautiful +shaded lane that runs down there from the house. I always fancy +I see people walking in these numerous paths and arbors, but John +has cautioned me not to give way to fancy in the least. 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. + +I think sometimes that if I were only well enough to write a +little it would relieve the press of ideas and rest me. + +But I find I get pretty tired when I try. + +It is so discouraging not to have any advice and +companionship about my work. When I get really well, John says +we will ask Cousin Henry and Julia down for a long visit; but he +says he would as soon put fireworks in my pillow-case as to let +me have those stimulating people about now. + +I wish I could get well faster. + +But I must not think about that. This paper looks to me as +if it KNEW what a vicious influence it had! + +There is a recurrent spot where the pattern lolls like a +broken neck and two bulbous eyes stare at you upside down. + +I get positively angry with the impertinence of it and the +everlastingness. Up and down and sideways they crawl, and those +absurd, unblinking eyes are everywhere. There is one place where +two breadths didn't match, and the eyes go all up and down the +line, one a little higher than the other. + +I never saw so much expression in an inanimate thing before, +and we all know how much expression they have! I used to lie +awake as a child and get more entertainment and terror out of +blank walls and plain furniture than most children could find in +a toy store. + +I remember what a kindly wink the knobs of our big, old +bureau used to have, and there was one chair that always seemed +like a strong friend. + +I used to feel that if any of the other things looked too +fierce I could always hop into that chair and be safe. + +The furniture in this room is no worse than inharmonious, +however, for we had to bring it all from downstairs. I suppose +when this was used as a playroom they had to take the nursery +things out, and no wonder! I never saw such ravages as the +children have made here. + +The wall-paper, as I said before, is torn off in spots, and +it sticketh closer than a brother--they must have had +perseverance as well as hatred. + +Then the floor is scratched and gouged and splintered, the +plaster itself is dug out here and there, and this great heavy +bed which is all we found in the room, looks as if it had been +through the wars. + +But I don't mind it a bit--only the paper. + +There comes John's sister. Such a dear girl as she is, and +so careful of me! I must not let her find me writing. + +She is a perfect and enthusiastic housekeeper, and hopes for +no better profession. I verily believe she thinks it is the +writing which made me sick! + +But I can write when she is out, and see her a long way off +from these windows. + +There is one that commands the road, a lovely shaded winding +road, and one that just looks off over the country. A lovely +country, too, full of great elms and velvet meadows. + +This wall-paper has a kind of sub-pattern in a different +shade, a particularly irritating one, for you can only see it in +certain lights, and not clearly then. + +But in the places where it isn't faded and where the sun is +just so--I can see a strange, provoking, formless sort of figure, +that seems to skulk about behind that silly and conspicuous front +design. + +There's sister on the stairs! + + +Well, the Fourth of July is over! The people are gone and I +am tired out. John thought it might do me good to see a little +company, so we just had mother and Nellie and the children down +for a week. + +Of course I didn't do a thing. Jennie sees to everything +now. + +But it tired me all the same. + +John says if I don't pick up faster he shall send me to Weir +Mitchell in the fall. + +But I don't want to go there at all. I had a friend who was +in his hands once, and she says he is just like John and my +brother, only more so! + +Besides, it is such an undertaking to go so far. + +I don't feel as if it was worth while to turn my hand over +for anything, and I'm getting dreadfully fretful and querulous. + +I cry at nothing, and cry most of the time. + +Of course I don't when John is here, or anybody else, but +when I am alone. + +And I am alone a good deal just now. John is kept in town +very often by serious cases, and Jennie is good and lets me alone +when I want her to. + +So I walk a little in the garden or down that lovely lane, +sit on the porch under the roses, and lie down up here a good +deal. + +I'm getting really fond of the room in spite of the +wall-paper. Perhaps BECAUSE of the wall-paper. + +It dwells in my mind so! + +I lie here on this great immovable bed--it is nailed down, I +believe--and follow that pattern about by the hour. It is as +good as gymnastics, I assure you. I start, we'll say, at the +bottom, down in the corner over there where it has not been +touched, and I determine for the thousandth time that I WILL +follow that pointless pattern to some sort of a conclusion. + +I know a little of the principle of design, and I know this +thing was not arranged on any laws of radiation, or alternation, +or repetition, or symmetry, or anything else that I ever heard +of. + +It is repeated, of course, by the breadths, but not +otherwise. + +Looked at in one way each breadth stands alone, the bloated +curves and flourishes--a kind of "debased Romanesque" with +delirium tremens--go waddling up and down in isolated columns +of fatuity. + +But, on the other hand, they connect diagonally, and the +sprawling outlines run off in great slanting waves of optic +horror, like a lot of wallowing seaweeds in full chase. + +The whole thing goes horizontally, too, at least it seems +so, and I exhaust myself in trying to distinguish the order of +its going in that direction. + +They have used a horizontal breadth for a frieze, and that +adds wonderfully to the confusion. + +There is one end of the room where it is almost intact, and +there, when the crosslights fade and the low sun shines directly +upon it, I can almost fancy radiation after all,--the +interminable grotesques seem to form around a common centre and +rush off in headlong plunges of equal distraction. + +It makes me tired to follow it. I will take a nap I guess. + +I don't know why I should write this. + +I don't want to. + +I don't feel able. + +And I know John would think it absurd. But I MUST say +what I feel and think in some way--it is such a relief! + +But the effort is getting to be greater than the relief. + +Half the time now I am awfully lazy, and lie down ever so +much. + +John says I musn't lose my strength, and has me take cod +liver oil and lots of tonics and things, to say nothing of ale +and wine and rare meat. + +Dear John! He loves me very dearly, and hates to have me +sick. I tried to have a real earnest reasonable talk with him +the other day, and tell him how I wish he would let me go and +make a visit to Cousin Henry and Julia. + +But he said I wasn't able to go, nor able to stand it after +I got there; and I did not make out a very good case for myself, +for I was crying before I had finished. + +It is getting to be a great effort for me to think straight. +Just this nervous weakness I suppose. + +And dear John gathered me up in his arms, and just carried +me upstairs and laid me on the bed, and sat by me and read to me +till it tired my head. + +He said I was his darling and his comfort and all he had, +and that I must take care of myself for his sake, and keep well. + +He says no one but myself can help me out of it, that I must +use my will and self-control and not let any silly fancies run +away with me. + +There's one comfort, the baby is well and happy, and does +not have to occupy this nursery with the horrid wall-paper. + +If we had not used it, that blessed child would have! What +a fortunate escape! Why, I wouldn't have a child of mine, an +impressionable little thing, live in such a room for worlds. + +I never thought of it before, but it is lucky that John kept +me here after all, I can stand it so much easier than a baby, you +see. + +Of course I never mention it to them any more--I am too +wise,--but I keep watch of it all the same. + +There are things in that paper that nobody knows but me, or +ever will. + +Behind that outside pattern the dim shapes get clearer every +day. + +It is always the same shape, only very numerous. + +And it is like a woman stooping down and creeping about +behind that pattern. I don't like it a bit. I wonder--I begin +to think--I wish John would take me away from here! + +It is so hard to talk with John about my case, because he is +so wise, and because he loves me so. + +But I tried it last night. + +It was moonlight. The moon shines in all around just as the +sun does. + +I hate to see it sometimes, it creeps so slowly, and always +comes in by one window or another. + +John was asleep and I hated to waken him, so I kept still +and watched the moonlight on that undulating wall-paper till I +felt creepy. + +The faint figure behind seemed to shake the pattern, just as +if she wanted to get out. + +I got up softly and went to feel and see if the paper DID +move, and when I came back John was awake. + +"What is it, little girl?" he said. "Don't go walking about +like that--you'll get cold." + +I though it was a good time to talk, so I told him that I +really was not gaining here, and that I wished he would take me +away. + +"Why darling!" said he, "our lease will be up in three +weeks, and I can't see how to leave before. + +"The repairs are not done at home, and I cannot possibly +leave town just now. Of course if you were in any danger, I +could and would, but you