Conflict (inciting incident): The protagonist got stuck in the nursery by her husband John, after getting birth to her child. She began going crazy and had postpartum depression.

Rising Action: The protagonist starts noticing the yellow wallpaper in her room and how hideous it is, asking John to get rid of it. He doesn't, and she continues to be stuck with the wallpaper, which seems to drive her further into insanity.

Climax: The protagonist starts to believe that the woman trapped inside the yellow wallpaper is herself.

Falling Action: She eventually becomes completely insane, seeing the woman/the projection of herself everywhere, and not wanting to leave the room she is stuck in despite it basically being her prison.

Resolution: Our protagonist rips the yellow wallpaper off the wall to liberate the woman in the pattern, thereby freeing herself from the room also (her husband lets her out of the room)

The narrator remains unnamed throughout the story. She suffers from postpartum depression and is treated by being left alone for long periods of time. The character is dynamic because as the story progresses she becomes "crazy" after staring at the yellow wallpaper in the nursery.

John- John is the narrator's husband who is a physician and believes that his wife's illness isn't serious. He believes that the best thing for her is to spend time away from the baby and keeps the narrator locked in her room. John doesn't change much throughout the story. He's a static character because he continues to hold his stance on how his wife's illness should be treated.

Jennie- Jennie is John's sister who takes care of the narrator. Jennie like John is a static character in the story, she doesn't change in the story.

• Typically yellow is a calming or soothing color, but in the brief story, the yellow is described as "repellent, almost revolting: a smoldering unclean yellow... dull yet lurid...a sickly sulpher tint." (Charlotte Perkins Gilman, 590) The yellow's hideous tinge symbolizes the protagonist's restless and isolated feelings.

• The wallpaper is also described as "irritating enough to provoke study, and when you follow the lame uncertain curves for a little distance they suddenly commit suicide.." (Charlotte Perkins Gilman, 590) This chaotic and thought-provoking pattern reflects the narrator's unstable mental state in her isolated trap. The dark diction, of suicide, lame and irritating create a dark mood for the rest of the story.

  As the story continues, and our protagonist keeps staring at the wallpaper, the pattern morphs into a woman: stuck in the wallpaper just like the real woman feels in the institution.

"When the sun shoots in through the east window--I always watch for that first long straight ray--it changes so quickly than I never can quite believe it.

That is why I watch it always." (Charlotte Perkins Gilman, 594)