"The Yellow Wallpaper": A Horror Story with a Feminist Touch

Abstract

Charlotte Perkins Gilman's short story "The Yellow Wallpaper" is now seen as a feminist classic, but it started out as a horror story. This thesis investigates how this change of genre has occurred. I look for the changes in Charlotte Perkins Gilman's personal history and the history of hysteria, Charlotte's diagnosis that made her write the story. I will also investigate the genre conventions of the gothic horror genre to see if these conventions have facilitated the modern feminist reading.