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The Diary
As the story progresses, the narrator begins to imagine that, in a certain light, a mysterious figure appears within the wallpaper. Eventually this figure takes on the form of a woman, and she seems to be trapped within the wallpaper. The narrator keeps this mysterious figure’s existence a secret from her husband, John, and in the story’s climax seeks to free her by destroying the wallpaper. The woman behind the wallpaper seems to represent the narrator’s own sense of confinement and being oppressed, and she eventually identifies herself entirely with this mysterious figure.
The Mysterious Figure Quotes in The Yellow Wallpaper
The The Yellow Wallpaper quotes below all refer to the symbol of The Mysterious Figure. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
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Sixth Entry
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At night in any kind of light, in twilight, candle light, 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.
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Eighth Entry
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There is a very funny mark on this wall, low down, near the mopboard. A streak that runs round the room. It goes behind every piece of furniture, except the bed, a long, straight, even SMOOCH, as if it had been rubbed over and over. I wonder how it was done and who did it, and what they did it for. Round and round and round—round and round and round—it makes me dizzy!
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Ninth Entry
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And she is all the time trying to climb through. But nobody could climb through that pattern—it strangles so; I think that is why it has so many heads.
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Twelfth Entry
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I suppose I shall have to get back behind the pattern when it comes night, and that is hard!
It is so pleasant to be out in this great room and creep around as I please! I don't want to go outside. I won't, even if Jennie asks me to.
For outside you have to creep on the ground, and everything is green instead of yellow.
But here I can creep smoothly on the floor, and my shoulder just fits in that long smooch around the wall, so I cannot lose my way.
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"I've got out at last," said I, "in spite of you and Jane. And I've pulled off most of the paper, so you can't put me back!"
Now why should that man have fainted? But he did, and right across my path by the wall, so that I had to creep over him every time!
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Get the entire The Yellow Wallpaper LitChart as a printable PDF.
The Mysterious Figure Symbol Timeline in The Yellow Wallpaper
The timeline below shows where the symbol The Mysterious Figure appears in The Yellow Wallpaper. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Second Entry
...the wallpaper, in which, when the light is just right, she can see a mysterious figure that ‘seems to skulk’ in a sub-pattern. Jennie’s approach on the stairs interrupts her musing,...
(full context)
Fourth Entry
...Jennie, but she watches it more and more closely. She can make out the dim figure behind the pattern more clearly now: it is the repeated shape of a woman, stooping...
(full context)
Fifth Entry
...crept in the windows. She lay awake watching the light on the pattern, seeing the figure seem to move behind it, and then got up to feel if it had in...
(full context)
Sixth Entry
...as the light changes. At night, the pattern becomes bars, and she sees the mysterious figure of a woman behind them. The figure puzzles and intrigues her, as she lies in...
(full context)
Ninth Entry
The narrator has made a discovery: the front pattern does move, because the mysterious figure of the woman shakes it by crawling around fast and shaking the bars formed by...
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Tenth Entry
The narrator confides in the reader that she has seen the mysterious woman escape the wallpaper during the day, creeping along on the shaded lane. The narrator knows...
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Twelfth Entry
...overnight. As soon as the moon appears, she begins her attempt to free the mysterious figure, peeling yards of the wallpaper away in a strip around the room. When Jennie sees...
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Here, the perspective shifts. The narrator begins to speak as though she were the mysterious woman behind the wallpaper, just escaped. She can creep around in the room as much as...
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