The Yellow Wallpaper: Annotated Edition with Key Points and Study Guide

"The Yellow Wallpaper," first published in 1882, is largely based on the personal experience of Charlotte Perkins Gilman. Like many women of that era, Gilman was subjected to the "rest cure" for postpartum depression. The cure, pioneered by Silas Weir Mitchell, forbade reading, writing, socializing, exercise, and thinking in general. For many women, the treatment was worse than the cure.

The story chronicles the story of a women diagnosed with a "slight hysterical tendency" and shut up in a...