The Yellow Wallpaper Gender Quotes

How we cite our quotes: Citations follow this format: (Section.Paragraph)

Quote #1

My brother is also a physician, and also of high standing, and he says the same thing. (1.11)

The men in the narrator’s life have prestigious, active jobs and their opinions dictate the way she lives her life.

Quote #2

[Jennie] is a perfect and enthusiastic housekeeper, and hopes for no better profession. I verily believe she thinks it is the writing which made me sick! (2.77)

John’s sister Jennie embodies the ideal woman of this age.

Quote #3

Sometimes I think there are a great many women behind, and sometimes only one, and she crawls around fast, and her crawling shakes it all over. […]

And she is all the time trying to climb through. But nobody could climb through that pattern--it strangles so; I think that is why it has so many heads. (9.4 – 9.6)

This is a passage demonstrating the intersection of confinement and gender—the narrator sometimes sees many, many women imprisoned by the pattern.