Note: Comparative Essays due today!
"For many years I suffered from a severe and continuous nervous breakdown tending to melancholia-and beyond. During about the third year of this trouble I went, in devout faith and some faint stir of hope, to a noted specialist in nervous diseases, the best known in the country. This wise man put me to bed and applied the rest cure, to which a still good physique responded so promptly that he concluded that there was nothing much the matter with me, and sent me home with solemn advice to 'live as domestic a life as possible,' to 'have but two hours' intelligent life a day,' and 'never to touch pen, brush or pencil again as long as I lived.' This was in 1887…"
—Charlotte Perkins Gilman, "Why I Wrote the Yellow Wall-paper," 1913
"Every kind of creature is developed by the exercise of its functions. If denied the exercise of its functions, it can not develop in the fullest degree."
—Charlotte Perkins Stetson (Gilman),
from Hearing of the National American Woman Suffrage Association. Committee on the Judiciary, House of Representatives, Washington, D.C., January 28, 1896
Group 1 (Amelia, Justin, Andrew, Gavin): Explore - "Gender and the Nineteenth Century Home" and "Masculine Superiority Fever": Making Sense of "Spheres"
Group 2 (Chris, Nick, Oleg): Explore - "Light of the Home" image and "Motherhood" essay
Group 3 (Oumnia, Courtney, Shelby, Chantelle): Explore - "Puss in the Corner" and Gilman's brief suffrage commentary in the Votes for Women Collection: (Search by keyword "Gilman"; text under "Charlotte Perkins Stetson, of California)
After exploring the websites in your groups, add a comment to this lecture post. Address these questions (you should have a paragraph as a response):
- How do the primary documents on these websites portray the roles of middle-class men and women in the early- to mid-nineteenth century?
- What do you think of these roles?
- How are the roles similar or different from today's roles for women?
Two online texts for "The Yellow Wallpaper" are available: the full text of "The Yellow Wall-paper" (1899 edition), available online at the University of Virginia Library's Electronic Text Center via EDSITEment reviewed Center for the Liberal Arts, or the original New England Magazine version, available online at the Library of Congress' Nineteenth Century in Print Collection (periodicals).
In groups, answer the questions contained in the following table and post your answers here as a group comment. Remember to include all group members' names in your comment.
With a partner, choose TWO of the following quotations from The Yellow Wallpaper and respond to the questions. Post your thoughts here as a blog comment.
- "It is very seldom that mere ordinary people like John and myself secure ancestral halls for the summer. A colonial mansion, a hereditary estate, I would say a haunted house, and reach the height of romantic felicity but that would be asking too much of fate!"
- Questions:
- How would you describe the story's setting?
- How and why is the setting significant?
2. "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."
-
Questions:
- How would you describe the narrator's husband?
- What is the narrator's style of writing? What is her tone?
Questions:
-
- What does the narrator believe would be the best cure for her?
- How does this contrast with what her husband and brother say? Cite additional passages from the story.
4. "There comes John, and I must put this away-he hates to have me write a word."
- Questions:
- What is the narrative style of this story? What is the effect of this journal style narrative in developing the main character?
- How does it influence how the reader understands the main character?
5. "Nobody would believe what an effort it is to do what little I am able, -to dress and entertain, and order things. It is fortunate Mary is so good with the baby. Such a dear baby! And yet I cannot be with him, it makes me so nervous.
I suppose John never was nervous in his life. He laughs at me so about this wall-paper!At first he meant to repaper the room, but afterwards he said that I was letting it get the better of me, and that nothing was worse for a nervous patient than to give way to such fancies.
- He said that after the wall-paper was changed it would be the heavy bedstead, and then the barred windows, and then that gate at the head of the stairs, and so on.
"You know the place is doing you good," he said, "and really, dear, I don't care to renovate the house just for a three months' rental." "Then do let us go downstairs," I said, "there are such pretty rooms there."
Then he took me in his arms and called me a blessed little goose, and said he would go down to the cellar, if I wished, and have it whitewashed into the bargain.
