Script - The Yellow Wallpaper

Allie Doersch

A bird's eye view of the mansion, gardens, and surrounding area. Two figures standing in front, gazing up. With suitcases.

The two figures, John and the narrator [woman], their hands hanging down holding suitcases, we see their wedding rings.

Woman's hand opens the door to the house.

I am sick.

Woman drinking medicine

I drink tonics and journeys.

Woman strolling through gardens.

I sip air. I exercise.

Woman sitting on bed staring out window.

John does not believe I am sick!

Zoom in on woman's hands.

He says I have a temporary nervous depression.

View of a desk top with pen and blank paper, we see part of a window.

I am forbidden to work.

Straight view of woman, looking at viewers, hands in her lap, straight expression.

Woman

Personally, I disagree with their ideas.

Woman writing at desk

I confess, to think about my condition makes me feel bad...

View of the top portion of the house, and the sky above it

So I will talk about the house.

A view of a fence with locked gate, and little houses behind it. Trees, hedges, etc.

Hedges, walls, gates that lock.

Close up of colorful flowers and plants

A delicious garden!

Woman writing, looking over shoulder

woman

But I can feel something strange.

Silhouette of woman at desk from behind, in front of window.

Woman

I don't like this room one bit.

View looking up to a corner of the room, we see where two walls and the ceiling intersect.

This wallpaper...smouldering unclean yellow.

A close look at the wall paper, straight on, the pattern fills the panel.

It commits every artistic sin.

Woman quickly putting writing away in a drawer, we can see open door in the background, with the top of John's head ascending the stairs.

(Noise balloon)

Thud, thud, thud.

Woman

There comes John!

Woman sitting in window sill, writing.

Woman

This is only nervousness.

Close up on woman's face, pondering look with her pen up to her mouth, grinning slightly.

woman

I am glad my case is not serious!

Woman dressing herself, worried/somber/tired expression. We can see the yellow wallpaper.

Woman laying on bed, staring, tired look in her eyes. Bird's eye view.

Woman sitting on bench in the garden with John. facing each other

woman

I want to repaper the room.

Same viewpoint, John is laughing, woman seems hurt.

Same viewpoint, John takes woman's hand in his own.

JOHN

You can't give in to such fancies.

Closer view of John's face, he looks encouraging but stern.

John

The place is doing you good.

Sun setting behind trees, we only see the tops and the sky above.

I wish I could get well faster.

View out of window, we are looking down to see the garden.

View out of another window, we look down to see the wharf.

View out of a third window, we look down to see a lane.

A straight view of the woman, staring ahead, the wallpaper fills the rest of the panel behind her. Her facial expression is blank.

We see the wallpaper and a little of the floorboards. Parts of the wallpaper are torn off to show the blank wall beneath.

The wallpaper is torn off in spots.

We see the woman's feet as if she were looking down at her own. The splinters on the floor are large and rough.

The floor is scratched and gouged and splintered.

We see a drawer with papers with writing on them spilling out of the top. The drawer is almost closed.

woman

I must not let them find me writing.

View of the wallpaper again with a double layer effect, we see the wall, crown molding, and a small part of the ceiling.

This wallpaper has a kind of sub-pattern...

Woman looking sideways, writing at desk, we see the wallpaper at her side.

woman

...in a particularly irritating shade.

We see the window, the sun is setting and beaming in. Where the light hits we can see the second pattern.

For you can only see it in certain lights.

We see the woman's face, her eyes are closed, surrounded by the wallpaper.

woman

I can see a formless sort of figure.

The wallpaper, the ambiguous figure is on the left of the panel.

Same shot, figure is in the center.

Same shot, figure is on the right.

(caption spreads beneath panels 5,6, and 7)

It seems to sulk about behind that silly front design.

A group of people sitting in a group in back of the house by the garden.

Mother, Nellie, and the children came down for a week.

Woman looking down out of the window, we see the same group of people sitting below.

woman

I did nothing.

Woman curled up in bed, we only see her hair. Her body language suggests discontent.

I cry at nothing, and cry most of the time.

We see the woman's face, she is laying on her side in bed, tears streaming down her face.

woman

But only when I am alone.

A large panel, it looks like a map of the house and surrounding grounds. The woman is standing a one corner, and there is a dotted line behind her that shows the path along which she has strolled.

woman

So I walk a little. But the wallpaper...it dwells in my mind so!

Another large panel, it too is a map, but of the wallpaper, with a dotted line following the route of its pattern.

I will follow that pattern to some conclusion.

A close up of the woman's eyes: blood shot and baggy from fatigue.

woman

It tires me to follow it.

Laying in bed, a silhouette against the wallpaper.

woman

I will take a nap I guess.

Woman sitting, writing.

woman

I tried to have a real earnest reasonable talk with John the other day.

Panel 2 expands from woman's head as she is writing, as if remembering what had happened. She is pleading with john, facing him.

Woman

I want to leave.

