Category: Coffeehouse #1

The short story Yellow Wall Paper by Charlotte Perkins. This story shows the American reaction towards mental illness in the 19th century. The story takes place in the summer at the A colonial mansion.  Charlotte wrote this short story while she is locked up in a room by her husband Jone and brother because she had a mental illness.  Her carried husband tries his best to take care of his beloved wife by locking her up in a room with yellow wallpaper, away from her children. She starts writing her diaries and her emotions one paper after being locked in the room. She doesn’t have the courage to open up to anyone around her so she believes that the paper is the only trusted thing should share her thoughts with.  Jone keeps on visiting her in the room and encouraging her to feel better. He tells her that she is the only person who is able to help her. The yellow wallpaper is one of the important symbols in the store that reflects Charlotte’s personality and sickness, and it is the most thing that she observes throughout her day.  During her time locked in the room, Charlotte starts to see a woman underneath the yellow wallpaper.  She tries to avoid meeting anyone in the room just so she can see the woman.  Day after a day passes and the day for Charlotte to be set free gets closer.   At the end of the story, Charlotte sends the woman underneath the yellow wallpaper free by ripping off all the wallpapers, and she is free. Even when Charlotte was diagnosed as a mentally ill person her writing showed otherwise, she seemed like a really healthy person that she is only going through a hard time, but not mentally ill.

In the story of ” The Yellow wallpaper” the wife described as  worsening sanity. John was the husband and the physician. To improve his wife health he ranted a beautiful mansion, where the wife can get proper treatment of her health and mind. They both liked the house but as soon as they entered the room the wife had a scared with the wallpaper, she thought the wallpaper is repulsive. Since the wife was mentally ill ,John told her stop thinking about those crazy stuff thought. John thought by being away from those thoughts, writing , work and socialize  she can improve her health. One day she was in room and she saw a women in the wallpaper and it is moving. She got scared and ran to John and told him about it but John didn’t believe her. she wanted to change the room but John didn’t allow her to change it. Since John was high rank of physician, John had full control of her health. John thought by being in that room she can get proper treatment because it allow you to get full view of the beautiful garden etc. Day by day she sees different stuff in the wall and tells John about it. But john never believe it those. John gives her medication and made her go to sleep. But she never sleep , when John leave the room she wakes up.  The wife started distrusted John. On her last day staring at the wall she rips the wallpaper off and free the woman and started crawling around John. And the woman started saying u can keep me inside no more.

2/17/21

Malia Andrews

“The Yellow Wallpaper”

The setting in “The Yellow Wallpaper” seems to be a summer house. The couple are staying there as their home undergoes repairs. In the first paragraph the narrator describes it as an “ancestral hall” and a “hereditary estate.” It was a very large house or building with expansive surrounding lands. Though the house big and curious, the narrator focuses on one room. The room she and her husband John shared. But more specifically the wallpaper. She describes the color as “repellent” and “revolting” and says the pattern “one of those sprawling flamboyant patterns committing every artistic sin” (3). Her dislike towards the wallpaper turns into obsession. The narrator is sick from an unspecified illness but one can infer that it is postpartum psychosis, as her husband’s sister and their housekeeper Jennie, tends to her baby. However her husband who is a physician says she is not and must not put those thoughts into her head. According to John the environment would do her good, but the unfamiliar surroundings actually seem to worsen her case. She concludes that behind the pattern of the wallpaper was a crouching woman, trapped behind the bars and trying to shake her way through. There are two ways I have found interesting to interpret the narrator’s case. The first is that the wallpaper symbolizes her mind, which is turning in ways she cannot explain due to the sickness and she is the woman trapped inside this mind after her husband refuses to acknowledge it. The second is that the wallpaper or patterns actually remind her of the way she is in a sense trapped by her husband. John seems to dictate every aspect of her life. He doesn’t allow her to work or see her family. Although the time wasn’t mentioned in the story it was written in 1982 so this is almost definitely reflecting the subordinate role of women in marriage. It is also shedding light onto the seriousness of mental illness. During this time such sickness may have been seen as something rest could cure, which is clearly not the case. In the end the narrator identifies with the trapped woman and rips down the wallpaper to free her, but then she becomes her. She crouches down and follows the line on the wall just within the paper she has managed to tear off and claims she is free. 

“Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge” 

This short story takes place in Northern Alabama at a railroad bridge called Owl Creek Bridge. It takes place during the civil war. The time and setting are important here because it explains the soldiers that were performing the execution. It also means that since the main character, Peyton Farquhar was devoted to the South’s cause, these were soldiers from the northern army. One symbol I noticed was the driftwood. As Farquhar stood above the bridge he could see the driftwood floating down the river. This reflects Farquhar’s unattainable freedom as it drifts away from him. A symbol I found interesting was the concept of time being different for Farquhar than it was for the soldiers. As it may have only taken seconds, or minutes for the sergeant to step off the plank, killing Farquhar in that time he imagined a scenario in which he had escaped. He traveled through the woods and even made it home. Farquhar had traveled hours through the forest to get home, even experiencing nightfall. But he had been at the foot of the bridge all along, awaiting his death which likely came seconds later.

In the story “The Yellow Wallpaper” we follow the story of a woman losing her sanity day by day on this mansion she’s living with her husband and her sister in law. Her husband is a really good physician and so her brother and they always tell her that she’s not sick, while she thinks the opposite. so John her husband keeps the narrator on some prescribed drugs and they are not doing the narrator any help because it makes her feel weak when taking them and it seems like its not helping her “sickness”. This further drives her more and more insane while also being heavily controlled by John, always telling her everything would be fine. Also the narrator has a love hate relationship with the house she says its beautiful but hates the nursery room. It used to be a kids gym with barbed windows and equipment but the main thing she hated was that yellow wall paper she always talks about. That worn down paper is just making her go insane and she gets called crazy when the narrator talks about.

