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Unnamed Narrator

The unnamed narrator of The Yellow Wallpaper is married to John, a doctor, and has just recently had a baby. She suffers from depression, or "nervous prostration," and is confined to a room that used to be a nursery, as a bed-rest cure, in a country house that she and her husband are renting for a holiday. While John does not allow her to read, write, or engage in any other type of mental stimulation, she does secretly write in a journal. The story itself is a transcription of these journal entries. Bored and restless, the narrator is driven to distraction by the yellow wallpaper that decorates the room, eventually suffering a complete mental breakdown after imagining that she sees in the wallpaper's pattern women who are trying to escape. Because the narrator is completely dependent on her husband and is allowed no other role than...

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