Monthly Archives: February 2013

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after reading Fictions of Authority , the poem assigned I felt like the woman speaking through the poem happy with her husband. During the seven weeks they spend together she never felt regret and expresses this feeling through the letter. She speaks of the qualities she admires about him, and how in their time together she has looked for a reason not to be together and so far yet hasn’t found that.

 

“I tell you my dear husband is of the of most amiable of men, I have been married seven weeks, and have never found the least reason to repent the day that joined us, my husband is in person and manners far from resembling ugly, crass, old, disagreeable, and jealous monsters who think by confining to secure; a wife it is his maxim to treat as a bosom-friend and confidant, and not as his play thing or menial slave, the women chosen to be his companion”     – Beginning of page 9 Line 7-18

Fictions of Authority

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In Susan Sniader Lanser’s groundbreaking study, Fictions of Authority: Women Writers and Narrative Voice, Lanser argues that social pressures not only constrained the content of the narrative but the narration style itself. Early in her book, Lanser includes a letter that showcases one writer’s solution to the limitations she found in writing negatively about her marriage. When I read this letter and Lanser’s analysis of it, I wonder what techniques Charlotte Perkins Gilman employed to convey a positive message about the narrator’s feelings about her husband while also conveying something much different to a more tuned-in reader. Let’s read the letter on pages 9-11 of Fictions of Authority and leave any comments here–your reactions, thoughts on the letter or how it illuminates the way you read any of the short stories assigned so far this semester, etc.

Divulge

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Divulge: transitive verb : to make public; to make known( as a confidence or secret ).

From ” A Rose For Emily” by William Faulkner, ” He would never divulge what happened during that interview but he refused to go back again”.(Page 4, paragraph 13).

Now i understand that the talk between the  Baptist minister and Miss Emily Grierson he doesn’t want speak about with anyone else. He’s being respectful and keeping it confidential.

Monument

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monument; noun; a written legal document or record; a burial vault

In “A Rose for Emily”, when Miss Emily Grierson died, our whole town went to her funeral: the men through a sort of respectful affection for a fallen monument, the woman mostly out of curiosity to see the inside of her house…

Now I understand that when Miss Emily died, the monument itself represents Emily and people are being respectful.

Temerity

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Temerity: (noun): the quality of being confident and unafraid of danger or punishment especially in a way that seems rude or foolish

From the story “A Rose for Emily”; “A few of the ladies had the temerity to call, but were not received, and the only sign of life about the palace was the Negro man-a young man then–going in and out with a market basket.”

Now the sentence is clear to me that after Emily’s father death she also departed from her love due to which she kept herself in isolation. So only few ladies attempted to call her inorder to show sympathy, or give the company, but Emily didn’t responded them.

coquettish

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coquettish: adj – a woman who endeavors without sincere affection to gain the attention and admiration of men [ coquette: noun ]

From “A Rose for Emily” by William Faulkner. “It was a big, squarish frame house that had once been white, decorated with cupolas and spires and scrolled balconies in the heavily lightsome style of the seventies, set on what had once been our most select street. But garages and cotton gins had encroached and obliterated even the august names of that neighborhood; only Miss Emily’s house was left, lifting its stubborn and coquettish decay above the cotton wagons and the gasoline pumps-an eyesore among eyesores. And now Miss Emily had gone to join the representatives of those august names where they lay in the cedar-bemused cemetery among the ranked and anonymous graves of Union and Confederate soldiers who fell at the battle of Jefferson.” (Section I – paragraph 2)

Now I understand that Miss Emily’s house is very individual, unique which marked by majestic dignity.