really are better, dear, whether you can +see it or not. I am a doctor, dear, and I know. You are gaining +flesh and color, your appetite is better, I feel really much +easier about you." + +"I don't weigh a bit more," said I, "nor as much; and my +appetite may be better in the evening when you are here, but it +is worse in the morning when you are away!" + +"Bless her little heart!" said he with a big hug, "she shall +be as sick as she pleases! But now let's improve the shining +hours by going to sleep, and talk about it in the morning!" + +"And you won't go away?" I asked gloomily. + +"Why, how can I, dear? It is only three weeks more and then +we will take a nice little trip of a few days while Jennie is +getting the house ready. Really dear you are better!" + +"Better in body perhaps--" I began, and stopped short, for +he sat up straight and looked at me with such a stern, +reproachful look that I could not say another word. + +"My darling," said he, "I beg of you, for my sake and for +our child's sake, as well as for your own, that you will never +for one instant let that idea enter your mind! There is nothing +so dangerous, so fascinating, to a temperament like yours. It is +a false and foolish fancy. Can you not trust me as a physician +when I tell you so?" + +So of course I said no more on that score, and we went to +sleep before long. He thought I was asleep first, but I wasn't, +and lay there for hours trying to decide whether that front +pattern and the back pattern really did move together or +separately. + + +On a pattern like this, by daylight, there is a lack of +sequence, a defiance of law, that is a constant irritant to a +normal mind. + +The color is hideous enough, and unreliable enough, and +infuriating enough, but the pattern is torturing. + +You think you have mastered it, but just as you get well +underway in following, it turns a back-somersault and there you +are. It slaps you in the face, knocks you down, and tramples +upon you. It is like a bad dream. + +The outside pattern is a florid arabesque, reminding one of +a fungus. If you can imagine a toadstool in joints, an +interminable string of toadstools, budding and sprouting in +endless convolutions--why, that is something like it. + +That is, sometimes! + +There is one marked peculiarity about this paper, a thing +nobody seems to notice but myself,and that is that it changes as +the light changes. + +When the sun shoots in through the east window--I always +watch for that first long, straight ray--it changes so quickly +that I never can quite believe it. + +That is why I watch it always. + +By moonlight--the moon shines in all night when there is a +moon--I wouldn't know it was the same paper. + +At night in any kind of light, in twilight, candle light, +lamplight, and worst of all by moonlight, it becomes bars! The +outside pattern I mean, and the woman behind it is as plain as +can be. + +I didn't realize for a long time what the thing was that +showed behind, that dim sub-pattern, but now I am quite sure it +is a woman. + +By daylight she is subdued, quiet. I fancy it is the +pattern that keeps her so still. It is so puzzling. It keeps me +quiet by the hour. + +I lie down ever so much now. John says it is good for me, +and to sleep all I can. + +Indeed he started the habit by making me lie down for an +hour after each meal. + +It is a very bad habit I am convinced, for you see I don't +sleep. + +And that cultivates deceit, for I don't tell them I'm +awake--O no! + +The fact is I am getting a little afraid of John. + +He seems very queer sometimes, and even Jennie has an +inexplicable look. + +It strikes me occasionally, just as a scientific +hypothesis,--that perhaps it is the paper! + +I have watched John when he did not know I was looking, and +come into the room suddenly on the most innocent excuses, and +I've caught him several times LOOKING AT THE PAPER! And Jennie +too. I caught Jennie with her hand on it once. + +She didn't know I was in the room, and when I asked her in a +quiet, a very quiet voice, with the most restrained manner +possible, what she was doing with the paper--she turned around as +if she had been caught stealing, and looked quite angry--asked me +why I should frighten her so! + +Then she said that the paper stained everything it touched, +that she had found yellow smooches on all my clothes and John's, +and she wished we would be more careful! + +Did not that sound innocent? But I know she was studying +that pattern, and I am determined that nobody shall find it out +but myself! + + +Life is very much more exciting now than it used to be. You +see I have something more to expect, to look forward to, to +watch. I really do eat better, and am more quiet than I was. + +John is so pleased to see me improve! He laughed a little +the other day, and said I seemed to be flourishing in spite