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.

In “The Story of an Hour”, according to the narrator, Mrs. Mallard did not know how to deal with her husband’s death at first. She seems confused. First she starts crying hysterically then when she is in her room alone, she starts thinking about beautiful the spring was which clearly indicated that she knew that was a new beginning for her. She was also thinking about how she would have her freedom now that her husband is gone. The narrator wrote “And yet she had loved him-sometimes-often she had not”. This also shows confusion for the reader. I asked myself two questions; Did Mrs. Mallard really love her husband? Why is that she was not clear as to how much of Mrs. Mallard loved her husband? Also in the story Mrs. Mallard often talk to herself. She lacks emotional skills to deal with her situation and this makes the reader question her reliability, just as in the short story “The Yellow Wallpaper” where the narrator seemed confused about her emotions and often talked to herself.

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An unreliable narrator is a narrator whose credibility has been seriously compromised. She/he typically displays characteristics or tendencies that indicate a lack of credibility or understanding of the story.  I believe the narrator in “The Yellow Wallpaper” is not a reliable source for information. Following are some quotes that support her unreliability.

1.  “But these nervous troubles are dreadfully depressing.”   I don’t think the narrator is not a reliable source of information because she is not mentally stable and this can be the most significant reason for her unreliability. The narrator knows that she is unwell and this makes the readers question her reliability.
2. “I get unreasonably angry with John sometimes”.  This indicates that even though she doesn’t have a reason to be angry with John, she cannot control her emotions sometimes. This also makes her an unreliable person.
3. “Dear John! He loves me dearly and hates to have me sick.” “He asked me all sorts of questions, too, and pretended to be very loving and kind. As if I couldn’t see through him!”    At the beginning of the story, she sees John as this person who is trying to take care of her and her well being is in the best of his interest.  However, later on in the story, the narrator seems to despise her husband, John. This sudden change in opinion makes the reader question how reliable she is. The narrator can’t seem to make up her mind about how she feels about her husband.

 Following are three quotations from “The Yellow Wall-Paper” that present the married couple’s relationship.

1. “I’ve got out at last, in spite of you and Jane! And I’ve pulled off most of the paper, so you can’t put me back!”   In the end, when the narrator pulls off most of the wallpaper we can see the explosion of her emotions. When she said “you can’t put me back”, this showed how trapped she felt by both her husband and her surroundings.
2. “He hates to have me write a word.”  She reveals that despite her love for writing, her husband hates her to write. Here, the narrator is clearly feeling trapped in a marriage that does not allow her freedom. This inability to express herself in a meaningful way eventually leads her to associate herself with the woman in the wallpaper, who is trapped just like her.
3. “What is it little girl?” he said.  John assumes a fatherly role over his wife like many men of his time. He consistently patronizes her. He ignores her emotions and calls her names, such as “blessed little goose” and “little girl.” This shows me that John treats his wife like a child.  It may be that the narrator’s continued unhappiness seems to be linked to the fact that she is being treated like a child and is not allowed to leave her room.

 In “The Cottagette”, Malda can be seen as a reliable narrative. Some quotes that support this theory is.

1. “But there’s a condition!” said he all at once, sitting up straight and looking very fierce. “You mustn’t cook!”  By Ford asking Malda to marry him only if she gives up cooking and continue to do what she loves to do which is her art and that he would take on the role of cooking shows true love and equality in a marriage.
2. “It is not true, always, my dear,” “that the way to a man’s heart is through his stomach.”  Even though the narrator touches bases on the stereotypical concept that the role of women in marriage is to be a homemaker. She reveals that is not the only thing women are capable of but women also has intelligences. This quote shows that all guys don’t want to marry someone who is only skilled in domestic things but someone with smarts, and other skills.

Utopia is ideally perfect state, especially in its social and moral aspects.  Dystopia is an imaginary society in which social trends have culminated in a greatly diminished quality of life or degradation of values.

I would describe “The Cottagette” as the utopia and “The Yellow Wallpaper” as the dystopia. In the” Yellow Wallpaper” the protagonist often feels trapped and is struggling to escape. Her state of mind as well as the way she describes the room and her marriage, she helps readers recognize the negative aspects of the dystopian world through her perspective.

In the Cottagette I noticed a Utopian like community. The area of the cottage is called High Court where Malda describes eating with highly thoughtful musicians and high musical thinkers in the boarding house near the cottage.  They had moved there to join the community in which everyone that moves there is seeking the same type of community where people are able to grow in their interest.

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