Film Adaptation: 6 elements

Title:
Hysteria- Simple and to the point. Because I want to focus the film on the ineffective 19th century treatment the “rest cure,” developed by the physician Silas Weir Mitchell, I believe this title is suitable. The rest cure was specifically targeted for women with this mental disorder, but often it’s effects would intensify their hysteria and drive them insane, which is the case with the main character in Gilman’s piece The Yellow Wallpaper. I think transforming this short story to film is a great outlet to showcase this ludicrous medical treatment.

Characters:
The Narrator (to be named Lydia in the film)- actress Jennifer Connelly.
She has often been cast in dramatic films as the disturbed individual (heroin addict in Requiem for a Dream, a woman obsessed with reclaiming her home in The House of Sand and Fog, and the wife of a schizophrenic opposite Russell Crowe in A Beautiful Mind). She has often been dubbed the Queen of Angst.

John- actor Russell Crowe.
I chose Russell Crowe because he has previously worked with Connelly on the set of A Beautiful Mind. They had great on-screen chemistry so he seems ideal for this role as her husband. Because I want to make John’s character more prominent to the storyline, Crowe is a perfect fit to play the strong, authoritative figure. He has been nominated for three Oscars as best actor for his dramatic roles in The Insider, Gladiator, and A Beautiful Mind.

Physician (Dr. Weir Mitchell)- actor Johnny Depp.
I also want to make the role of the physician more important. We never encounter him in the short story but it's necessary to have him as a key figure in the film since it will revolve around “the rest cure.” I want to make this character semi-psychotic/deranged which is a role Depp is familiar with playing (i.e. Secret Window, Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street)

The remainder of the characters play secondary roles, so I won’t be focusing too much on them.

Setting:
Setting will remain the same as it is in the novel (late 19th century.) It will take place in a small coastal town of Rhode Island near Providence.

Plot:
Techniques to expand the plot:
-Show the “courting phase” between Lydia and John when they first met (this will usher in the romantic/comedic aspect for the beginning of the film.)
- Then show the progression and eventual deterioration of their relationship from the proposal to her pregnancy, to her concluding drive to insanity.
- The movie will begin with their move-in to the summer home after her physician’s diagnosis, with the use of flashbacks to slowly reveal to the audience how they came to be in that situation throughout the film.
Conflict:
-Man vs. Man (Lydia vs. John)
-Man vs. Self (Lydia’s inner struggle with her hysteria and depression)
-Man vs. Society (Lydia vs. the physician and the medical world).

Irony:
Dramatic Irony- Enhance the drama with special effects/theatrics to show the narrator’s encounters with the yellow wallpaper.

Situational Irony- Gilman reveals the backwards effects of Mitchell’s rest cure in her short story and that too will be the mission of the film. In addition, I plan to intensify the situational irony of the conclusion by counterbalancing her insanity with self-liberation. Although she is clearly mad, at the same time she reclaims her own individual self-control. I’ll try to make that juxtaposition clear.

Symbolism:
-focus on the entity of the wallpaper as the symbolic key to free the narrator from the constraints of her physician and her husband
- Since the “unclean yellow” color of the wallpaper is symbolic of her decaying sanity, I’m going to focus on the tone quality to use for the film.
-Also with the extension of the beginning of the short story focusing on the “happy times,” the aesthetics of the film regarding color is also important. So the flashbacks will be in vivid colors, whereas the remainder of the film with be in a dark, grim greenish gray tone similar to the The Ring. This juxtaposition of color will be symbolic of the deterioration of the characters both internally and externally.
-There are other objects in the wallpapered room that are symbolic of the narrator’s present circumstances (i.e. the nailed down bed, the bars on the window, etc). that will be exaggerated on screen to retain their symbolic identities.