1. Apply the definition
“The Yellow Wallpaper” is a short story that seems to be semi-autobiographical. The story is told by a first person narrator, Jane, where she describes in her journal entries the yellow wallpaper in her room. Jane suffers from a nervous depression condition and her illness gives a clear insight into her situation in society and in her own marriage. She devotes these journals to describe how the treatment that she has to undergo (bed rest) deprives her sanity and how the yellow paper begins to alter the longer she is inside the room. The pattern and designs become intriguing to the Jane and her focus slowly narrows from the outside, broader perspective of the house to an infatuation with the one room with the wallpaper. …show more content…
The husband lectures in other cities, so the narrator is often left without emotional support for days at a time. When John is at home, his conversations are patronizing, and he dismisses her concerns about her condition. Clearly, her role is to comfort him and trust blindly that her own condition is improving. John’s self-absorption does not permit him to see that his wife's condition is deteriorating. Jennie (John's sister), who manages the household, is another example of the restricted role of women. She busies herself with decorating and supervising the kitchen. She unquestioningly carries out John’s orders to monitor the narrator's activities, even when her own contacts with the woman make it clear that what the doctor orders is not what the patient needs. She nevertheless obeys blindly until it is too late to reverse the effects of the narrator's descent into madness. The powerful pattern in the yellow wallpaper resembles bars that confine the protagonist in her world of loneliness, helplessness, and infantilism. Deprived of intellectual stimulation, the narrator's imagination conjures up a world behind the paper where captive women wait helplessly to be freed. The narrator completely identifies herself with the woman imprisoned in the
“The Yellow Wallpaper” is a short story that seems to be semi-autobiographical. The story is told by a first person narrator, Jane, where she describes in her journal entries the yellow wallpaper in her room. Jane suffers from a nervous depression condition and her illness gives a clear insight into her situation in society and in her own marriage. She devotes these journals to describe how the treatment that she has to undergo (bed rest) deprives her sanity and how the yellow paper begins to alter the longer she is inside the room. The pattern and designs become intriguing to the Jane and her focus slowly narrows from the outside, broader perspective of the house to an infatuation with the one room with the wallpaper. …show more content…
The husband lectures in other cities, so the narrator is often left without emotional support for days at a time. When John is at home, his conversations are patronizing, and he dismisses her concerns about her condition. Clearly, her role is to comfort him and trust blindly that her own condition is improving. John’s self-absorption does not permit him to see that his wife's condition is deteriorating. Jennie (John's sister), who manages the household, is another example of the restricted role of women. She busies herself with decorating and supervising the kitchen. She unquestioningly carries out John’s orders to monitor the narrator's activities, even when her own contacts with the woman make it clear that what the doctor orders is not what the patient needs. She nevertheless obeys blindly until it is too late to reverse the effects of the narrator's descent into madness. The powerful pattern in the yellow wallpaper resembles bars that confine the protagonist in her world of loneliness, helplessness, and infantilism. Deprived of intellectual stimulation, the narrator's imagination conjures up a world behind the paper where captive women wait helplessly to be freed. The narrator completely identifies herself with the woman imprisoned in the