Utopia and Dystopia in the two stories by Charlotte Perkins Gilman

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First of all, to define the terms “Utopia” and “Dystopia” in a dictionary, Utopia is an ideal place or state which has any visionary system of political or social perfection. Dystopia is the antonym of “Utopia” which is defined as a society characterized by human misery, as squalor, oppression, disease, and overcrowding.
Between the two stories “The cottagette” and “The yellow wall paper”, it is obvious which one is which. The cottagette shows us an example of a liberal form of marriage even in an era where people’s attitude toward the gender roles is very conservative. Whereas “The yellow wall paper” shows us how strictly the wife is controlled by her husband.
In the cottagette, Mr. Mathews proposes to Malda a condition in their marriage that she musn’t do house work but must keep doing what she loves as an embroidery artist, and he takes the part of cook which he has been for his life. People’s idea of typical gender roles today is getting more equivocal in their marriage comparing to the setting of the story in early 20th century. People tend to respect what their partners do regardless of their sex in the modern society. However, Mr. Mathews idea must be an unusual surprise. The outcome of their marriage life isn’t written in the story. So we’re only able to imagine if Mr. Mathews suggestion would work well for them. It might be a tough challenge in the time, or might successfully work. In any case, I believe his is the novel approach and respectful thought toward what she does is the very factor of Utopia which actually means the progress of a woman’s right.
On the other hand, in the Yellow Wall Paper, Mr. John’s attitude toward his wife is oppressive about her self-expression, although he really loves her and worries about her as both positions of a husband and a doctor. We could read that he never intended to hurt her from the context. However, I think he doesn’t see her as an person rather as his possession. So she should not have any duties and also any rights. I believe human beings construct their identity and the meaning of their existence through interaction with others in the society or express themselves freely. What if your freedom of expression and exchanges with others are taken away because you are supposed to be an obedient wife and exist as just an accessory to your husband. Nervous breakdown could occur at any moment like it happened to John’s wife.

Inexorably

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Inexorably:adv: not to be persuaded, moved, or stopped.

From: “Women and Economics”: “Under all the influence of his later and wider life, all the reactive effect of social institutions, the individual is still inexorably modified by his means of livelihood: “the hand of the dyer is subdued to what he works in.” (paragraph 5)

I understand that even after all the reactive effect of social institutions the individual is not persuaded by his means of securing the necessities of life.

Abomination

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At the end of the paragraph, it really looks scary, “what was left of him, rotted beneath what was left of the nightshirt, had become inextricable from the bed in which he lay; and upon him upon the pillow beside him lay that even coating of the patient and biding dust”.

Miss Emily was aggressive in nature and possessive too. She want him by her side forever. she fulfilled her wishes and stayed stick to her principle. She seems worst than an animal. when we see kittens die in-front of their mother, they abandon the kitten after become maudlin for few days.

“See Colonel Sartoris. I have no taxes in Jefferson.” (para 12) Miss Emily think that she is still in the days of Mayor Colonel Sartoris. It shows either she is mentally retarded  or still in   eccentric state.

She wanted no one to interfere so she didn’t allow the mailing box to be attache at the door. And her behavior was alienating that all the town gave up on her. The town could not bear the smell and Judge Stevens could not accuse Miss Emily for smelling bad. Who would have thought that someone was poisoned inside her house.

In this story, it is third-person limited narrator.  Miss Emily is a flat character, it reached the climax when town members sprinkled lime in the building. it has visual imagery and olfactory imagery.

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Choose three quotations from “The Yellow Wall-Paper” that convince you that the protagonist is an unreliable narrator and explain why for each.

An unreliable narrator is one that makes you questions whether or not he or she is telling the truth. In the story” the yellow wall-paper”, I will say the narrator is unreliable because she is mentally disturbed. Therefore, it is very hard for one to say she is truthfully explaining herself. One approach that shows the narrator unreliability is when she said “ I get unreasonably angry with John sometimes”. This demonstrates that she doesn’t have a reason to be angry with him, she cannot control her emotions and she doesn’t know why she feels the ways she feels sometimes, which indicates that she cannot be a reliable person.

Another proof of unreliability is the way she quickly changes her minds and opinions about things. One moment she likes something, later she hates it and then she likes again. For example, “ the wall-paper, as I said before, is torn off in spots, and it sticketh closer than a brother-they must have had perseverance as well as hatred, but I don’t mind it a bit only the paper”. She seems to strongly dislike the wallpaper, but later on she mention “ I’m getting really fond of the room in spite of the wall paper”. Discovering so many new things about the patterns of the wallpaper fascinates her. Moreover, according to her, she is healing because of the wallpaper. Therefore, we can say that her feelings toward the wallpaper are not quite consistent.

Moreover, she is so lost in her own world that she refuses to believe her husband and her brother when they are telling her about her condition even though she knows they are both doctors. She states “ but I am smarter than them “, which indicates that she is tricking them. She believes that no one understands her and only she knows what’s wrong with her. Therefore one can say that she is not a reliable narrator.

