Choose three quotations that present the married couples relationship – explain what you understand about John as a character and the protagonist as a narrator.
1-“John laughs at me of course , but one expects that in marriage”
This statement helps me understand that John as a character has a lack of respect for his wife. Though the narrator is telling her story she seems to once again he unreliable in this statement. She seems to be bothered by his laughter , but passive at the same time. The narrator is implying that everyone feels that it is to be expected of your husband to laugh at you. She however has no supporting facts.
2-” John is away all day and even some nights when his cases are serious. I am glad my case is not serious, but these nervous troubles are dreadfully depressing”
reading this statement would make you think that her husband leaves her alone I this room all of the time neglecting her condition. the narrator is contradicting herself by stating that she is “glad that her case is not serious” but then stating that her troubles are “depressing”. She is using her own words against herself. I feel she may be compromising the consistency of the plot.
3-“The fact is I am getting a little afraid of John”
john seems a bit controlling as a character. Based on what I read In the Yellow Wallpaper she is not just now becoming afraid , but just beginning to recognize it. Her job as a narrator is to make the reader suspenseful and though fiction , make her story believable. she dies nit make it clear exactly what he is doing that is making her afraid. I can tell that the narrator wanted John to seem stern and in doing so she made her story less believable.
You’ve chosen some great passages to highlight how the narrator feels about her husband. What are some passages that contradict these? How do we know what to believe and what not to believe about their relationship? Do you think that different people would understand their relationship differently?
I think that different people would absolutely have a different perception of their relationship based on the same passages. Honestly I did not know what conclusion to draw from this reading. There were passages that led me to believe that she was in love with her husband, and then there were some passages that made me wonder if they were actually married. It seemed to me that she might have been in an institution.