In the film, when Carol is at the Center, she is telling a story to one of the others and says something about yellow wallpaper. I believe this scene is a direct reference to the classic short story...and its subject matter, I believe, is what is going on with Carol.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Yellow_Wallpaper
The film is pretty much a modern adaptation of The Yellow Wallpaper. It's very interesting to compare the two texts, in terms of structure and themes. They are both very much about the discovery or repression of identity... or more specifically in Carol's case, a lack of. It's also interesting how both texts start very slowly, and kind of end at their most climactic moment. The very, very end is the climax.
Also, if you want to get a bit more literal, wallpaper that was green or yellow in the 1800s was made using arsenic, so it literally was toxic. And in damp weather (which is mentioned in the short story) the paper would let off toxic fumes which could cause hallucinations. I'm not sure if Charlotte Perkins Gilman would've been aware of this, but it is interesting that toxicity is both literal and metaphorical in both stories.
You just blew my mind :)
and just when I thought this board might be a waste of time. Thank you for contributing.
The Yellow Wallpaper is about a woman experiencing post-partum psychosis. It's a medical condition.
This movie is about MCS which is also about a medical condition. Everyone that I have know to have it, had the world in their hands. Full lives. Full careers. Happy. Read "Explaining the Unexplained Illnesses" by Dr. Martin Pall if you would like to understand the molecular and biochemical science behind the disease.
In the way that both pieces describe a medical condition which the medical world has yet to catch up with, and ignorant people around the suffering person cause harm and judge while they try to help, they are similar stories.