 

 

 

 

 

Blogging for Wedneday, 2/20’s class

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If you’ve been asked to blog for Wednesday’s class, that means that you need to complete your post by the end of the weekend. Everyone else needs to comment by 10:00am Wednesday. I’ve come up with several topics, but would love to hear others you’re interested in or want your classmates to attempt to address:

Choose three quotations from “The Yellow Wall-Paper” that convince you that the protagonist is an unreliable narrator and explain why for each.

Choose three quotations from “The Yellow Wall-Paper” that present the married couple’s relationship, and explain what you understand about John as a character, and about the protagonist as a narrator for the way she depicts John.

We might use the words utopia and dystopia to describe the two short stories by Charlotte Perkins Gilman that we read. What do those words mean? Which story is utopian and which is dystopian? Why?

How do the different settings come into play in these two short stories by Gilman? In what ways might we read the settings as similar but the inhabitants of those worlds as different?

Is Malda a reliable narrator in “The Cottagette”? why or why not? Incorporate quotations into your answer to support your argument.

In what ways is “A Rose for Emily” similar to other texts we have read? different? What do you think about those similarities and differences?

The narrator in “A Rose for Emily” is different than others we have encountered. What term would you use to identify the narrator? is it a reliable narrator? Use evidence from the story to show why you say reliable or not.

This might be your first time posting, but it’s no longer new for us to read posts and comment, right? We’re getting really good at it! Let’s keep the good efforts going: when writing a post, remember to include a title that reflects what you’re writing (it shouldn’t be able to apply to everyone’s post and can certainly be longer than one word), choose appropriate categories and tags (or add if you want a tag that isn’t there already), write at least 300 words, proofread, and publish! If there are links or media you want to include, please do. Commenters, please contribute100-150 words, proofread, and leave your reply. If you want to leave additional replies, you don’t need watch the word count, but you should still proofread! You can always go back and edit!

demur

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demur : verb :To voice opposition; Law To enter a demurrer.

from the story ” The Cottagette “, i demurred  a little, it was monday, Mrs. Fowler thought it was cheaper to have a woman come and wash, and we did, but it certainly made more work.

i now understand that the author was showing reluctance to Ford Mathews  request, “one day he came around early and asked me to go up hugh’s peak with him”.

Erroneous

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Erroneous: Adjective: containing or characterized error.

From Women and Economics Chapter XIV “Our assumption that only married people and their immediate relatives have any right to live in comfort and health is erroneous.”

I now understand what she meant in saying this which is basically our assumptions about peoples right to live in comfort and good health was wrong.

“The Yellow Wallpaper ” -a view as a horror story

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I won’t say “The Yellow Wallpaper” by Gilman fits in the category of typical horror stories, which fascinates or shocks the readers by introducing them to supernatural powers, bloodshed, or scary scenes. But this story shares some properties with the horror collections. There are incidents in the story where author has created weird and scary situations in a fascinating manner.

The story is about the author herself who suffers from physiological disorder and her struggle during the phase with her own imaginary scary activities. When the author starts narrating the story, it feels like as if she is going to narrate a horror story. In the second paragraph of the story she start saying “A colonial mansion, a hereditary estate, I would say a haunted house,” The author leads the story with the description of the house which she and her husband have rented for summer.  Describing the house as old and haunted she is conveying message to the readers that the house carries some unusual environment. Again to support her statement that there is something wrong with the house she adds “Else, why should it be let so cheaply? And why have stood so long untenanted?” In this way Gilman creates a horror story type scenario and presents a dark scary image in front of the readers. As the story moves on, the author gets disturb by the wallpaper in a room and she starts seeing unusual activities “There is a recurrent spot where the pattern lolls like a broken neck and two bulbous eyes stares at you upside down.” Here using the words like broken neck and bulbous eyes, author is presenting a disturbed image to the readers like in horror stories. Like the unusual activities intensifies in the horror stories, Gilman’s fear intensifies and she starts seeing a character, a woman creeping on the wall and haunting her “It creeps all over the house. I find it hovering in the dining-room, skulking in the parlor, hiding in the hall, lying in wait for me on the stairs.” No one except Gilman witness the woman and the activities. Only she is being haunted by the woman figure. Till the end of the story the imaginary woman character keeps haunting the author for the freedom. And finally she gets rid of the fear by peeling off the wall paper. Looking at these points I would definitely say that “The Yellow Wall Paper” has the taste of a horror story.