But he is right enough about the beds and windows and things. It is an airy and comfortable room as any one need wish, and, of course, I would not be so silly as to make him uncomfortable just for a whim. I'm really getting quite fond of the big room, all but that horrid paper.
Out of one window I can see the garden, those mysterious deepshaded arbors, the riotous old fashioned flowers, and bushes and gnarly trees. Out of another I get a lovely view of the bay and a little private wharf belonging to the estate. There is a beautiful shaded lane that runs down there from the house. I always fancy I see people walking in these numerous paths and arbors, but John has cautioned me not to give way to fancy in the least. He says that with my imaginative power and habit of story-making, a nervous weakness like mine is sure to lead to all manner of excited fancies, and that I ought to use my will and good sense to check the tendency. So I try.
I think sometimes that if I were only well enough to write a little it would relieve the press of ideas and rest me. But I find I get pretty tired when I try."
Questions:
- How does the narration mimic the narrator's mental state?
- Point out digressions and discuss why the narrator might digress during her account. Review the 1867 Godey's quote from the "Motherhood" essay in Lesson One ("About every true mother there is a sanctity of martyrdom- and when she is no more in the body, her children see her with the ring of light around her head."). Compare this description to the narrator's role of mother.
6. "And dear John gathered me up in his arms, and just carried me upstairs and laid me on the bed, and sat by me and read to me till it tired my head."
- Question:
- What does this passage suggest about the relationship between the narrator and her husband?
- How would you characterize the narrator?
- How would you characterize the husband?
- Cite another passage from your reading/notes to support your claims. You might compare the narrator's and John's relationship to the relationship in the "Puss in the Corner" poem.
7. Section 3, "And it is like a woman stooping down and creeping about behind that pattern. I don't like it a bit. I wonder—I begin to think—I wish John would take me away from here!"
- Questions:
- What is the significance of the woman behind the yellow wall-paper?
- To aid discussion for the above question, compare the narrator's feelings about the wall-paper to the tone and message of the 1890 cartoon, For the benefit of the girl about to graduate.
8. "What is the matter?" he cried. "For God's sake, what are you doing!"I kept on creeping just the same, but I looked at him over my shoulder. "I've got out at last," said I, "in spite of you and Jane. And I've pulled off most of the paper, so you can't put me back!"
- Now why should that man have fainted? But he did, and right across my path by the wall, so that I had to creep over him every time!"
Questions:
- What does the narrator mean by, "I got out at last?"
- What does the ending of this story suggest about the woman behind the wall-paper?
- How are this woman and the wall-paper itself symbolic?
- Discuss the metaphor of the window in relationship to "getting out."
Homework:
We'll be in the same lab (room 258). We will read Inanimate Alice in class.
Men were the providers and women took care of the household and children. Men were typically the cat and woman were the mice. Men made all major decisions while woman had to agree. Woman were restricted from normal developmental growth. Woman are insignificant and are not superior improvement of the human race. We believe that these roles are ridiculous and demeaning. All individuals should have the same rights and equalities. Woman should have the opportunity to grow as individuals.The roles are similar to today, because in some cases men are still the providers are home, for example stay home moms. They are not caretakers and the mother is still the caregiver. They are different from today because woman have the same opportunities as men and are given rights that they didn't have before. Woman have the chance to be successful and independent.
ReplyDelete1. The documents on the websites suggest that women were the primary care giver of the children. The lack of a male presence in the pictures suggest that men had little influence on the development of the children, and home. Roles were clearly defined in the early to mid 19th century. Men tended to working matters, finance, and providing. While women kept homes in order, and children cared for.
ReplyDelete2. At the time these roles were completely acceptable. But, by todays standards they'd be unheard of. Men need to have an influence on their children for proper development. While women need to have similar rights with regards to having an opportunity to work and provide.
3. They have some similarities. Today women are still seen as more of the care giver in the family. But, unlike the 19th century, women are now given the opportunities to work for a living and provide for their families in the same way that the men of the past did. The roles have changed as well. Women have more rights than they did before, as well as more equality.
