Chintz – Noun
Found in: “The Yellow Wallpaper,” by Charlotte Perkins Gilman
“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 hangings! but John would not hear of it.”
This passage means that she wanted a different room, A much prettier one, with flowers on the windows with a curtain made of a fancy fabric.
From “The Yellow Wallpaper” By Chaelotte Perkins
Atrocious – Adjective
Definition: extremely wicked, brutal, or cruel :  barbaric
(http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/atrocious)
From page 3, first paragraph: ” I am sitting by the window now, up in this atrocious nursery,and there is nothing to hinder my writing as much as I please, save lack of strength”.
The word nursery gave away the meaning of the word. It helped me understand what the word atrocious meant. I now understand that the narrator was decribing the nursery as horrifying. The nursery was of very poor quality that it effected her ability to write.
atrocious
“Personally I disagree… Personally, I believe that congenial work, with excitement and change, would do me good. But what is one to do?”. The statement shows that the married couple’s relationship lack communication. This statement shows her opinions doesn’t count when she says “what is one to do?” She has completely accepted John’s method of rest as the cure. John’s wife listen to whatever he says.
“Blessed little goose”. This is another quotation from the story that presents the married couple’s relationship. This statement shows that john treats his wife like a child. He even insist that she sleeps in the nursery. He believes her sleeping in the nursery is a way to monitor her condition at night.
“John has cautioned me not to give way to fancy”. This quotation also presents the married couple’s relationship. When she tires to tell him that his rest treatment is not working, he simply ignores her feelings. He didn’t want his wife to think much because he would loose control over her.
After reading “The Yellow Wallpaper” by Charlotte Perkins Gilman I came to an understanding that John is not only overbearing but he also ignores his wife’s opinions. Although he presents himself towards his wife as sweet and caring, he is actually a controlling person. His wife is suffering from depression but he believes it is just a “slight hysterical tendency”. His method of curing his wife actually limits her social activities as well as deny her access to things that make her happy such as writing. He orders her to stay in bed all day and do absolutely nothing. He forbids her to do any sort of work, even to write. His manipulative actions is the reason his wife feel inferior and afraid to voice her opinions.
Choose one of the questions from Tuesday’s assignment that you didn’t respond to, or choose one of the following questions to respond to in your blog post due on Thursday morning (I think these are more interesting!):
Consider these three very different pieces by Charlotte Perkins Gilman: two short stories, “The Yellow Wall-Paper” and “The Cottagette,” and the chapter (XIV) from a non-fiction work, Women and Economics. How do the different narrative styles compare? Or how does the information conveyed in the non-fiction chapter come through in either of the short stories?
In feminist narratologist 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. Read the letter on pages 9-11 of Fictions of Authority and write a post considering your reactions to the letter and the ways the letter illuminates the way you read any of the short stories assigned so far this semester.
In the selection from Women and Economics, Gilman makes an argument about housework. What is it? Does the short story “The Cottagette” present a solution to the issues raised in Gilman’s non-fiction Women and Economics? Explain your stance.
Some of you have begun to consider the issue of narrator reliability. Compare narrator reliability in “The Cottagette” and “The Yellow Wall-Paper,” or compare one of these with the reliability of the narrator in “The Story of an Hour.” Include examples by quoting from the text to show what informs your sense of reliability.
“The Yellow Wall-Paper” was once believed to have been out of print from 1920 until feminist scholars re-discovered it in the 1970s. Here are two possible topics to consider based on this statement:
OR
What connections do you see among the stories assigned from the start of the semester and either or both of Gilman’s stories? Are there trends you can identify? Or contrasting situations/characters/styles that are worth noting in their difference? Be specific!
Choose three quotations from “The Yellow Wall-Paper” that convince you that the protagonist is an unreliable narrator and explain why for each.
“She (Jennie) didn’t know I was in the room, and when I asked her in a quiet, very quiet voice, with the most restrained manner possible, what she was doing with the paper-she turned around as if she had been caught stealing, and looked quite angry-asked me why I should frighten her so!”
It’s hard to give credit to her narrative overall due to her mental state. In the above quoted text, she described the way she confronted Jennie about the wallpaper. It’s not clear if she really asked in a calm way, or if she sounded irritated. It’s not even a sure thing if Jennie was even touching the wallpaper at all. Maybe the narrator fantasized it, just like she did with many other things.
“The front pattern DOES move-and no wonder! The woman behind it shakes it!”
This is yet another example of how the narrator delusional state makes her create situations in her mind
“(…) I wasn’t alone a bit! As soon as it was moonlight and that poor thing began to crawl and shake the pattern, I got up and ran to help her.”
