{"id":55,"date":"2021-02-09T15:17:52","date_gmt":"2021-02-09T20:17:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pressbooks.library.ryerson.ca\/theyellowwallpaper\/?post_type=chapter&p=55"},"modified":"2022-01-31T09:53:21","modified_gmt":"2022-01-31T14:53:21","slug":"6","status":"publish","type":"chapter","link":"https:\/\/pressbooks.library.torontomu.ca\/theyellowwallpaper\/chapter\/6\/","title":{"raw":"Chapter 6","rendered":"Chapter 6"},"content":{"raw":"On a pattern like this, by daylight, there is a lack of sequence, a defiance of law, that is a constant irritant to a normal mind.\r\n\r\nThe color is hideous enough, and unreliable enough, and infuriating enough, but the pattern is torturing.\r\n\r\nYou think you have mastered it, but just as you get well under way in following, it turns a back somersault and there you are. It slaps you in the face, knocks you down, and tramples upon you. It is like a bad dream.\r\n\r\nThe outside pattern is a florid arabesque, reminding one of a fungus. If you can imagine a toadstool in joints, an interminable string of toadstools, budding and sprouting in endless convolutions,\u2014why, that is something like it.\r\n\r\nThat is, sometimes!\r\n\r\nThere is one marked peculiarity about this paper, a thing nobody seems to notice but myself, and that is that it changes as the light changes.\r\n\r\nWhen the sun shoots in through the east window\u2014I always watch for that first long, straight ray\u2014it changes so quickly that I never can quite believe it.\r\n\r\nThat is why I watch it always.\r\n\r\nBy moonlight\u2014the moon shines in all night when there is a moon\u2014I wouldn\u2019t know it was the same paper.\r\n\r\nAt night in any kind of light, in twilight, candlelight, lamplight, and worst of all by moonlight, it becomes bars! The outside pattern I mean, and the woman behind it is as plain as can be.\r\n\r\nI didn\u2019t realize for a long time what the thing was that showed behind,\u2014that dim sub-pattern,\u2014but now I am quite sure it is a woman.\r\n\r\nBy daylight she is subdued, quiet. I fancy it is the pattern that keeps her so still. It is so puzzling. It keeps me quiet by the hour.\r\n\r\nI lie down ever so much now. John says it is good for me, and to sleep all I can.\r\n\r\nIndeed, he started the habit by making me lie down for an hour after each meal.\r\n\r\nIt is a very bad habit, I am convinced, for, you see, I don\u2019t sleep.\r\n\r\nAnd that cultivates deceit, for I don\u2019t tell them I\u2019m awake,\u2014oh, no!\r\n\r\nThe fact is, I am getting a little afraid of John.\r\n\r\nHe seems very queer sometimes, and even Jennie has an inexplicable look.\r\n\r\nIt strikes me occasionally, just as a scientific hypothesis, that perhaps it is the paper!\r\n\r\nI have watched John when he did not know I was looking, and come into the room suddenly on the most innocent excuses, and I\u2019ve caught him several times looking at the paper!<\/i> And Jennie too. I caught Jennie with her hand on it once.\r\n\r\nShe didn\u2019t know I was in the room, and when I asked her in a quiet, a very quiet voice, with the most restrained manner possible, what she was doing with the paper she turned around as if she had been caught stealing, and looked quite angry\u2014asked me why I should frighten her so!\r\n\r\nThen she said that the paper stained everything it touched, that she had found yellow smooches on all my clothes and John\u2019s, and she wished we would be more careful!\r\n\r\nDid not that sound innocent? But I know she was studying that pattern, and I am determined that nobody shall find it out but myself!","rendered":"

On a pattern like this, by daylight, there is a lack of sequence, a defiance of law, that is a constant irritant to a normal mind.<\/p>\n

The color is hideous enough, and unreliable enough, and infuriating enough, but the pattern is torturing.<\/p>\n

You think you have mastered it, but just as you get well under way in following, it turns a back somersault and there you are. It slaps you in the face, knocks you down, and tramples upon you. It is like a bad dream.<\/p>\n

The outside pattern is a florid arabesque, reminding one of a fungus. If you can imagine a toadstool in joints, an interminable string of toadstools, budding and sprouting in endless convolutions,\u2014why, that is something like it.<\/p>\n

That is, sometimes!<\/p>\n

There is one marked peculiarity about this paper, a thing nobody seems to notice but myself, and that is that it changes as the light changes.<\/p>\n

When the sun shoots in through the east window\u2014I always watch for that first long, straight ray\u2014it changes so quickly that I never can quite believe it.<\/p>\n

That is why I watch it always.<\/p>\n

By moonlight\u2014the moon shines in all night when there is a moon\u2014I wouldn\u2019t know it was the same paper.<\/p>\n

At night in any kind of light, in twilight, candlelight, lamplight, and worst of all by moonlight, it becomes bars! The outside pattern I mean, and the woman behind it is as plain as can be.<\/p>\n

I didn\u2019t realize for a long time what the thing was that showed behind,\u2014that dim sub-pattern,\u2014but now I am quite sure it is a woman.<\/p>\n

By daylight she is subdued, quiet. I fancy it is the pattern that keeps her so still. It is so puzzling. It keeps me quiet by the hour.<\/p>\n

I lie down ever so much now. John says it is good for me, and to sleep all I can.<\/p>\n

Indeed, he started the habit by making me lie down for an hour after each meal.<\/p>\n

It is a very bad habit, I am convinced, for, you see, I don\u2019t sleep.<\/p>\n

And that cultivates deceit, for I don\u2019t tell them I\u2019m awake,\u2014oh, no!<\/p>\n

The fact is, I am getting a little afraid of John.<\/p>\n

He seems very queer sometimes, and even Jennie has an inexplicable look.<\/p>\n

It strikes me occasionally, just as a scientific hypothesis, that perhaps it is the paper!<\/p>\n

I have watched John when he did not know I was looking, and come into the room suddenly on the most innocent excuses, and I\u2019ve caught him several times looking at the paper!<\/i> And Jennie too. I caught Jennie with her hand on it once.<\/p>\n

She didn\u2019t know I was in the room, and when I asked her in a quiet, a very quiet voice, with the most restrained manner possible, what she was doing with the paper she turned around as if she had been caught stealing, and looked quite angry\u2014asked me why I should frighten her so!<\/p>\n

Then she said that the paper stained everything it touched, that she had found yellow smooches on all my clothes and John\u2019s, and she wished we would be more careful!<\/p>\n

Did not that sound innocent? But I know she was studying that pattern, and I am determined that nobody shall find it out but myself!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":251,"menu_order":6,"template":"","meta":{"pb_show_title":"on","pb_short_title":"","pb_subtitle":"","pb_authors":[],"pb_section_license":""},"chapter-type":[48],"contributor":[],"license":[],"class_list":["post-55","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\/55","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":2,"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.library.torontomu.ca\/theyellowwallpaper\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/55\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":57,"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.library.torontomu.ca\/theyellowwallpaper\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/55\/revisions\/57"}],"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\/55\/metadata\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.library.torontomu.ca\/theyellowwallpaper\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=55"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"chapter-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.library.torontomu.ca\/theyellowwallpaper\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapter-type?post=55"},{"taxonomy":"contributor","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.library.torontomu.ca\/theyellowwallpaper\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/contributor?post=55"},{"taxonomy":"license","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.library.torontomu.ca\/theyellowwallpaper\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/license?post=55"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}