In the story “An Occurrence At Owl Creek Bridge” we follow the story of a man thats about to be executed. the story takes places in a railed road in north Alabama where the man is about to be executed. The story describes this man as a 35 year old man with good features. He was being executed for trying to sabotage and destroy the bridge.  But Peyton doesn’t have a dying wish just yet he thinks about his children and wife, once the rope broke he jumped into the river for his survival. the executioner missing his shots and then leading up to his own house where his wife is there.  But then we find out it was all in his head and dies being hanged on the Owl Creek Bridge.

“The Yellow Wallpaper” describes a story of a wife who demonstrates worsening sanity. Initially brought to a colonial mansion for the summer- she states being brought to live there for her health, which she describes as a ‘temporary nervous depression- a slight hysterical tendency’. However, after being brought to the room with the yellow wallpaper, we gain insight to her thoughts and her environment. According to her, there exists women who crawl within the wallpaper. Taking form during the night and crawling out during the day, who she then associates with herself at the end. This form of hallucination may indicate a worsening condition. While her physical seems to be performing better (better eating habits), her mentality begins to plunder. However, we must also consider the morphing of her own perceptions, including the environment itself. While the most obvious is herself proclaimed warped reality of the wallpaper, we see that she lacks a grounding in what is real and what is not. In the beginning she notes that the room may have previously been a children’s gymnasium, noting the windows to barred. We wonder if the windows were barred for a reason, would it be to lock her in? This could explain why John did not let her pick the other room, that is- for her safety. We also see how John is seemingly controlling, not allowing her to write nor exert herself in any form. This includes going out, from another POV this could seem as he is deliberately attempting to keep her in- shielded so to say. Her inability to write- can also be synonymous with her lack of control over her situation. He also would not give in to her pleas regarding removing the wallpaper. Stating she would find flaws in another object, which he would then need to remove- “He said that after the wallpaper 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.” This image her paints a picture of confinement. Such a reaction would seem it is not his first time dealing with these types of requests. One should also consider the state of the furniture within the room as well. She cannot move the bed, she believes it to be nailed down and the floor that is gouged, scratched and splintered. The paint of the walls in ripped in unseeingly places and the plaster dug out. While you may assume this was the state of the room prior to their arrival- we see the woman give into behaviors consistent with the state of the room. Including her creeping and ripping the wallpaper off with her teeth. While we are not sure if her room is an actual room or a facility, we can conclude from her setting and mental state that there is some form of confinement.

“An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge” tells the story of Peyton Farquhar- a civilian (?) currently to be executed on a railroad bridge by soldiers from the army. Before and during his execution, Farquhar drifts his mind away from his impending doom as he looks into the water below, pushing distractions into his mind and focuses on his family life. Through the story, we read about Farquhar’s escape. From falling into the river, freeing his hands/neck and arriving home. Unfortunately, at the end we come to learn that he died on the beam- his body swinging. This indicates that what occurred after he closed his eyes, was a figure of his imagination. However, through his ‘endeavor’, we learn about him. He places a special emphasis on the sluggish river and the driftwood. He watches the driftwood float down- he does not take his eyes off it; in his mind he may associate with this inanimate object. Possibly synonymous with freedom and will, the driftwood is a reminder of what he desires. There is also a theme of fleeting time- his watch a constant reminder of reality. However, the entire story tells of Farquhar’s alternate perception of time- which in some form shows that time can be internal and personalized.

A women spends all her time in a country mansion. She is in-prisoned within her marriage, social order, and her house. She is losing her sanity day by day. This all stemmed from her confiding in her husband about her postpartum experience. The narrator (which is the woman) is confined in a barded window room with yellow wallpaper. She also lives in the house with a woman named Jenny who is her husbands sister. she whole heartedly believes that she is sick. She can be seen as a metaphor for those who don’t realize that they’re oppressed and still agree with the oppressor’s. The narrator knows she perceives life differently from her husband; with is her doctor. John has complete control over his wife’s body. He gives her treatments and medications that confuse and over work her. Part of the treatment was isolation with meant she couldn’t write, work, or socialize.  The only thing she could do was stare at the yellow wallpaper.Due to this she confesses her thoughts on dead paper making it in a journal. Each time the narrator discusses leaving the house John makes light of her illness and her disgust with the wallpaper grows stronger.The color and the appearance of the wallpaper intensifies, and eventually, the wallpaper takes on a life of its own as the narrator’s grip on reality loosens completely. She begins to see a woman crawling on the wall. she sees the wallpaper as an emotional rollercoaster and analyzes each strip of wallpaper.The patterns only emerge when patterns seem significant to each other. She could smell the wallpaper everywhere and hates it. This smell could remind her of her captivity. At the wallpaper changes as the light changes. At night it becomes dim and plain like her captivity. After a while, she believes that the wallpaper has many women behind it. she longs to free these women. On her last day staring at the wallpaper, she rips it down and and reacts the crawling women that she saw behind the wallpaper. Destroying the wallpaper can be seen as liberation for her and the women that she saw behind the wallpaper. As she is crawling, her husband walks in, sees her, and faints in disbelief. She begins to crawl over him in circles around the room. Doing this broke gender normalities in this time and age.

Hope this works.

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