Comic Script #1

A Comic Script adapted from Charlotte Perkin Gilman’s “The Yellow Wallpaper”

Page 1

Panel 1: A worm’s eye view of a large, imposing, colonial mansion.  The house looks pristine, but is obviously empty with windows that look like gaping holes.

                        Narrator: I will proudly declare that there is something queer about it.

Panel 2: The narrator climbing out an old car.  Her husband, John, is in the background at the wheel of the car.  The narrator is dressed properly and conservatively, but her face betrays a hint of dread and her eyes are tired.  She is looking up at the mansion.

Narrator: Else, why should it be let so cheaply? And why have stood so long untenanted?

Panel 3: Zoomed out view of the narrator and John climbing out of an old car in front of the imposing mansion.  They are also unloading luggage.  In the background there hints a gothic-looking garden, trees, and an ocean.

Narrator: It is very seldom that mere ordinary people like John and myself secure ancestral halls for the summer.

Panel 4: A god-like illustration of John carrying his medical bags and books.  He looks stern, clinical, and professional.

Narrator: John is practical in the extreme.  He is a physician, and perhaps that is one reason I do not get well faster.

Panel 5: The narrator following John into the mansion.  She has her head lowered.  John is carrying all the luggage.

                        Narrator: You see he does not believe I am sick!  And what can one do?

Panel 6: John and the narrator are walking up stairs.  John’s face is in the foreground while the narrator is in the back looking miserable.

Narrator: I am absolutely forbidden to “work” until I am well again.  Personally I disagree with their ideas.

Panel 7: The narrator is sitting on a dusty bed that is nailed to the floor.  John is setting down her bags in the room.  The narrator looks down at her hands, bored and defeated.

Narrator: Personally, I believe that congenial work, with excitement and change, would do me good.  But what is one to do?

Page 2

Panel 1: “Later” is in the upper left corner of the panel.  The narrator is in her room, her bags are put away and the bedroom looks bare, like a hospital room.  The narrator’s back is turned and she is writing in a journal by a candle.  A sickly sliver of a moon is showing through the dingy window in her room.

Narrator: I did write for a while in spite of John; but it does exhaust me a good deal—having to be so sly about it, or else meet with heavy opposition.

Panel 2: The narrator’s tired face is looking up at the sky and her back is still turned.

Narrator: I sometimes fancy that in my condition if I had less opposition and more society and stimulus—

Panel 3: A zoomed in view of the narrator’s hands writing in her journal.  Her hands are clean and the nails are short.

Narrator: --but John says the very worst thing is to think about my condition—so I will let it alone and talk about the house. 

Panel 4: A bird’s eye view of the narrator walking through the mansion’s elaborate garden.  It is full of paths, seats, shady trees, gates, but broken green houses and some weeds are creeping among the bushes.  The overall feel of the garden is gothic.

                        Narrator: The most beautiful place!  But it has been empty for years.

Panel 5: The narrator is sitting in the middle of a bench in the garden.  She looks very small and very alone.  She is looking hesitantly to her left, like she’s scared she is going to see something come of the bushes.

            Narrator: There is something strange about the house—I can feel it.

Panel 6: A bird’s eye view of the narrator and her husband eating dinner at a large table.  They are sitting at opposite sides of the table.  John has a lot of food and a newspaper open; he reads as he eats.  The narrator has a small piece of buttered bread on her plate and a few vegetables.  She looks defeated and alone.

Narrator: I even said so to John, but he said what I felt was a draught.  I get unreasonably angry with John sometimes…I think it is due to this nervous condition.

Panel 7: A zoomed in view of the narrator nimbly eating small pieces of vegetables.

Narrator: I take pains to control myself---before him, at least, and that makes me very tired.

Page 3

Panel 1: A view of the narrator back in her room.  Her pen is poised and she is staring at the wall.

                        Narrator: I wanted a room downstairs.

Panel 2: A detailed view of the room.  The paper is stripped off in certain places and stained.  Overall the room is very plain.

Narrator: 

Panel 3: Another view of the narrator writing in her journal.  While she writes, she is using her other hand to scratch at the wood desk.

Narrator: I despise this room.  The wallpaper is the most repellent, revolting, smoldering unclean yellow.

