"The Yellow Wallpaper" by Charlotte Perkins Gilman
So, I figured since I basically loved this story and had points left I wanted to say at the end of class today, that I would post here. I'm also going to summarize general points made by myself and the rest of the class for studying purposes for our...inevitable test.
Symbols of women's oppression by man:
The sunlight came to represent men and how they quell women's liberation. I thought that the choice of sunlight to represent men is reflective of Gilman's choice to have the wallpaper be yellow. The woman in the wallpaper disappeared in the day (paralleling how female rebellion is quieted when there are males present since they are doing tihs all secretly). This secrecy is emphasized by the choice of the women in the wallpaper to appear by moonlight, at night - the night obviously representing stealthiness - the stealthiness which is also represented by Gilman's choice of the world "creeping" rather than a verb like "breaking" (free).
Choice of yellow:
As I said above, it parallels the color of sunlight. However, sunlight is usually a positive color but the wallpaper was described as being sickly. This fits the narrator's sickness. Any other thoughts on the choice of yellow?
Structure:
Structure of story: As the narrator descends more and more into insanity, the structure of the story and sentences becomes choppier. If you notice, by the last section of the story, she is no longer forming paragraphs but rather excited, short exclamations and sentences.
Structure of house: The house is described as being isolated, divided, and sectioned off - especially the narrator's room. This emphasizes her loneliness and struggle.
Structure of room: Like that of a mental asylum (bolted bed, barred windows)
Things I wanted to say in class:
Someone brought up the point that they felt John loved his wife because of her ROLE as a wife. However, I feel that her wifely duties were stripped of her (Mary takes care of her baby, JEnnie takes care of the house) so all that was really left was a kind of...useless (to John) of a woman. She merely acted as his pet, someone he could care for and have subserviant to him.
On that same note of whether John cared for her or not or just wanted to feel powerful, I feel it is hard to determine just from his prescribed remedy for her illness. There was no way for him to measure something so abstract as her symptoms - she suffered from depression and fatigue. There is no thermometer to measure those things, so he merely had to go by her descriptions and emotional state. He probably stereotyped her ailments as feminine ones - those of supposed emotional frailty.
Anyway...creepy story. I liked it.
Feel free to disagree, agree, et cetera. :)
- Sadizzle Padderizzle
Symbols of women's oppression by man:
The sunlight came to represent men and how they quell women's liberation. I thought that the choice of sunlight to represent men is reflective of Gilman's choice to have the wallpaper be yellow. The woman in the wallpaper disappeared in the day (paralleling how female rebellion is quieted when there are males present since they are doing tihs all secretly). This secrecy is emphasized by the choice of the women in the wallpaper to appear by moonlight, at night - the night obviously representing stealthiness - the stealthiness which is also represented by Gilman's choice of the world "creeping" rather than a verb like "breaking" (free).
Choice of yellow:
As I said above, it parallels the color of sunlight. However, sunlight is usually a positive color but the wallpaper was described as being sickly. This fits the narrator's sickness. Any other thoughts on the choice of yellow?
Structure:
Structure of story: As the narrator descends more and more into insanity, the structure of the story and sentences becomes choppier. If you notice, by the last section of the story, she is no longer forming paragraphs but rather excited, short exclamations and sentences.
Structure of house: The house is described as being isolated, divided, and sectioned off - especially the narrator's room. This emphasizes her loneliness and struggle.
Structure of room: Like that of a mental asylum (bolted bed, barred windows)
Things I wanted to say in class:
Someone brought up the point that they felt John loved his wife because of her ROLE as a wife. However, I feel that her wifely duties were stripped of her (Mary takes care of her baby, JEnnie takes care of the house) so all that was really left was a kind of...useless (to John) of a woman. She merely acted as his pet, someone he could care for and have subserviant to him.
On that same note of whether John cared for her or not or just wanted to feel powerful, I feel it is hard to determine just from his prescribed remedy for her illness. There was no way for him to measure something so abstract as her symptoms - she suffered from depression and fatigue. There is no thermometer to measure those things, so he merely had to go by her descriptions and emotional state. He probably stereotyped her ailments as feminine ones - those of supposed emotional frailty.
Anyway...creepy story. I liked it.
Feel free to disagree, agree, et cetera. :)
- Sadizzle Padderizzle
Labels: gilman, short story, yellow wallpaper
posted by L Lazarow | 6:32 PM
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