As the story progresses, the narrator begins to imagine and describe even more absurd scenarios. She now interacts with imaginary characters that emerge from the walls.
In the story of an hour it is tell us of the reality of life, because in real life there are a lot women just like Mrs. Mallard who have go through a lot of things with their husband and just accept it as if it is nothing and let the treat them like they are a nobody but take it and consume all those negative. But at the end of the day she ended up going to seek pyschological help from doctors see things more clearly. ” Free, free, free,” it stand for everything because she don’t have to continued to live a lie and pretending to be happy when all happiness have been gone for a long time in their marriage, she was so happy for the news that she had to take herself away from her sister and Richard, so she could take everything that was meaningless at one time but now have great value meaning, no one to abuse her not physically but emotinally where it seems that she could not speak up tell him what was on her mind because she weren’t happy and it was taking a toll on her but was too scaried to let him know but instead stay in the unhappiness which turn out to be the end of her life. At the end of the story it was happiness for her no more low self esteem and no more husband to cause all those unhappiness that she had been going through in her marriage.
As I read the short story “The Yellow Wallpaper”, by Charlotte Perkins Gilman I can clearly consider the narrator to be unreliable. An unreliable narrator is when their credibility has been seriously compromised and we can see that happening
in this story. The following are some quotes that support the narrator unreliability are:
1) “ I use to lie awake as a child and get more entertainment and terror out of
blank walls and plain furniture than most children could find in a toy store” –
This clearly shows that the problems that the narrator is going through has
been going on since she was a child. Her obsession about the wallpaper and
objects comes from a young age which probably has gotten worse as she got
older. This shows she is unreliable because she is putting importance and
meaning into insignificant things.
2) “And what can I do?”- The narrator asked this question multiple times
throughout the story. I believe she is just so used of people telling that what
she is feeling is due to her condition and other people telling her what to do
that she is not her own person anymore. The narrator has becomes what others
want her to be and this prove that she is unreliable. She is not capable of
making her own decisions and having her own thoughts.
3) “I get unreasonably angry with John sometimes. I sure I never used to be so
sensitive. I think it’s due to this nervous condition”- So, this quote shows
that the narrator is unreliable for two reasons. One reason it being that she
is not able to control that way that she feels, she lets her mind take control
of her. Second reason is that throughout the story her husband tends to tell
her over and over again that whatever she does feels it’s due to her nervous condition,
so she is truly starting to believe it.
4) “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”- In this quote we see that the narrator is contradicting herself
she says that she knows it will make her feels better if she was able to write more,
but when she tries it gets her tired. Shows her unreliably because she is not
even sure of what she feels is better for her or not.
Some quote that represent the married couple’s relationship are:
1)“ There comes John, and I must put this away- he hates to have me write a
word”- This clearly shows that she does everything her husband tells her to do. The narrator is no longer her own person, but the person that her husband want her to be. The narrator is not free in her own marriage to do something that she enjoys. This
also shows that he doesn’t support her in things she likes to do. That’s why
she compares herself the wallpaper because she feels trapped just like the
women she talks about.
“John laughs at me, of course , but one expects that in marriage” – I think that this quote has a slightly a sense of sarcasm telling the reader that he really doesn’t understand his wife.
3)“ John does not know how much I really suffer. He knows there is no REASON to
suffer, and that satisfies him” – This quote clearly shows the lack of communication this married couple encounter. It seems like she hides the way she truly feel to John because even though if she was to explain to him he won’t believe her. I feel that John
feels so secure and positive that their I nothing wrong with his wife that he doesn’t
allow a slight chance to actually look into what his wife is feeling and trying to understand her.
An unreliable narrator works under the constraints of limited knowledge to convey information that may seem justifiably suspect to the reader. It is obvious throughout the story that Charlotte Perkins Gilman is an unreliable narrator because of her downward spiral. I have collected three quotes from Charlotte Perkins Gilmans story “The Yellow Wall-Paper” to help assist in my accusation of Charlotte being an unreliable narrator.
Â
It is clear that the narrator is going crazy. I believe the narrator is soothing her own thoughts of being crazy by making herself believe that John and Jennie could possibly be obsessed with the wall-paper like she is. This is a great example of the narrator being an unreliable narrator because she is giving great detail to insignificant point all through-out the story.
Â
On a side note I have to point out the obvious point of the narrator’s insanity being the use of capital letters. I believe the narrator places the emphasis on certain words to convey a certain feeling.
2.     “It is getting to be a great effort for me to think straight. Just this nervous weakness I suppose.”
