The Yellow Wallpaper
Please post one or two higher level thinking questions (application, analysis, synthesis, or evalutation) inspired by "The Yellow Wallpaper." Be sure to read the other questions before posting your own to avoid repetition.
posted by Kristin L | 12:08 PM
53 Comments:
Wow, what a well-written story! I read the story twice, as I thought it was so intriguing. My question to pose:
1. Is the woman allowing for herself to be set free or is she further constricting herself by focusing on the wall so often and finally tearing down the bars that served to be so taunting?
I see where your coming from but I had a different take on it.
1.Could her nervousness simply be caused by the fact that her imagination is locked up inside of her?
Kristin, Good point! Great question
How are the woman and the wallpaper similar and different in their attitudes?
This is another story I think I need to be on acid to truly understand, but I understood it enough for my questions:
Do you think the woman's room and the wallpaper a metaphor of the narrator's descent into madness? Are her trips to the gardens outside the house representative of brief moments of clarity and sanity?
Why didn't the house's previous owners destroy the yellow-papered room?
Was John a positive influence on her by providing something to resist and therefore giving her power, or was he a negative influence by stifling her ambitions and her mind?
Was the woman she saw creeping around in the garden her subconsious telling her that she wants to be out there or is it just her imagination forming something to keep her occupied?
This might be kind of like other people's questions but: Did the woman see herself in the wallpaper, confined to the room behind bars?
Sometimes I stare at my pink and white stripped walls and I get lost in it.
The sunlight and moonlight is emphasized quite a bit in the story. As the story progresses, how does this affect the narrator mentally and verbally? Do these events help narrator through her illness?
Why is some of the paper already torn off? Is there really something there, and if so, do John and Jane see it when the wife walks in on them staring at the wall?
DO you think she sees herself a little like the maze in the wallpaper? No matter how much she hopes, she just can't see a way out of her situation. Does she eventually see, like Alexandra says, herself locked behind bars in the wallpaper?
How does the narrator change from the beginning of the story to the end?
Has she accomplished anything through her struggle to satisfy a superstition?
Do you think John treated the woman more like his wife or a patient?
At the beginning of the story, the woman says that she believes that congenial work, with excitement and change, would do her good. Do you think the woman really sees the other woman in the wallpaper? Is it just an exciting story to keep her occupied? Or is it a metaphor for herself, being locked up in the house, and having to sneak around to find the meaning of her wallpaper?
Why do you think the wallpaper was the catalyst that broke down what remained of the fragile walls between her sane self and her insane self?
What had caused the insane self to remain hidden and trapped behind the bars of her mind for all the years before her "breakdown"?
Why do you think her health improved as she got more and more in involved in tearing down the wallpaper? Was it something for her to concentrate on or was it the wall in some weird haunted kind of way?
Why is the smooch on the wall the same height as her shoulder? Have other women creeped around on the floor before because of their obsession with the wall paper? If so, why didn't any of them tear it down before her?
This story kind of scares me, especially when she continues to creep around the floor even when her husband is passed out, in her way. The picture adds to the "freakiness" of it.
Can anyone try to draw the wallpaper? The author describes it so much, that it actually destroys the description of the wallpaper. Why would the author not want the wallpaper being able to actually exist?
"I never saw a worse paper in my life. One of those sprawling flamboyant patterns committing every artistic sin. It is dull enough to confuse the eye in following, pronounced enough to constantly irritate and provoke study, and when you follow the lame uncertain curves for a little distance they suddenly commit suicide--plunge off at outrageous angles, destroy themselves in unheard of contradictions. The color is repelllent, almost revolting; a smouldering unclean yellow, strangely faded by the slow-turning sunlight. It is a dull yet lurid orange in some places, a sickly sulphur tint in others."
How might the woman who is trapped in the yellow wallpaper be symbolic for the narrator and her disease?
Why does the human brain allow humans the capabilities to produce technological creations such as airplanes and cars but can also make humans do horrible damage such as murder? The mind can also play tricks on us and manipulate us like the woman in "The Yellow Wallpaper."
Do you think this story resembles the oppression of women in the 19th century? Was the husband John her oppressor or her salvation from illusions brought about by the yellow wallpaper?
Do you think that it is just in her mind that the tearing down of the wall paper is making her better or is there actually something in the wallpaper that was causing her to be sick?
The narrator mentions that she has cought both John and Jennie looking at the wall paper, and she is desturbed by this. How does the wall paper affect the characters views on the narrator's condition? And why is the narrator so disturbed by the fact that others are looking at the wall paper when she wants people to believe her that something is strange about the paper and the house?
I thought this story was very disturbing. It was confusing and hard to comprehend, but all together confusing.
As the story progresses, why and how does the wallpaper slowly start taking over the narrator's life? Is it just because she has nothing more to do, or can she actually relate to the lady behind the bars? Also, is there anyway she can actually be the lady behind the bars?
