“I am sitting by the Window in th is Atrocious Nursery.”

THE YELLON \TALL-PAPER.

By Cltarlotte Perkins Stetson.

T is very seldom that mere ordi­ nary P””ople like J ohn and myself secure ancestral hall s for the summer.

A colonial man­ sion, 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 shou ld 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 perltaps – (I would not say it to a living soul, of course, but this is dead paper and a great relief to my mind – ) per/zaps that is one reason I do not get well faster.

You see he does not believe I am sick! . And what can one do?

THE YELLOW WALL-PARER.

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 111 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 in my condi­ tion 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 be­ lieve, something abou t the heirs and co­ heirs; 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 drauglzt, 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, a nd 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 hang­ ings! but John would not he ar 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 carefu l and loving, and hardly lets me stir without special direc­ tion.

I have a schedule prescription for each hour in the day; he takes a ll 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 ex ­ erc ise depends on your strength, my dear,” said he,” and your food somewhat on your appetite; but air you can ab­ sorb all the time.” So we took the nur­ sery 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 win­ dows 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 con­ stantly irritate and provoke study, and when you follow the lame uncertain curves for a little distance they suddenly commit suicide – plunge off at outrage ­ ous angles, destroy themselves in un­ heard of contradictions.

THE YELLOW ·WAL~PAPER. 649

The color is repellant, almost revolt­ ing ; a smouldering unclean yellow, strangely faded by the slow-turning sun­ light.

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 noth­ ing 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 dread­

fully 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 o”n 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 order 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 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 anyone need wish, and, of course, I would not be so silly as to make him uncomfort­ able 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 deep-shaded 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 be­ longing to the estate. There is a beauti­ ful 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 weak­ ness like mine is sure to lead to all man­ ner 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 re­ lieve 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 imperti­

j

650 THE YELLOW WALL-PAPER.

nence of it and the everlastingness. Up and down and sideways they crawl, and those absurd, unblinking eyes are every­ where. There is one place where two breaths 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 chil­ dren 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 sup­ pose when this was used as a playroom they had to take the nursery things out, and no wonder! I never saw such raV .lges 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 persever­ ance as well as hatred.

Then the floor is scratched and gou~ed 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.

H 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 house­ keeper, and hopes for no better profes­ sion. 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 wallpaper has a kind of su b­ pattern in a different shade, a particularly

irritating one, for you can only see It In certain lights, and not clearly then.

Our website has a team of professional writers who can help you write any of your homework. They will write your papers from scratch. We also have a team of editors just to make sure all papers are of HIGH QUALITY & PLAGIARISM FREE. To make an Order you only need to click Ask A Question and we will direct you to our Order Page at WriteDemy. Then fill Our Order Form with all your assignment instructions. Select your deadline and pay for your paper. You will get it few hours before your set deadline.