But I was crying before I had finished.

John picks woman up in his arms.

John carries her up the stairs.

John tucks her in, a closer shot of her face and his hands. She still has tears streaming down her cheeks

John reads to her as she falls asleep.

Nighttime. The woman lays awake in bed, staring at the wallpaper.

woman

The shapes get clearer every day.

We see the desk, with various things on it, part of the window, and the wall. On the wall we see a figure creeping behind the pattern.

It is a woman creeping about, shaking the pattern as if trying to escape!

The moon shines through the window, across the floor and bed.

woman

I hate to see the moonlight creeping.

Woman gets out of bed, looks and gestures as if to move towards the wall to examine the paper.

John appears, we see him from behind as he peeks in the doorway.

John

What is it, little girl?

The two are sitting on the bed, he has his arm around her as an action of comfort, and has his other arm out in front of him.

john

Really dear you are better!

woman

Better in body perhaps.

We see the wall and window, with the woman sitting in front of it on her bed with her back to us. It is daytime.

woman

The pattern is torturing.

Same view of the woman, but it is night. The wallpaper has transformed and the moon is shining.

woman

It slaps you, knocks you down.

Same view as panel 4

woman

It cultivates deceit, and keeps me quiet.

Same view as panel 5

woman

And by moonlight, it becomes bars!

The woman is laying in bed, pretending to be asleep but with one eye open. John is behind her, examining the wallpaper.

WOMAN

I have caught them looking at it...

Woman writing, bent over, and if she is scribbling quickly.

Woman

But I am determined that no one shall find it out but myself!

Woman is writing still, but a closer crop on her face. Again she has a small grin, and looks pleased and a bit devious.

Woman

Life is very much more exciting now.

We see her hands from above, writing at a fast pace.

woman

I don't want to leave now until I have found it out.

Close up of pen, writing on paper. We see the wallpaper in the background.

woman

It is the strangest yellow. But there is something else...

We see the wall, with vapors seeping off of it, down the stairs and into the hall.

The smell!

The woman's face and shoulders, turning her head and running into the smell vapors, with a slightly disgusted look on her face.

It gets into my hair, it creeps everywhere.

Woman staring straight ahead, looking more crazed than previous shots of her head.

woman

I thought seriously of burning the house...

Close up of the vapors floating above the woman's head. We only see the top of her hair, it is messy.

woman

...to reach the smell.

A long panel, showing the floor and bottom part of the wall. A streak run along the entire panel.

It makes me dizzy, this funny streak on the wall. Round and round and round!

We see the woman from the side, she is sitting up in bed, as if just waking up.

woman

(above her)

I have discovered something.

(below her)

The front pattern does move!

Close up of the woman's eyes. In the shape of her eyes we see the pattern vibrating. Her eyes look wired, and unnaturally awake.

The woman behind shakes it!

A slanted view of the wall, so we can see a shape emerging from the wall, escaping from the 2nd dimension.

She tries to climb through, and gets out int he daytime!

Paper woman creeping in the garden.

Paper woman creeping by the wharf.

Paper woman creeping in the lane.

(spanning under panels 4, 5, and 6)

I've seen her out of my windows! Always creeping.

A solid block of black, with text written in the yellow color.

I intend to remove the top pattern.

We see a cracked door, with one eye peering through.

They are suspicious of me.

It is night. We see the floor panels and bottom of the wall again, but we see the woman crawling along the bottom. The woman's hands are entering the panel from above, and are clinging to a scrap of paper that is hanging fro the wall, about to rip it off.

The poor thing began to crawl, so I ran to help her.

We see the wall, with strips torn off, the woman's hands now at the bottom of the composition. The paper woman is clamoring at the bare pieces.

woman

She shakes and I pull, I pull and she shakes.

It is morning. The woman stands with a strip of wallpaper in her hand, staring with crazed determination. We see that she has torn off much of the paper in the night.

woman

I will finish it today!

The woman locks the door.

The woman tosses the key out of the window.

We see the woman tearing off the wallpaper in a frenzy.

The woman is running into the wall, running her shoulder along the streak as she clings to the remaining wallpaper.

woman

I will never go outside, they can't make me!

We see the door, with the knob rattling.

John

Open the door my darling!

The woman is on the far side of the room, stooped over with her hair in a mess, strips of paper everywhere and her shoulder pressed against the wall. She glares towards the door.

woman

I can't! The key is down under a plantain leaf!

John's hand lifts up a leaf, and grabs the key.

John has unlocked the door and opens it, we see hints of the chaos through the crack.

john

For God's sake, what are you doing!

We see the woman from behind John's hand, which is shaking. She is looking over her shoulder and stooped down.

woman

I've got out at last, and you can't put me back!

John has fainted, and is lying on the floor. The woman has just creeped past him. We are looking down on the room from a high point of view. A dotted line follows the woman around the circumference of the room, indicating that the is moving in a repeated circle.