The Yellow Wallpaper - Questions/Analysis

 

THE YELLOW WALLPAPER

 

QUESTIONS

 

1. How does each of the first seven sentences foreshadow a later development in the story?

 

           A “very seldom” event of “mere ordinary people like John and myself secure ancestral halls” conjectures that some odd thing is going to be evolved with common couple. “A colonial mansion, a hereditary estate,” implies at the times of people who simply follow traditional man’s/woman’s institution. While men, as superiors, freely go to work outside the world, women, as subordinates, “absolutely forbidden to work,” just stay inside house under the superiors’ (husbands’) supervisions. However, the protagonist does not want to follow the traditional women’s institution but fosters her longing to work, states, “congenial work, with excitement and change, would do me good” (383).

 

           Furthermore, the narrator compounds unrelated words, “romantic felicity” in “a haunted house” for “fate” that contrives intricate “queer” atmosphere. Exhibiting absurd contradictory settings creates mindful paradoxes. Emphasizing the quest, she states, “Else, why should it be let so cheaply? And why have stood so long untenanted?” She is eager to expose how men (superiors) make their wives (subordinates) feel worthless and empty for a long period of time. Consequently, she “proudly declare(s)” to the world that what “a living soul” should essentially realize is who he/she is, and how he/she leads his/her own valuable meaningful life (383).

 

2. Who or what is responsible for the plight of protagonist?

 

           “John is a physician, and perhaps—(I would not say it to a living soul, of course, but this is dead paper and a great relief to my mind)—perhaps that is one reason I do not get well faster”(383). John (husband) is responsible for the narrator (wife)’s plight. Since every time she tried to talk about her problems to her husband, a living soul, he “would not hear of it”(384) but “sat up straight and looked at me with such a stern, reproachful look that I could not say another word”(389). However, the dead wallpaper seems to listen to her, reflects her true mind as mirror images, and relieves her nervous weakness, suffering, and dreadful depression.

 

3. How clearly does the narrator understand her husband’s character?

 

           “John is practical in the extreme. He has no patience with faith, an intense horror of superstition, and he scoffs openly at any talk of things not to be felt and seen and put down in figures”(383). The narrator understands her husband as a man of insensitive character; he does not have tolerance, and has no feeling for humanity. on the other hand, she talks about John as if he is a perfect person who does not hesitate what he is doing and who has strong confidence in him all the time, and states, “John never was nervous in his life” (385). Nonetheless, the narrator finally realizes her husband’s real character, and she indicates it through his cry out loud statements. Her husband, John, essentially does not know what is going on, and what he is doing to his wife. He states “‘What is the matter?’ he cried. ‘For God’s sake, what are you doing!’” (393),

 

4. How do the sentence patterns and rhythms relate to the theme?

 

           “John laughs at me, of course, but one expects that” (383). The narrator expresses her feelings for being a woman at times by writing about herself in a way that how people expect typical men’s attitudes toward to women through John who represents men’s traditional institution. However, the narrator perceives her insight through the wallpaper as if it reflected her inner awareness, stating “This paper looks to me as if it knew what a vicious influence it had!”(386).

 

            The sentence patterns and rhythms gradually develop prominent comparisons between John’s imperative mandates toward his wife and wallpaper’s circumspect reflections of the narrator’s sensory perception. John constantly isolates his wife from the outside world and blocks her from her potential capable talent, yet wallpaper faithfully stimulates her to apprehend her inner self and encourages her to flourish her ambitions.

 

5. How does the narrator’s evolving attitude toward the yellow wallpaper mirror the successive stages of her condition? How does the wallpaper function as a metaphor for the narrator’s mind?

 

           First, the narrator looks at the yellow wallpaper “dull enough to confuse the eye in following,” as if it reflects her unconscious inner mind that she does not feel good about herself, and it makes her more confused. In spite of that, it “pronounced enough constantly to irritate and provoke study,” it makes her analyze herself continuously. When she tries to find deep inside of her as following “the lame uncertain curves for a little distance,” she encounters with unexpected obstacles that drive her to despair, as if “they suddenly commit suicide—plunge off at outrageous angles. Yet it leads her to hear her inner voice which urges her to follow her earnest desires, which “destroy themselves in unheard-of contradictions” (384).

 

           At her first sight of the wallpaper, “the color is repellent, almost revolting: a smouldering unclean yellow, strangely faded by the slow-turning sunlight,” just like how she feels about herself, unpleasant. However, as she looks at the wallpaper for a while, she notices her mind reacts differently, and she states, “It is a dull yet lurid orange in some places, a sickly sulphur tint in others” (384). “But in the places where it isn’t faded and where the sun is just so—can see a strange, provoking, formless sort of figure that seems to skulk about behind that silly and conspicuous front design”(386). She perceives her concealed desire to stir up from wallpaper’s surface—reflecting first layer of her inner mind.

 

           As she observes the wallpaper more, she feels the lessening of her oppression and states, “I must say what I feel and think in some way—it is such a relief!” (387). She notices something free from her confusion, and states, “Behind that outside pattern the dim shapes get clearer every day” (388). Finding clearer shapes from the patterns through the wallpaper, she develops herself more liveliness, stating “Life is very much more exciting now than it used to be” (390). When she expects something more to look forward to wallpaper, she finds a woman shape which seems always creeping. She sees herself reflected from the woman of the wallpaper, as if the wallpaper demonstrates the panorama of her life how her life has been—viewing her inner mind.

 

            Finally, she realizes her true feeling about herself, as she states, “It must be very humiliating to be caught creeping by daylight!” (391)—deep inside of her true self. So she starts to peel the wallpaper off, as if she tries to get rid of her shameful past life. “It is so pleasant to be out in this great room and creep around as I please!” (393). She feels free from her husband’s supervision, and she is no longer an unpleasant woman, just like a creeping woman reflects her as a subordinate under superior. While she stays in the “ancestral halls for the summer,” the yellow wallpaper—function as a metaphor for the narrator’s mind—inspiring her to find her true self.

 

 

Works Cited

 

Gilman, Charlotte Perkins. “The Yellow Wallpaper.” SHORT FICTION: Classic and Contemporary. Ed. Charles Bohner with Dean Dougherty. 4th ed. Upper Saddle River: Prentice Hall, 1998. 383-93.