Panel 4: The narrator’s body is rigid and she is looking over her shoulder because she has heard a noise at the door.

Narrator: There comes John, and I must put this away, --he hates to have me write a word.

Page 4

Panel 1: The narrator is in her room sitting at her desk.  The sun is setting through the window.

Narrator: We have been here two weeks, and I haven’t felt like writing.  John is away all day.

Panel 2: John is leaving the mansion in a rush.  The narrator is visible as a slight shadow in a window.  She is watching him with blank eyes.

Narrator: John does not know how much I really suffer.  He knows there is no reason to suffer and that satisfies him.

Panel 3: The narrator is turning from the window.  She is slightly stooped and she is hugging herself.

Narrator: Nobody would believe what an effort it is to do what little I am able, —to dress and entertain, and order things.

            Panel 5:  The narrator is sitting in her room on the plain bed, staring at the walls.

Narrator: John meant to repaper the room.  He laughs at me so about this wall-paper.

Panel 6: An outside view of the mansion and the narrator is visible looking out the window, pushing her fingers against the glass.  She looks trapped.

Narrator: I’m really getting quite fond of the big room, the nice view, all but that horrid paper.

Page 5

            Panel 1: The narrator back at her desk writing.  It is the late afternoon.

                        Narrator: I wish I could get well faster.

Panel 2: A zoomed in view of the narrator’s hands: the nails are longer; there are a few scratches on her fingers.

Narrator: This wallpaper looks to me as if it knew what a vicious influence it had!

Panel 3: A tilted view of the wallpaper that slightly hints at the shape of a “broken neck and two bulbous staring eyes.”

Narrator: I get positively angry with the impertinence and everlastingness of the unblinking eyes.

Panel 4: A close up of the narrator looking paranoid and angry.  She is gripping onto her pencil and the desk.  Her hair is slightly askew and her eyes look wild, but tired.

                        Narrator: I never saw so much expression in an inanimate thing before.

Panel 5: The narrator looks like a startled animal as she hears a knock on her bedroom door.

            Narrator: It’s John’s sister!  I must not let her find me writing.

Panel 6: The narrator is hunched over and tucks away her journal in a drawer of dresses.

Narrator: She takes good care of me, but I believe she thinks it is the writing which made me sick!

Page 6

Panel 1: It’s another evening and the narrator is writing.  The reader can only see her hands pushing hard against the paper.  Her nails are longer, her cuticles are looking bitten at, and there are a few more scratches on her fingers.

                        Narrator: In the wallpaper, I can see a figure skulking about.

Panel 2: It is a different day and the narrator is writing at her desk.  It is a zoomed out view.

                        Narrator: I cry at nothing, and cry most of the time.  I am alone.

             Panel 3: The narrator is lying down on the bed staring at the wallpaper.

                       

Narrator: I follow the wallpaper’s pattern for hours.

Panel 4: A view of the turns and dips the narrator envisions.  They look sinister with pointed and rough edges.  Some shapes look like grabbing claws.

                        Narrator: It makes me tired to follow it. 

Panel 5: It’s a different evening and the narrator is sitting at her desk, motionless, staring at her journal.  She looks awful: dark circles under her eyes, her hair is falling out of a formerly trim bun, she has two many sweaters on, her nails—which are long and slightly dirty—are gripping onto a pen with bite marks on it.

Narrator: There are things in that wallpaper that nobody knows but me, or ever will.

Panel 6: A profile view of the narrator writing and behind her is the “woman stooping down and creeping about behind [the wallpaper’s] pattern.”

                        Narrator: I wish John would take me away from here.

Page 7

Panel 1: A different evening and it’s a view of the increasingly ill looking narrator staring at the wallpaper in curious fear.

Narrator: I tried to tell John about the taking me away and that I was not getting better.

Panel 2: A flashback of John taking the narrator’s hand in a very condescending and paternal way.

John: Little girl, the lease will be up in three weeks.  I can’t see how to leave before!

Panel 3: John holding the narrator’s chin like a little girl.  His hands are huge and he looks at her with belittling amusement.

John: You really are better, dear, whether you can see it or not.  I am a doctor, dear, and I know.