Roles were divided into "spheres". If one characteristic belonged to males, the opposite or complement belonged to female. Women were primarily housewives, keeping the home in order. They were expected to provide morals for their children to be brought up by. Men were expected to earn the money for the family. These roles are degrading to women, who are just as capable as men to have to stay home. Putting a barrier on women's capability is wrong. They were suppressed by not being allowed the right to and equal education. Todays society allows women to pursue careers of their choice. Genders play a more equal role in the tasks of cooking, cleaning, and upbringing.
ReplyDeleteQUOTES FOR SYMBOLS
ReplyDeleteHer Room: "I don't like our room a bit. I wanted one downstairs that opened on the piazza and had roses all over the window, and such pretty old fashioned chintz hanging! John would not hear of it""
The Wallpaper: "The color is repellent, almost revolting;smoldering unclean yellow, strangely faded by the slow turning sunlight."
Her illness: "If a physician of high standing, and ones own husband, assures friends and relatives that theirs really nothing the matter with one but temporary nervous depression - - A slight hysterical tendency - - What is one to do?"
Her Husband: "John is practical in the extreme. He has no patients with faith, and intense horror of superstition, and he scoffs openly at any talk of things not to be felt and seen and put down in figures."
Other character/family: "When I get really well, John says we will ask cousin Henry and Julia down for a long visit; but he says he would as soon put fire works in my pillow case as to let me have those stimulating people about now."
Herself:"So I take phosphates or phosphites - - which ever it is, and tonics, and journeys, and air, and exercise, and an absolutely forbidden to "work" until I am well again."
Her journal: "I did write for a while in spite of them; but it DOES exhaust me a good deal - - having to be so sly about it, or else meet with heavy opposition."
DESCRIPTIONS OF SYMBOLS
Her room: Big airy windows barred
The wallpaper: Stripped off around head of my bed, dull flamboyant patterns
Her illness: Nervous troubles, depressing in nervousness
Her husband: No patients
Other characters/family: Takes care of her baby, habit of story making, John sister; carrying but believes her writing is making her ill.
Herself: Imaginative power, is impacted from others thoughts.
Her journal: Get away, Stress reliever.
READER INTERPRETATION:
Her room: Cage like, its still bright but gives the feeling of entrapment.
The wallpaper: Symbolizing her illness and how she is trying to overcome it.
Her illness: She may have psychosis or depressed because or her child, mental illness.
Her husband: He's ashamed of her which may be the reason why he isolated her. She was considered crazy, took her away and hoped she would become better. He never encouraged her to leave the room.
Other characters/family: The husbands sister, believes that the writing has to do with her illness.
Herself: She thinks something is wrong because everyone around her keeps telling her that and it keeps making her believe that. She states she needs to get rid of the wallpaper because it symbolizes her illness.
Her Journal: Her stress reliever, escape, and a way to communicate how she is truly feeling.
1. She describes the room as. Big, filled with light, airy, has large bed that is secured to the floor.
ReplyDeleteIt seems contradictory that she would describe this big open room, but she is trpped inside of it most of the time
2. Several different shades of yellow, confusing, atrocious. "One of those sprawling, flamboyant patterns committing every artistic sin. It is dull enough to confuse the eye in the following, pronounced enough constantly to 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 contradiction."
The wall paper is really ugly and odd looking
3. She describes her illness as nervousness.
she seemed to be a little odd sounding when describing things in the story.
4. Her husband, John, is a physician. He seems to be loving but has an underlying emotion. He seemed to have good intentions
5. Jennie is johns sister. She doesn't like the wall paper, and feels that the wall paper is making her worse. She seemed to have it out for the author.
6. she describes herself as sick at the beginning of the story, then when she figures out the wallpaper she thinks that she is better. She seemed like she didn't have all the screws in her head tightened
7. She can't write when people are around. I thought that her caregivers where just looking out for her, trying to make sure that she didn't over work herself.
8. The wall paper is different in the moonlight. Wallpaper women creep around during the day. The room must have been a nursery before.
The other oddities in the story really fleshed out the characters
Room: “I'm really getting quite fond of the big room”
ReplyDelete“It is a big, airy room, the whole floor nearly, with windows that look all ways, and air and sunshine galore.”
