"He hates for me to write a word."

I just bought a copy of The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman on Amazon.com for $2.50 and so should you. This was one of my favorite school-assigned short stories, so much so that I'm not sure why I didn't already own a copy. (I have, for example, three copies of John Knowles's A Separate Peace. But that's very Conspiracy Theory of me....)

The Yellow Wallpaper is a giant. It addresses multiple themes, including a women's "domestic" place in a marriage, the "resting cure" for despression, self-expression, and the whole deal with the woman trapped behind the wallpaper. Interestingly enough, it was viewed as a dramatic work with some horror elements upon its first publishing. It wasn't til years later that the text was viewed in terms of the aforementioned themes.

Most interesting to me though, are the picture Gilman's actual words paint:

The faint figure behind seemed to shake the pattern, just as if she wanted to get out. (5.6)

I really enjoy the "faint figure" in its shadowy vagueness lunging into our real vision with the word "shake." And then of course Gilman throws in "seemed" giving you the head's up that it's all imaginary and she knows it, but can't stop it. She's aware that she's describing someone imaginary doing something very real.