of my +wall-paper. + +I turned it off with a laugh. I had no intention of telling +him it was BECAUSE of the wall-paper--he would make fun of me. +He might even want to take me away. + +I don't want to leave now until I have found it out. There +is a week more, and I think that will be enough. + + +I'm feeling ever so much better! I don't sleep much at +night, for it is so interesting to watch developments; but I +sleep a good deal in the daytime. + +In the daytime it is tiresome and perplexing. + +There are always new shoots on the fungus, and new shades of +yellow all over it. I cannot keep count of them, though I have +tried conscientiously. + +It is the strangest yellow, that wall-paper! It makes me +think of all the yellow things I ever saw--not beautiful ones +like buttercups, but old foul, bad yellow things. + +But there is something else about that paper--the smell! I +noticed it the moment we came into the room, but with so much air +and sun it was not bad. Now we have had a week of fog and rain, +and whether the windows are open or not, the smell is here. + +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. + +It gets into my hair. + +Even when I go to ride, if I turn my head suddenly and +surprise it--there is that smell! + +Such a peculiar odor, too! I have spent hours in trying to +analyze it, to find what it smelled like. + +It is not bad--at first, and very gentle, but quite the +subtlest, most enduring odor I ever met. + +In this damp weather it is awful, I wake up in the night and +find it hanging over me. + +It used to disturb me at first. I thought seriously of +burning the house--to reach the smell. + +But now I am used to it. The only thing I can think of that +it is like is the COLOR of the paper! A yellow smell. + +There is a very funny mark on this wall, low down, near the +mopboard. A streak that runs round the room. It goes behind +every piece of furniture, except the bed, a long, straight, even +SMOOCH, as if it had been rubbed over and over. + +I wonder how it was done and who did it, and what they did +it for. Round and round and round--round and round and round--it +makes me dizzy! + + +I really have discovered something at last. + +Through watching so much at night, when it changes so, I +have finally found out. + +The front pattern DOES move--and no wonder! The woman +behind shakes it! + +Sometimes I think there are a great many women behind, and +sometimes only one, and she crawls around fast, and her crawling +shakes it all over. + +Then in the very bright spots she keeps still, and in the +very shady spots she just takes hold of the bars and shakes them +hard. + +And she is all the time trying to climb through. But nobody +could climb through that pattern--it strangles so; I think that +is why it has so many heads. + +They get through, and then the pattern strangles them off +and turns them upside down, and makes their eyes white! + +If those heads were covered or taken off it would not be +half so bad. + + +I think that woman gets out in the daytime! + +And I'll tell you why--privately--I've seen her! + +I can see her out of every one of my windows! + +It is the same woman, I know, for she is always creeping, +and most women do not creep by daylight. + +I see her on that long road under the trees, creeping along, +and when a carriage comes she hides under the blackberry vines. + +I don't blame her a bit. It must be very humiliating to be +caught creeping by daylight! + +I always lock the door when I creep by daylight. I can't do +it at night, for I know John would suspect something at once. + +And John is so queer now, that I don't want to irritate him. +I wish he would take another room! Besides, I don't want anybody +to get that woman out at night but myself. + +I often wonder if I could see her out of all the windows at +once. + +But, turn as fast as I can, I can only see out of one at a +time. + +And though I always see her, she MAY be able to creep +faster than I can turn! + +I have watched her sometimes away off in the open country, +creeping as fast as a cloud shadow in a high wind. + +If only that top pattern could be gotten off from the under +one! I mean to try it, little by little. + +I have found out another funny thing, but I shan't tell it +this time! It does not do to trust people too much. + +There are only two more days to get this paper off, and I +believe John is beginning to notice. I don't like the look in +his eyes. + +And I heard him ask Jennie a lot of professional questions +about me. She had a very good report to give. + +She said I slept a good deal in the daytime. + +John knows I don't sleep very well at night, for all I'm so +quiet! + +He asked me all sorts of questions, too, and pretended to be +very loving and kind. + +As if I couldn't see through him! + +Still, I don't wonder he acts so, sleeping under this