The spacious, sunlit room is like the possibility of happiness that her life could hold. However like her role in life, she is restrained within the walls of this space.
Wall-paper:
-“The color is repellent, almost revolting; a smouldering unclean yellow, strangely faded by the slow-turning sunlight.”
-“There is a recurrent spot where the pattern lolls like a broken neck and two bulbous eyes stare at you upside down.”
-“It becomes bars! The outside pattern I mean, and the woman behind it is as plain as can be.”
The hideous, chaotic pattern on the yellow paper is a metaphor for her illness. She imagines that the patterns turn into women trying to escape from their restraints, and relates herself to these conjured images.
Her illness:
-“I believe that congenial work, with excitement and change, would do me good.”
-“I was to have perfect rest and all the air I could get.”
The narrator is supposedly suffering from a disease, but it is unclear whether she is actually ill. It could be that this treatment of trying to cure her by resting is actually the cause of her insanity.
Her husband:
-“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.”
Her husband symbolizes the restraints that society has put on women. He treats her like any other patient, and doesn’t believe what she tells him.
Her other caretakers and/or family:
-Jennie is John's sister and the narrators housekeeper. "If a physician of high standing, and one's own husband, assures friends and relatives that there is really nothing the matter with one but temporary nervous depression- a slight hysterical tendency- what is one to do?"
"My brother is also a physician of high standing. . . he says the same thing". Jennie gives narrator more guilt over her inability to be a wife or mother.
Herself:
"I am glad my case is not serious! But nervous troubles are dreadfully depressing". She is scared to let out her inner thoughts because of her state. She believes that doing work, and other exciting things would do her good.
Her Journal:
-" I even said to John one moonlight evening [of my fear], but he said what i felt was a draught and shut the window". She wants to say what she thinks without being judges so her journal is her escape. Her family is trying to contain her.
Other notes or observations:
-The wallpaper is a symbol of the narrators own self image. She sees a ghostly sub-pattern only visible in certain light. The layers she sees is a symbol of herself that John is unable to recognize. The tearing of the wallpaper symbolizes freeing herself from the constraints and oppression from her family.
QUOTES NUMBER 1
ReplyDeleteThe story setting is in a country house, three miles from the nearest village. It is surrounded by hedges, a garden, and servants quarters. As the story moves on the setting focuses on the nursery and its wallpaper. It has the appearance of tranquility but is actually a room of confinement. On the outside it looks like rich mans paradise. On the inside it symbolizes a jail cell for the woman which is significant because she is ill and feels trapped.
QUOTE NUMBER 3
The narrators husband is a practical physician who thinks his wife is suffering from nothing more than slight hysteria. He forbids her to exercise her creative imagination. He treats his wife like a baby and he believes he is of high authority based on his reputation of being a doctor. He also believes in male superiority.
The narrators style is telling a story of a woman's nervous break down. The tone is suggestive of one who is insane. As the story progresses she regresses into insanity. Perhaps at the end of the story it was her insanity of oppression that freed her from submissiveness.
"It is very seldom that mere ordinary people like John and myself secure ancestral halls for the summer. A colonial mansion, a hereditary estate, I would say a haunted house, and reach the height of romantic felicity but that would be asking too much of fate!"
ReplyDeleteHow would you describe the story's setting?
How and why is the setting significant?
The story setting is contradicting and sarcastic in the sense that she's saying that house it beautiful and bright from the outside but her room is constricting her healing because the wallpaper and windows are revolting, unclear yellow, and the wall paper is disintegrating. What the reader takes from the setting is that it's not a healthy place for one to be trying to seek help and recover. We also believe when she's explaining the room she believes that it's not a good fit for herself as well and none of her caregivers are truly listening to her requests or thoughts.
The setting is significant because it gives the reader an idea about how the illness is affecting the protagonist. It's symbolizing the struggle that she faces within herself and how the exterior relationship play a factor in her healing process.
3. "Personally, I believe that congenial work, with excitement and change, would do me good."