What if the women has multiple personalities...and the marks that she sees on the wall are truly made by her? she is so angry that she can't figure it out that she knaws the bedpost...I think that she does have multiple personalities and does the same things(creeping) over and over...(seriously!) -Corey C
I agree with him and think that he could be right. She seems like a lady who would have multiple personalities and forget about things that she did and wonder who did it. She seems to have problems with the way that her life is and she could be stuck between changing her life and the way it is at the time.
Ali's question
This might be kind of like other people's questions but: Did the woman see herself in the wallpaper, confined to the room behind bars?
I think the woman did see herself, or maybe that she actually was the woman in the wallpaper. She really was behind bars because she was not able to do anything she wanted or leave the house. She couldn't help herself, she had to hope that someone else would help her get out of her prison.
I am responding to Brian C's question. I think it is interesting take that the wallpaper could actually be entrancing people. I took it more as a figment of her imagination but what if it really does have an agenda of its own. That really makes me think of the people that put that wallpaper there to begin with and if they knew what "powers" it has?
Could her nervousness simply be caused by the fact that her imagination is locked up inside of her? -KristinC
I think that her nervousness could be caused by the fact that her husband leaves her daily and makes her sit in a room by herself. When she is by herself, her mind just wanders and all she can think about is the wallpaper. But what do you mean by the fact that her imagination is locked up inside her?
Allison,I liked your question. I think that her husband did relate to the action against the wallpaper. He confined her and her imagination. I think that she was ripping down the wallpaper to free the women behind it as a way of freeing herself from him.
I chose to respond to Matt's quesiton: How does the narrator change from the beginning of the story to the end?
The narrator is very calm and polite in the beginning. She seems to restrain herself constantly and only act the way she's told to be acting. Toward the end she lets loose a little, and allows her mind to venture into curiosity (or insanity, depending on how you view it).
Responding to Logan's question, I think John is a very negative influence on the character and him making her lie and sit all day long and not letting her engage in any activities. I think that if he let her do somethings, like writing, it would be better because her trying to hide it just made her worse until she had something active to do, like tear down the wallpaper.
Responding to the question posted by Ryan S, I think that the wallpaper gave her something to focus on and gave her a type of purpose. She was stuck at home all day long and needed something to focus on so she wouldn't go crazy (which she seemed to do anyways).
In response to Thomas' question, I believe that it was in her mind. An object such as wallpaper could not physically hurt someone, and the woman did have mental problems. The tearing down of the wallpaper is more symbolic of the freedom of her mind instead of an actual physical thing
ryan seguras question (deep)
The narrators health improved as she tore down more and more of the wallpaper because she could see herself in the wallpaper. By tearing down the wallpaper, she was subconsciously freeing herself from her disease, and it made her better. Her disease was all mental.
I am responding to amy o's question, Does the way she views the garden represent deeper stages of her illness?
I think it does, because when she first arrives, she is not as sick and she sees the garden as beautiful, while she sees the wallpaper as ugly. But the longer she is at the house, the more she starts to see the garden differently, and starts to be more and more intrigued by the wallpaper. Until the end, when she is the sickest, she is completly absorbed with the wallpaper, and, like amy said, she sees a woman creeping around in the gareden.
Responding to Corey's comment/quesiton:
I completely agree that the lady has multiple personalities as she alters views of characters and changes character traits throughout the short story. Also, it was interesting at one point in the story when she commented on the gnaw marks at the end of the bedpost, then later the woman makes her own mark in the wood. However, I think the lady not only takes on the role of the woman in the wall but also the children that lived and played in the nursery earlier.
Corey--Thanks for finding this. Next year I'll have my students read this after they read the story. I want all of you to remember this article when we start talking about "hegemony" (the process by which the powerful maintain their power and keep others powerless).
It also looks like Corey just scored himself a point for MVB (Most Valuable Blogger).
Peter the question you wrote blew me away. The question boggled my mind so much, I'm still laying out ideas what really the wall could be about. Yes the author consistently referred to the wall using a large variety of descriptive words which seem to differ but link together in one form or another.
As a reader, I believe the author really did want to put as much "emotion" and visual expansion on what the wall may look like. To give the a character like description. That is the reason why the wall may difficult to comprehend. It is as if asking someone to draw a human being based on a written description. It all depends on how the reader will comprehend the descriptions.
we need a mvfb (most valuable fish bowler)
Do you think she sees herself a little like the maze in the wallpaper? No matter how much she hopes, she just can't see a way out of her situation. Does she eventually see, like Alexandra says, herself locked behind bars in the wallpaper? -briank
Your question brings up an interesting point. I think that she does view herself like the wallpaper. Her whole life has been this continuous pattern, like the wallpaper, but every once and a while the pattern is disrupted and her world is a mess and it is hard to find her way back. She is bothered by the wallpaper because she sees herself in the wall and all she can ever see is the faults. All she sees is her own, horrible looking faults and that eventually drives her insane.
But what do you mean by the fact that her imagination is locked up inside her?-alexandra
I meant that when her husband and other discourage her from writing that it locks away her imagination which is her biggest outlet of relieving stress. Could her nervousness be caused by the fact that she can no longer write as much as she used to?