            Panel 4: Back to the present, the narrator is lying in bed, watching the wallpaper.

Narrator: I’m trying to decide whether the front pattern and the back pattern really move together or separately.

Page 8

Panel 1: It is the afternoon of a new day.  The narrator is sitting in her chair.  She looks even more disheveled than before.  She has her chin cupped in her hand and is wearing a thoughtful expression that is ironic given her distraught appearance.

                        Narrator: The color is hideous, but the pattern is torturing.

Panel 2: An imagined scene through the narrator’s perspective where she is running through the maze that is the wallpaper’s torn and mildew pattern.  The shapes around her are ominous.

                        Narrator: It slaps, knocks you down, and tramples you.  It is a bad dream.

            Panel 3: Back to the same view of the narrator in Panel 1 except the room is dark.

                        Narrator: I am sure there is a woman.

Panel 4: The narrator is back running through the wallpaper’s maze.  She is looking over her shoulder.

                        Narrator: I am getting a little afraid of John and even Jennie sometimes.

Panel 5: A flashback of Jennie in the narrator’s room, making her bed. The narrator is standing right behind Jennie’s shoulder.  She looks creepy, disheveled, and very ill. 

                        Narrator: I caught Jennie looking at the paper.

Panel 6: Jennie looks frightened.  She is staring right at the narrator.  The narrator has a sickly grin on her face.

                        Jennie: You frightened me, my dear!

Narrator (in an aside note to the reader): Did not that sound innocent?  But I know she was studying that pattern.

            Panel 7: A closed in view of the narrator’s face.  She looks crazy.

                        Narrator: I am determined that nobody shall find it out but myself!

Page 9

Panel 1: The narrator writing at her desk.  Her nails are long and dirty.  Her hands are covered in scratches and her sleeves have crusty stains on them

Narrator: Life is exciting.  John is so happy to see me improve!  He does not know it is because I must find out the wallpaper’s pattern…

            Panel 2: The narrator is staring at the wallpaper in victory.

Narrator: I have made a discovery!  The woman shakes the pattern from behind!

Panel 3: The wallpaper as the narrator envisions it: one woman combined with other shapes to form a monstrous, creeping hulk.  She looks to be crawling all over.

                        Narrator: The pattern strangles them!

Panel 4: Another night and the narrator is pulling at the wallpaper in large strips.  She looks wild. 

                        Narrator: That poor thing!  I’ve got to help her!

Panel 5: Jennie walks into the room and is looking at the ripped wallpaper in amazement.

                        Narrator: It had to be done.  This wallpaper is ghastly.

                        Jennie: Ha!  I completely agree, my dear.

            Panel 6: The narrator looks suspiciously at Jennie

Narrator (in an aside note to the reader): She betrayed herself that time!  No person touches this paper but me!

Page 10

Panel 1: Another night and the narrator is peeling at the wallpaper.  She looks completely crazy.  The room is also in disarray.  There are bite and scratch marks on the bed and desk.  Pages of the narrator’s journal are thrown on the floor along with ink blotches.  Along the wall there are huge smudge marks and fingernail scratches that were left from the narrator walking up against the wallpaper.

Narrator: There are so many of those creeping women, and they creep so fast.

Panel 2: The narrator is working at destroying more of the wall and the envisioned women trying to escape completely surround her.

Panel 3: The narrator is crouched on the ground like an animal, looking at the door.  There are pieces of wallpaper in her mouth, her hair, and in her hands.  Her clothes are completely rumbled and stained.

John (from behind the door): Dear!  It is your husband!  What’s all that noise?  Let me in!

                        Narrator: It is no use, young man, you can’t open it!

Panel 4: The narrator looks to be chuckling to herself and returns to her progress on destroying the wallpaper.

                        John: I need an axe! Someone get me an axe!

                        Narrator: John dear!  There is a key downstairs!

Panel 5: John opens the door and is looking in horror at the room and the narrator.  The narrator continues working.

                        John: For God’s sake, what are you doing!

Narrator: I’ve got out at last!  I’ve pulled off most of the paper, so you can’t put me back!

            Panel 6: A blank panel.

Narrator: Why should the man have fainted?  But he did, and right across my path by the wall, so that I had to creep over him every time.