The passage on page 113 is an introduction to the mood of the rest of the story and gives the reader expectations of what the story holds. It describes the setting, introduces two of the main …show more content…
Already, the story is showing signs of gothic fiction. Typically, a gothic takes place in a castle, sometimes abandoned and sometime occupied. In this case, the mansion has been “untenanted” for a long while which creates a level of suspense and raises questions as to why it might have been vacant for so many years. The narrator describes the mansion as being romantic but then in contrast, a haunted house. By calling the mansion a haunted house it drives the readers mind to the supernatural, such as ghosts and the unknown. Using the word romantic makes the reader to think of love, and elegance, with charm. Using “romantic” along with “haunted” paints a picture of the relationship between the narrator and her husband. Their marriage is supposed to be romantic and her husband is supposed to be there for her, and help her when she needs helping, but instead their relationship has been haunted- particularly due to the fact that he doesn’t take her seriously and allows her to get extremely sick- eventually driving her …show more content…
The passage is written in short bursts of paragraphs, with short ideas. These short sentences show that the narrator has difficulties explaining how she feels and that her mind can’t stay fixated on one topic for a long period of time. She jumps from one idea to the next, like her mind is racing in every which direction. She goes from describing the summer estate to talking about John, her husband. She asks questions, generally at the end of each paragraph, showing that she can’t finish her thoughts and she is unsure about many things. The way she presents her thoughts in this passage depicts the way she behaves in the rest of the story; it shows her mental constraint of self expression. The way that her husband has treated her has had effects on the way she thinks and acts; him treating her like a child. She feels as though she can’t express her true thoughts because she will just be put down or not taken seriously. That is why she is so tentative about what she says and what she writes. For example, she asks “what is one to do?” like she has difficulties thinking for herself because she is so used to someone having control over her actions. Later in the story, John tells his wife that she isn’t allowed to write in her journal anymore, which is her escape from reality, which allows her to exercise her imagination and