- Two weeks have passed.
- The narrator is too weak to do much writing. She complains of suffering and guilt-trips herself for being unable to fulfill her duties.
- A woman named Mary is taking care of the narrator’s baby. The narrator says she is nervous around her own son.
- John almost gives in and repapers the room, but decides the narrator would then demand all sorts of other changes.
- The narrator says she is becoming fonder of the room, except for the horrible wallpaper.
- She gives us an overview of the view from her window.
- The narrator wishes she could spend time as a writer, but resolves not to think about it.
- She opts for describing the wallpaper instead. According to her, it is full of "absurd, unblinking eyes."
- All the furniture in the room is also beat up, which doesn’t particularly bother the narrator.
- She hears Jennie, John’s sister, on the stairs, who we learn is a perfect housekeeper, and the narrator is afraid to be caught writing.
- The narrator notes that the wallpaper has a sub-pattern to it, behind which she can see "a strange, provoking, formless sort of figure."
- She hears John’s sister on the stairs.