The narrator and John arrive at the colonial mansion to spend the summer with their infant son and two staff members.

John selects the top-floor nursery as their bedroom, ignoring the narrator's preference for a different room.

The narrator begins secretly keeping a diary, writing against John's explicit wishes.

John dismisses the narrator's complaints about the wallpaper and their living situation, calling her 'a blessed little goose.'

John threatens to send the narrator to Weir Mitchell in the fall if her health does not improve quickly enough.

The narrator begins spending long hours lying on the nailed-down bed and staring at the wallpaper pattern.

The narrator sees the shape of a woman stooping and creeping inside the wallpaper pattern for the first time.

The narrator asks John to let her leave the house early, but he refuses and insists she is getting better.

The narrator admits she can barely sleep at night, watching the wallpaper's developments through the darkness.

The narrator becomes convinced the woman in the wallpaper escapes freely during the daytime.

The narrator begins creeping around the room herself and locks the door so John cannot enter while she does so.

The narrator resolves to strip all the wallpaper from the walls before the family leaves the house.

Working through the night, the narrator peels off yards of wallpaper together with the woman she believes is trapped inside.

The narrator locks the bedroom door from the inside and throws the key down to the front path outside.

John enters the room and faints after finding the narrator crawling around and declaring she has finally escaped.

The narrator and her husband John arrive at a rented colonial mansion for the summer, where John has chosen a top-floor nursery as their bedroom despite the narrator's objections. Against John's wishes, the narrator begins secretly writing a diary, her only outlet while confined to the room under his version of the rest cure. John repeatedly dismisses her concerns about her worsening mental state, and when he threatens to send her to Weir Mitchell, the narrator's desperation grows. Her fixation on the yellow wallpaper deepens as she begins to see a woman trapped inside its pattern, and she starts creeping around the room herself while locking the door to keep John out. In a final night of frantic effort, the narrator strips the wallpaper and, the next morning, declares to a horrified John that she has escaped — at which point he faints onto the floor as she continues to crawl.

The narrator's confinement, obsession, and final breakdown.

The narrator describes the mansion's beautiful gardens, hedges, and grape-covered arbors surrounding the property.

The narrator notices the nursery has barred windows and that its walls and floors show unexplained signs of damage.

The narrator expresses gratitude for Mary, who cares for the baby and allows the narrator to remain separated from the infant.

John decides the household will receive no visitors for the summer to avoid overstimulating the narrator.

John warns the narrator to keep her imaginative power and habit of story-making in check so she does not tire herself.

The narrator first notices a strange, formless figure lurking within the ugly wallpaper pattern.

The narrator's family members depart after completing a weeklong visit to the mansion.

The narrator admits she cries frequently when left alone during the long hours of the day.

A powerful and disturbing smell appears throughout the entire house during a period of damp weather.

The narrator considers setting fire to the house in order to eliminate the creeping smell entirely.

The narrator notices a long streak of a mark running around the base of the bedroom wall.

The narrator spots the woman from the wallpaper creeping in the garden and along the road outside the mansion.

Jennie discovers the stripped wallpaper the next morning and warns the narrator not to tire herself before the journey home.

The narrator attempts to move the heavy nailed-down bed across the room but gives up after failing to shift it.

John arrives home, panics at the locked bedroom door, and the narrator calls out to tell him where to find the key.

The narrator arrives at a grand estate surrounded by lush gardens and arbors, but notices immediately that the nursery room is damaged, with barred windows and scarred walls and floors. She relies on Mary to care for the baby while John controls her daily life, forbidding visitors and warning her against imaginative thinking. Her early observations of a formless figure in the wallpaper deepen after a family visit ends and she finds herself increasingly alone, crying frequently and unable to occupy her mind safely. A powerful and disturbing smell pervades the house as her grip on reality loosens, and she begins to see the woman from the wallpaper creeping outside in the garden. The story reaches its conclusion when Jennie discovers the stripped walls, the narrator fails to move the heavy bed, and John finally breaks through the locked door into the ruined room.

The supporting details, relationships, and specific scenes that shape the narrator's summer.

The narrator senses something strange and unsettling about the house but dismisses her own unease as foolishly 'romantic.'

The narrator observes the broken, unusable greenhouses on the property during her early exploration of the grounds.

The narrator recalls childhood imaginings about the furnishings in her old room, connecting her past to her current obsession with the wallpaper.

The narrator grows positively angry at the wallpaper's pattern, describing its 'impertinence' as intolerable and maddening.

John calls the narrator 'little girl' and insists she must stay in the uncomfortable nursery because she can bear it better than a baby can.

The narrator begins watching the wallpaper obsessively in every kind of light, convinced the pattern looks different at different hours.

The narrator sees strangled heads with white, upturned eyes caught in the wallpaper's bars and pattern.

The narrator develops paranoia toward John and Jennie, growing certain they are secretly examining the wallpaper for their own reasons.

The narrator realizes only one week remains at the house, and the urgency of her wallpaper obsession sharply intensifies.

The narrator stops trusting John's sincerity, doubting his love whenever he asks her questions.

The narrator becomes certain that the wallpaper has secretly affected both John and Jennie in ways they are concealing from her.

The narrator refuses Jennie's offer to stay in the room with her on the final night that John is away.

The narrator strips more wallpaper from the walls the following morning, focused on pulling away the strangled heads and bulbous eyes.

The narrator tells John she has 'got out at last' and insists that he cannot put her back behind the wallpaper.

The narrator wonders aloud why John has fainted and continues crawling around the room, forced to pass over his body each time.

From the moment she arrives, the narrator senses something unsettling about the house but dismisses her own instincts as fanciful, a pattern that defines her deterioration throughout the story. Her frustration with the wallpaper gradually transforms into a consuming obsession as John infantilizes her and refuses to validate her suffering, driving her deeper into isolation. She begins watching the wallpaper in all kinds of light and develops paranoia toward John and Jennie, sensing they are taking an interest in the wallpaper that she considers her own private territory. As the end of the summer approaches, she loses trust in John entirely and becomes convinced the wallpaper has exerted a hidden influence over both him and Jennie. In the story's final hours, she rebuffs Jennie's company, continues tearing the walls bare, and confronts John with the revelation that she has escaped — leaving him collapsed on the floor as she crawls onward.

The key discoveries, shifts in perception, and psychological turning points of the narrator's decline.