The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman

"The Yellow Wallpaper" by Charlotte Perkins Gilman is a haunting short story about a woman suffering from postpartum depression who is confined to a bedroom as part of a "rest cure" prescribed by her physician husband. Isolated and forbidden from engaging in any creative or stimulating activities, she becomes fixated on the room's yellow wallpaper. As her obsession deepens, she begins to perceive figures trapped within its patterns, symbolizing her own feelings of entrapment. Published in 1892, this powerful story explores themes of mental illness, repression, and the consequences of denying women autonomy, making it a classic in feminist literature.