{"id":37,"date":"2021-02-09T15:07:28","date_gmt":"2021-02-09T20:07:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pressbooks.library.ryerson.ca\/theyellowwallpaper\/?post_type=chapter&p=37"},"modified":"2022-01-31T09:52:08","modified_gmt":"2022-01-31T14:52:08","slug":"1","status":"publish","type":"chapter","link":"https:\/\/pressbooks.library.torontomu.ca\/theyellowwallpaper\/chapter\/1\/","title":{"raw":"Chapter 1","rendered":"Chapter 1"},"content":{"raw":"It is very seldom that mere ordinary people like John and myself secure ancestral halls for the summer.\r\n\r\nA colonial mansion, a hereditary estate, I would say a haunted house, and reach the height of romantic felicity\u2014but that would be asking too much of fate!\r\n\r\nStill I will proudly declare that there is something queer about it.\r\n\r\nElse, why should it be let so cheaply? And why have stood so long untenanted?\r\n\r\nJohn laughs at me, of course, but one expects that in marriage.\r\n\r\nJohn is practical in the extreme. He has no patience with faith, an intense horror of superstition, and he scoffs openly at any talk of things not to be felt and seen and put down in figures.\r\n\r\nJohn is a physician, and perhaps<\/i>\u2014(I would not say it to a living soul, of course, but this is dead paper and a great relief to my mind)\u2014perhaps<\/i> that is one reason I do not get well faster.\r\n\r\nYou see, he does not believe I am sick!\r\n\r\nAnd what can one do?\r\n\r\nIf a physician of high standing, and one\u2019s own husband, assures friends and relatives that there is really nothing the matter with one but temporary nervous depression\u2014a slight hysterical tendency\u2014what is one to do?\r\n\r\nMy brother is also a physician, and also of high standing, and he says the same thing.\r\n\r\nSo I take phosphates or phosphites\u2014whichever it is, and tonics, and journeys, and air, and exercise, and am absolutely forbidden to \u201cwork\u201d until I am well again.\r\n\r\nPersonally, I disagree with their ideas.\r\n\r\nPersonally, I believe that congenial work, with excitement and change, would do me good.\r\n\r\nBut what is one to do?\r\n\r\nI did write for a while in spite of them; but it does<\/i> exhaust me a good deal\u2014having to be so sly about it, or else meet with heavy opposition.\r\n\r\nI sometimes fancy that in my condition if I had less opposition and more society and stimulus\u2014but John says the very worst thing I can do is to think about my condition, and I confess it always makes me feel bad.\r\n\r\nSo I will let it alone and talk about the house.\r\n\r\nThe most beautiful place! It is quite alone, standing well back from the road, quite three miles from the village. It makes me think of English places that you read about, for there are hedges and walls and gates that lock, and lots of separate little houses for the gardeners and people.\r\n\r\nThere is a delicious<\/i> garden! I never saw such a garden\u2014large and shady, full of box-bordered paths, and lined with long grape-covered arbors with seats under them.\r\n\r\nThere were greenhouses, too, but they are all broken now.\r\n\r\nThere was some legal trouble, I believe, something about the heirs and co-heirs; anyhow, the place has been empty for years.\r\n\r\nThat spoils my ghostliness, I am afraid; but I don\u2019t care\u2014there is something strange about the house\u2014I can feel it.\r\n\r\nI even said so to John one moonlight evening, but he said what I felt was a draught<\/i>, and shut the window.\r\n\r\nI get unreasonably angry with John sometimes. I\u2019m sure I never used to be so sensitive. I think it is due to this nervous condition.\r\n\r\nBut John says if I feel so I shall neglect proper self-control; so I take pains to control myself,\u2014before him, at least,\u2014and that makes me very tired.\r\n\r\nI don\u2019t like our room a bit. I wanted one downstairs that opened on the piazza and had roses all over the window, and such pretty old-fashioned chintz hangings! but John would not hear of it.\r\n\r\nHe said there was only one window and not room for two beds, and no near room for him if he took another.\r\n\r\nHe is very careful and loving, and hardly lets me stir without special direction.\r\n\r\nI have a schedule prescription for each hour in the day; he takes all care from me, and so I feel basely ungrateful not to value it more.\r\n\r\nHe said we came here solely on my account, that I was to have perfect rest and all the air I could get. \u201cYour exercise depends on your strength, my dear,\u201d said he, \u201cand your food somewhat on your appetite; but air you can absorb all the time.\u201d So we took the nursery, at the top of the house.\r\n\r\nIt is a big, airy room, the whole floor nearly, with windows that look all ways, and air and sunshine galore. It was nursery first and then playground and gymnasium, I should judge; for the windows are barred for little children, and there are rings and things in the walls.\r\n\r\nThe paint and paper look as if a boys\u2019 school had used it. It is stripped off\u2014the paper\u2014in great patches all around the head of my bed, about as far as I can reach, and in a great place on the other side of the room low down. I never saw a worse paper in my life.\r\n\r\nOne of those sprawling flamboyant patterns committing every artistic sin.\r\n\r\nIt is dull enough to confuse the eye in following, pronounced enough to constantly irritate, and provoke study, and when you follow the lame, uncertain curves for a little distance they suddenly commit suicide\u2014plunge off at outrageous angles, destroy themselves in unheard-of contradictions.\r\n\r\nThe color is repellant, almost revolting; a smouldering, unclean yellow, strangely faded by the slow-turning sunlight.\r\n\r\nIt is a dull yet lurid orange in some places, a sickly sulphur tint in others.\r\n\r\nNo wonder the children hated it! I should hate it myself if I had to live in this room long.\r\n\r\nThere comes John, and I must put this away,\u2014he hates to have me write a word.","rendered":"