What does the narrator believe would be the best cure for her?
How does this contrast with what her husband and brother say? Cite additional passages from the story.
The narrator believes in order to create change and start her healing process, she needs to have control over her life and begin to create changes. The wallpaper symbolizes the the first stage of changes in her life that she can control and see drastic results. By destroying the wall paper she believes within herself that she can fight her challenges and overcome anything.
This contradicts what her husband and her brother believe is right for her because they don't see any significances the wallpaper and how it could help her heal because of their education.
2. John is a highly regarded physician who seems to care for his wife's' condition, but doesn't seem to listen to his wife's cries for help. He just puts them off as over stimulation from fancies.
ReplyDeleteShe has a style of writing similar to a journal. Sentences are choppy and the author jumps erratically from one thought to another.
8. She tore down the wallpaper freeing her from her prison. She felt as though she was trapped by the paper.
It suggests that the author feels that the women was trapped by the wallpaper, and that she was set free by her tearing it down. It also seems that the women in the wallpaper was a figment of her sub conscience, possibly her.
They both start out intact but starting to break down throughout the story. By the end of the story the wallpaper and the author are completely torn apart.
The window was barred up, similar to a prison. It conveys a metaphor of imprisonment and an inability to escape.
Nick, Oleg, Chris, and Reema.
ReplyDeleteQuotations and support from the text:
1.
2. (included in our answer)
3. "Of course it is only nervousness. It does weigh on me so not to do my duty in any way!"
4. "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."
5. I've caught him several times looking at the paper! and Jennie too. I caught Jennie with her hand on it once. She didn't know I was in the room [...] she turned around as if she had been caught stealing, and looked quite angry -- asked me why I should frighten her so!"
6. "That is why I always watch it [...] Life is very much more exciting now than it used to be."
7.
Question 1:
ReplyDeleteThe story is set in a large country house. It is surrounded by vast gardens and greenery. However, the majority of the story takes place within the room that the narrator is confined in. The room is big, airy and sunlit, however the wallpaper contributes to a feeling of entrapment. The putrid yellow and patterns of the paper are significant, as they provide a metaphor into the life of the narrator. She is compared to the women she sees in the pattern, and how they are restrained from escaping, as if they are behind bars.
Question 3:
The narrator believes that she knows what’s best for her. She wishes to interact with others, such as her family. She wants to escape her confinement within her room, and do exciting things that will stimulate her mind and body, rather than simply resting. The lack of excitement in her life is what pushes her to the brink of insanity. The doctors in her family (her husband and brother) disregard her opinions and treat her like a child. “I tried to have a real earnest reasonable talk with him the other day, and tell him how I wish he would let me go and make a visit to Cousin Henry and Julia. But he said I wasn't able to go, nor able to stand it after I got there; and I did not make out a very good case for myself, for I was crying before I had finished.” She states her imput, but it is simply ignored, for her brother feels he knows better, due to his education.
Gavin and Justin- Lecture 12 . Answering questions
ReplyDeleteQuote 2.
1. John can be described as an authoritative, rational thinker. To the reader, he appears as the antagonist, not allowing his wife to explore the outside world. He constricts her mind and well-being by telling her to ignore her emotions and trapping her imagination.
2. The narrator's style contains bits of sarcasm, while describing what her imagination sees. She is very descriptive in her writing approach, and gives the reader a deep insight into her own thoughts. She reveals a tone of frustration and anxiousness. Her desire to free herself is obvious in her writing.
Quote 3
1. The narrator believes that being outside, and stimulating her mind will in turn make her happier, and healthier. The thought of being outside gets her excited, even when talking about being in her colourful garden.
2. The brother and husband say that she must constrain her imagination and not et her emotions take over. Being consolidated in their minds is the best way to get better. "[A]bsolutely forbidden to 'work' until i am well again" (Gilman).
Chantelle and Shelby passage from "The Yellow Wallpaper"
ReplyDelete"At first he meant to repair the room, but afterwards he said that I was letting it get the better of me, and that nothing was worse for a nervous patient than to give way to such fanices"