Who Is Jennie In The Yellow Wallpaper?

Jennie is a character in Charlotte Perkins Gilman's short story "The Yellow Wallpaper." She is the sister of John, the narrator's husband, and serves as a caretaker for the narrator, who is suffering from postpartum depression. Jennie is portrayed as a sympathetic and caring character, who is genuinely concerned for the narrator's well-being, but is also somewhat naïve and uncomprehending of the narrator's mental state. Throughout the story, the narrator becomes increasingly obsessed with the yellow wallpaper in her room, and begins to imagine that she sees a woman trapped behind the pattern. Jennie's role in the story is to underscore the narrator's sense of isolation and confinement, and to highlight the ways in which women's mental health was often misunderstood and mistreated during the time period in which the story is set.

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