Gothic horror, psychological turmoil, and poor home decor are the order of the day in this Victorian short story. The story begins with the narrator chronicling her thoughts as she spends her days secluded in her bedroom—her seclusion due to her husband’s belief that she’s suffering from nervous disorder.
However, it’s when she starts focusing on the room’s wallpaper that things really get out of control: imagining a woman crawling around amidst the wallpaper’s pattern, the narrator becomes more and more consumed by these visions and, ultimately, loses touch with reality altogether.
In an obvious sense, wallpaper is just wallpaper. However, the narrator comes to regard the wallpaper in her room as something else altogether. What leads to this transformation? How does wallpaper go from a patterned wall covering to something much more uncanny?
The wallpaper is the key motif in this story, but are there any other motifs—or signs—that are also important?