It is very seldom that mere ordinary people like John and myself secure ancestral halls for the summer.<\/p>\n

A colonial mansion, a hereditary estate, I would say a haunted house, and reach the height of romantic felicity\u2014but that would be asking too much of fate!<\/p>\n

Still I will proudly declare that there is something queer about it.<\/p>\n

Else, why should it be let so cheaply? And why have stood so long untenanted?<\/p>\n

John laughs at me, of course, but one expects that in marriage.<\/p>\n

John is practical in the extreme. He has no patience with faith, an intense horror of superstition, and he scoffs openly at any talk of things not to be felt and seen and put down in figures.<\/p>\n

John is a physician, and perhaps<\/i>\u2014(I would not say it to a living soul, of course, but this is dead paper and a great relief to my mind)\u2014perhaps<\/i> that is one reason I do not get well faster.<\/p>\n

You see, he does not believe I am sick!<\/p>\n

And what can one do?<\/p>\n

If a physician of high standing, and one\u2019s own husband, assures friends and relatives that there is really nothing the matter with one but temporary nervous depression\u2014a slight hysterical tendency\u2014what is one to do?<\/p>\n

My brother is also a physician, and also of high standing, and he says the same thing.<\/p>\n

So I take phosphates or phosphites\u2014whichever it is, and tonics, and journeys, and air, and exercise, and am absolutely forbidden to \u201cwork\u201d until I am well again.<\/p>\n

Personally, I disagree with their ideas.<\/p>\n

Personally, I believe that congenial work, with excitement and change, would do me good.<\/p>\n

But what is one to do?<\/p>\n

I did write for a while in spite of them; but it does<\/i> exhaust me a good deal\u2014having to be so sly about it, or else meet with heavy opposition.<\/p>\n

I sometimes fancy that in my condition if I had less opposition and more society and stimulus\u2014but John says the very worst thing I can do is to think about my condition, and I confess it always makes me feel bad.<\/p>\n

So I will let it alone and talk about the house.<\/p>\n

The most beautiful place! It is quite alone, standing well back from the road, quite three miles from the village. It makes me think of English places that you read about, for there are hedges and walls and gates that lock, and lots of separate little houses for the gardeners and people.<\/p>\n

There is a delicious<\/i> garden! I never saw such a garden\u2014large and shady, full of box-bordered paths, and lined with long grape-covered arbors with seats under them.<\/p>\n