paper +for three months. + +It only interests me, but I feel sure John and Jennie are +secretly affected by it. + + +Hurrah! This is the last day, but it is enough. John is to +stay in town over night, and won't be out until this evening. + +Jennie wanted to sleep with me--the sly thing! but I told +her I should undoubtedly rest better for a night all alone. + +That was clever, for really I wasn't alone a bit! As soon +as it was moonlight and that poor thing began to crawl and shake +the pattern, I got up and ran to help her. + +I pulled and she shook, I shook and she pulled, and before +morning we had peeled off yards of that paper. + +A strip about as high as my head and half around the room. + +And then when the sun came and that awful pattern began to +laugh at me, I declared I would finish it to-day! + +We go away to-morrow, and they are moving all my furniture +down again to leave things as they were before. + +Jennie looked at the wall in amazement, but I told her +merrily that I did it out of pure spite at the vicious thing. + +She laughed and said she wouldn't mind doing it herself, but +I must not get tired. + +How she betrayed herself that time! + +But I am here, and no person touches this paper but me--not +ALIVE! + +She tried to get me out of the room--it was too patent! But +I said it was so quiet and empty and clean now that I believed I +would lie down again and sleep all I could; and not to wake me +even for dinner--I would call when I woke. + +So now she is gone, and the servants are gone, and the +things are gone, and there is nothing left but that great +bedstead nailed down, with the canvas mattress we found on it. + +We shall sleep downstairs to-night, and take the boat home +to-morrow. + +I quite enjoy the room, now it is bare again. + +How those children did tear about here! + +This bedstead is fairly gnawed! + +But I must get to work. + +I have locked the door and thrown the key down into the +front path. + +I don't want to go out, and I don't want to have anybody +come in, till John comes. + +I want to astonish him. + +I've got a rope up here that even Jennie did not find. If +that woman does get out, and tries to get away, I can tie her! + +But I forgot I could not reach far without anything to stand +on! + +This bed will NOT move! + +I tried to lift and push it until I was lame, and then I got +so angry I bit off a little piece at one corner--but it hurt my +teeth. + +Then I peeled off all the paper I could reach standing on +the floor. It sticks horribly and the pattern just enjoys it! +All those strangled heads and bulbous eyes and waddling fungus +growths just shriek with derision! + +I am getting angry enough to do something desperate. To +jump out of the window would be admirable exercise, but the bars +are too strong even to try. + +Besides I wouldn't do it. Of course not. I know well +enough that a step like that is improper and might be +misconstrued. + +I don't like to LOOK out of the windows even--there are so +many of those creeping women, and they creep so fast. + +I wonder if they all come out of that wall-paper as I did? + +But I am securely fastened now by my well-hidden rope--you +don't get ME out in the road there! + +I suppose I shall have to get back behind the pattern when +it comes night, and that is hard! + +It is so pleasant to be out in this great room and creep +around as I please! + +I don't want to go outside. I won't, even if Jennie asks me +to. + +For outside you have to creep on the ground, and everything +is green instead of yellow. + +But here I can creep smoothly on the floor, and my shoulder +just fits in that long smooch around the wall, so I cannot lose +my way. + +Why there's John at the door! + +It is no use, young man, you can't open it! + +How he does call and pound! + +Now he's crying for an axe. + +It would be a shame to break down that beautiful door! + +"John dear!' said I in the gentlest voice, "the key is down +by the front steps, under a plantain leaf!" + +That silenced him for a few moments. + +Then he said--very quietly indeed, "Open the door, my +darling!" + +"I can't", said I. "The key is down by the front door under +a plantain leaf!" + +And then I said it again, several times, very gently and +slowly, and said it so often that he had to go and see, and he +got it of course, and came in. He stopped short by the door. + +"What is the matter?" he cried. "For God's sake, what are +you doing!" + +I kept on creeping just the same, but I looked at him over +my shoulder. + +"I've got out at last," said I, "in spite of you and Jane. +And I've pulled off most of the paper, so you can't put me back!" + +Now why should that man have fainted? But he did, and right +across my path by the wall, so that I had to creep over him every +time! + + + + + +End of The Project Gutenberg Etext of The Yellow Wallpaper, by Gilman + |