Â
It is clear that she has gone overboard. The narrator cannot even think straight. This is a clear sign that reality is slowly starting to diminish from the narrators life and mind. The narrator is obviously unreliable here because she is not ashamed to state the she is succumbing to the weakness that she possesses. She should not have nervous weaknesses that effect her to the point of thinking straight.
Â
3.     ”I sometimes fancy that in my condition if I had less opposition and more society and stimulus -but John says the very worst thing I can do is to think about my condition , and I confess it always makes me feel bad.”
Â
The narrator has a “condition” this is an obvious sign that she cannot be trusted because
we do not know when she allows her condition to take over and do the actions and
speaking from her condition rather than from herself. She is an obvious unreliable
narrator.
Â
1.  “Dear John! He loves me very dearly and hates to have me sick. 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.”
In this quote you can see that John is not having a strong enough effect on the narrator. He is not getting through to her because she is obviously delisional. This is a great quote to show the dynamics in their relationship. She says “He loves me very dearly and hates to have me sick”, it is very clear here how crazy she is and how in control John is in ways.
On a side note the narrator here says that she tried to talk to him which is also a good signal for their relationship. She should not have to try to talk to him, talking to him should come with ease.
2.     “John does not know how much I really suffer. He knows there is no REASON to suffer, and that satisfies him.”
In this quote you can see how the narrator keeps her emotions from John. She is truly depressed and she is holding it back from John. John does not realize how sick she is internally. He does not pick up on all of her signs that she is crazy. This is a good example of the dynamic of their relationship because once again you see the narrator in the shadows of Johns understanding.
3. “He said I was his darling and his comfort and all he had, and that I must take care of myself for his sake and keep well.”
In this quote you can see how selfish John is because the narrator makes it very clear that John is not going to help her at all. She is going to have to do everything for herself. This is a good representation of their relationship because it highlights the key problems I believe they have. She says he says that she is his everything yet she needs to take care of herself. This is a very selfish move.
Utopia- an ideal place or state
Dystopia- a society characterized by human misery, as squalor, oppression, disease, and overcrowding
I believe that “The Yellow Wall-Paper” is a dystopia to the narrator because she is in a world like no other. She is miserable and in this pretend world in her imagination that is driving her crazy. Noting about the narrators world in “The Yellow Wall-Paper” resembles a utopia to me. Not to mention the whole story was based out of her home.
In the story “The Cottage” I believe it is a utopia compared to “The Yellow Wall-Paper”. In the cottage the main setting is outdoor which is more utopia like than the grim home with the wall-paper.
Â
The question of utopia brings a lot of thoughts into my mind regarding “The Yellow Wall-Paper” and “The Cottage”. Going along with my answer above for utopia and dystopia it is clear how one story is set in the outdoors where the other story is trapped to the confinements of the narrator’s home. These different settings come into play when thinking about the mood of the whole story over all. It is easy to put a positive and negative connotation just because of the setting.
Â
In the story “The Yellow Wallpaper” it is clear that the narrator is an unreliable narrator. This is clearly displayed throughout the course of the story, but here is where I think it sticks out most.
1) “It is getting to be a great effort for me to think straight. Just this nervous weakness I suppose.” This quote shows that we have an unreliable narrator because it is starting to become clear that she is succumbing to the madness. I think that the fact that she is struggling to see straight is symbolism for her trying to distinguish herself from the wallpaper.
2) “Did not that sound innocent? But I know she was studying that pattern and I am determined that nobody shall find it out but myself.” This is an example because it shows the narrator becoming very defensive about the wallpaper. Jennie was simply just looking at the wallpaper because she is trying to figure out where the yellow stains are coming from on the clothes. However the narrator thought she was trying to figure out the pattern thus showing the audience how defensive and possessive she has become of the wallpaper.
3) “I have locked the door and thrown the key down into the front path” This show us that the narrator can not be trusted and locks herself in the bedroom.
Quotes that present the couples relationship.
1) “If a physician of high standing, and ones own husband, assures friends and relatives that there is really nothing the matter with one but temporarily nervous depression-a slight hysterical tendency-what is one to do.” To me this quote shows authority and that the opinion of the wife does not matter… Even if it is the patient herself.
2) “He said I was his darling and his comfort and all he had, and that I must take care of myself for his sake and keep well.” This quote clearly shows that John is selfish.
3) “Dear John! He loves me very dearly and hates to have me sick. 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.” This quote shows us that John does not understand the negative effects of his treatment. He doesnt understand that the narrator needs to get out and about. This quote also shows that John does not consider the narrator’s opinion.
The OpenLab is an open-source, digital platform designed to support teaching and learning at City Tech (New York City College of Technology), and to promote student and faculty engagement in the intellectual and social life of the college community.