There were greenhouses, too, but they are all broken now.<\/p>\n

There was some legal trouble, I believe, something about the heirs and co-heirs; anyhow, the place has been empty for years.<\/p>\n

That spoils my ghostliness, I am afraid; but I don\u2019t care\u2014there is something strange about the house\u2014I can feel it.<\/p>\n

I even said so to John one moonlight evening, but he said what I felt was a draught<\/i>, and shut the window.<\/p>\n

I get unreasonably angry with John sometimes. I\u2019m sure I never used to be so sensitive. I think it is due to this nervous condition.<\/p>\n

But John says if I feel so I shall neglect proper self-control; so I take pains to control myself,\u2014before him, at least,\u2014and that makes me very tired.<\/p>\n

I don\u2019t like our room a bit. I wanted one downstairs that opened on the piazza and had roses all over the window, and such pretty old-fashioned chintz hangings! but John would not hear of it.<\/p>\n

He said there was only one window and not room for two beds, and no near room for him if he took another.<\/p>\n

He is very careful and loving, and hardly lets me stir without special direction.<\/p>\n

I have a schedule prescription for each hour in the day; he takes all care from me, and so I feel basely ungrateful not to value it more.<\/p>\n

He said we came here solely on my account, that I was to have perfect rest and all the air I could get. \u201cYour exercise depends on your strength, my dear,\u201d said he, \u201cand your food somewhat on your appetite; but air you can absorb all the time.\u201d So we took the nursery, at the top of the house.<\/p>\n

It is a big, airy room, the whole floor nearly, with windows that look all ways, and air and sunshine galore. It was nursery first and then playground and gymnasium, I should judge; for the windows are barred for little children, and there are rings and things in the walls.<\/p>\n

The paint and paper look as if a boys\u2019 school had used it. It is stripped off\u2014the paper\u2014in great patches all around the head of my bed, about as far as I can reach, and in a great place on the other side of the room low down. I never saw a worse paper in my life.<\/p>\n

One of those sprawling flamboyant patterns committing every artistic sin.<\/p>\n

It is dull enough to confuse the eye in following, pronounced enough to constantly irritate, and provoke study, and when you follow the lame, uncertain curves for a little distance they suddenly commit suicide\u2014plunge off at outrageous angles, destroy themselves in unheard-of contradictions.<\/p>\n

The color is repellant, almost revolting; a smouldering, unclean yellow, strangely faded by the slow-turning sunlight.<\/p>\n

It is a dull yet lurid orange in some places, a sickly sulphur tint in others.<\/p>\n

No wonder the children hated it! I should hate it myself if I had to live in this room long.<\/p>\n

There comes John, and I must put this away,\u2014he hates to have me write a word.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":251,"menu_order":1,"template":"","meta":{"pb_show_title":"on","pb_short_title":"","pb_subtitle":"","pb_authors":[],"pb_section_license":""},"chapter-type":[48],"contributor":[],"license":[],"class_list":["post-37","chapter","type-chapter","status-publish","hentry","chapter-type-numberless"],"part":3,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.library.torontomu.ca\/theyellowwallpaper\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/37","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.library.torontomu.ca\/theyellowwallpaper\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.library.torontomu.ca\/theyellowwallpaper\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/chapter"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.library.torontomu.ca\/theyellowwallpaper\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/251"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.library.torontomu.ca\/theyellowwallpaper\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/37\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":117,"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.library.torontomu.ca\/theyellowwallpaper\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/37\/revisions\/117"}],"part":[{"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.library.torontomu.ca\/theyellowwallpaper\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/parts\/3"}],"metadata":[{"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.library.torontomu.ca\/theyellowwallpaper\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/37\/metadata\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.library.torontomu.ca\/theyellowwallpaper\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"chapter-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.library.torontomu.ca\/theyellowwallpaper\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapter-type?post=37"},{"taxonomy":"contributor","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.library.torontomu.ca\/theyellowwallpaper\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/contributor?post=37"},{"taxonomy":"license","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.library.torontomu.ca\/theyellowwallpaper\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/license?post=37"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}