Questions for Discussion

1. Why are they living in this colonial mansion? What is its history? Does the heroine feel comfortable in the house?

2. How about John? Why does the narrator say his profession is "perhaps . . . one reason I do not get well faster? Who else supports John's diagnosis?

3. What clue does the narrator's repeated lament, "what can one do?" give us about her personality? What conflicting emotions is she having toward her husband, her condition, and the mansion?

4. What's the narrator's initial reaction and description of the wallpaper? How does her description of the wallpaper change?

5. Who is Jennie? What's her function?

6. By the Fourth of July, what does the narrator admit about the wallpaper? What clues does Gilman give about the narrator's state?

7. How does the narrator try to reach out to her husband? Is this her last contact with sanity? Do you think John has no comprehension of the seriousness of her illness?

8. Why change the point of view from 1^st person to 2^nd person?

9. By the final section of the story, what is the narrator's relationship to her husband? To Jennie? To the wallpaper?

10. What is the central irony of the story?