In response to nicci c's question, I think the narrator projects her struggle to obey her husband onto the wallpaper. As the story wears on, John becomes more adamant that she recover according to his beliefs, forcing the narrator to adjust her behavior until she was acting like a completely different person around John than when alone. She may not have consciously tried to separate both her rejection of John and the responding fake consent of him from herself by associating them with the wallpaper, but I believe this is what she did. The pattern on the wallpaper became the person she showed to John, and the area behind was where she hid her objections to him. In this way she could observe the warring parts of herself without needing to decide which one was right. I do not mean to imply that this is something that happened all at once, however, nor do I think this separation was complete. These natures all belong to the narrator, and she has free access to them throughout the story. The end of the story is convoluted because these pieces of narrator were fighting with each other for supremacy, but from time to time the narrator would remember that she was a person, not three, and when she tries to correct herself she slides them around and mixes them up to fit the situation. When she was talking about going back behind the pattern she was talking about how she would have to act for John when he got home (the pattern's job) and squash her resisting true self away (behind the pattern) completely enough that she couldn't even tell she had done so, or he would notice and punish her (the only reason she would want to do that in the first place). I wouldn't call it multiple personalities so much as self-inspired personification, but I think that's as close as I can get to explaining her situation.
Sorry if that only confused the matter more, I can't say I'm good at thinking like a crazy person.
So I was just presented with the idea that the bars on the window are there for the lady and they were not placed there for the children. Also, in the response to the question posted Friday, I do think the whole thing is staged in a mental hospital due to the bed nailed down, the bars on the window, going to see the doctor who treated shell schock (a mental disease), and the gnaw marks. The ripped wallpaper, the gnaw marks, the bars, all lead to the conclusion that the story was staged in a mental hospital! Also, due to the time at which the story was written (1887) it makes sense that that would be the type of atmosphere in a mental hospital at that time period.
Also, apparently the short story was converted into a show airing on the "PBS' Masterpiece Theatre in the late 1980's" (reader). How neat would that be to watch?
I apologize, I really don't mean to be blogging this much but I found a link that connects you to the aired version of The Yellow Wallpaper (it was difficult to open up but so interesting afterwards)! If you have an extra half hour, take a look:
http://www.geocities.com/tooncinator_2001/video.htm
I just have to say how impressed I am right now by this class's weekend blogging. I can already see that the MVB award will be hard fought :) As for the MVFB (see Aaron's post), I guess we'll find out soon.
Olivia--I'll definitely watch the video, and if it's it worth the time, I'll show it in class. Thanks!
I'm responding to Thomas's question. I don't think the wallpaper was causing her to be sick. I also don't agree that her tearing down the wallpaper made her any better, I think it made her worse. I think she tore down what was left of her mental barriers keeping her insane self locked in her mind when she tore down the wallpaper, letting the "creeper" out. For some reason her fascination with the wallpaper formed a connection to her insanity on a subconscious level. Maybe she was getting sick from the mental exhaustion that came from keeping her sanity for so long.
In response to Nicci C's question I think the lady was so entranced by the wallpaper that she needed to be inside it to finally discover the truth behind it. In a way she has become the women behind the wall because it seems like they are both trying to escape from their own reality.
I took a little time to research Charlotte Perkins Gilman. As I read deeper into the works of Charlotte, she gave me a reason to believe that she was a philosopher of her own. I've read Plato's "The Laws" and the preface of Charlotte's "The Man Made World." You may ask me what about these two books? The two authors had a belief on how life should be valued and lived. Charlotte Gilman was a believer in the Theory of Life and how life should be lived. After reading Corey's link, this led me to conclude that Charlotte, not only she wanted to help the other woman, but it was her according to her philosophy that she help others. Maybe because of Gilman's anxieties and nervous break downs it gave her reason to create such writing pieces with moral values of life.
I don't think anyone has asked this yet but could it be that, if the house isn't a mental hospital, John wanted to put the narrator in the yellow-papered room because he wanted her to go crazy? By keeping her locked up, yet able to see whats going on outside, she could become crazy. I hope that makes sense.
Alexandra, why would John want her to go crazy? Was he tired of her and wanted to be able to get another wife. Or was he just tired of marriage in general and wanted to be alone.
Personally I think it was a mental facility but I wonder, if John truly thought she wasn't sick why would he put her in a mental facility?
One reason John might want Jane to go crazy- assuming he is a doctor at a mental hospital- could be to learn how patients react to administration of the rest cure, or specifically why patients react badly to the rest cure. Jane objects to many of the ideas behind the rest cure, presented to her when she was perscribed to it. The hospital could have been toying with various ways to present the information of the rest cure so the patient would not reject and then supress it constantly, the main cause of mental collapse. They also could have been studying insanity itself in a cruel sort of way. They would have had to have had some other patients to study insanity effectively, though, which leads me to wonder if there weren't other people in the mansion Jane didn't know about (garden creepers?).
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