The Yellow Wallpaper
The Yellow Wallpaper
by Charlotte Perkins Gilman

The Yellow Wallpaper Characters

Meet the Cast

The Narrator

Introducing…Jane DoeThe first line of “The Yellow Wallpaper” does double duty, introducing both the setting of the story – a home for someone else’s ancestors –...

John

John is a high-ranking physician who tells his wife that he only wants the best for her; but he makes every decision regarding her life, right down to whom she gets to hang out with and to where sh...

The Woman in the Wallpaper

We considered this one for a long time: is the woman behind the wallpaper, a woman whom our narrator is probably imagining, really a character? Our thinking is: the narrator comes to think of the w...

Mary

A woman who takes care of the newborn. Use of the name "Mary" conjures up the idea of the iconic Virgin Mary.

Jennie

John’s sister who happily assumes all the traditional duties of a housewife so the narrator is free to sit in her room all day.