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Homework, Week 5

Homework #5, “The Cottagette” and “The Yellow Wallaper”

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In “The Cottagette,” the second and third paragraphs identify the setting of the story, “”Cottagette, by all means,” said Lois, seating herself on a porch chair. “But it is larger than it looks, Mr. Mathews. How do you like it, Malda?” I was delighted with it. More than delighted. Here this tiny shell of fresh unpainted wood peeped out from under the trees, the only house in sight except the distant white specks on far off farms, and the little wandering village in the river-threaded valley. It sat right on the turf, –no road, no path even, and the dark woods shadowed the back windows.”

In “The Yellow Wallpaper,” the second and third paragraphs identify the setting. “A colonial mansion, a hereditary estate, I would say a haunted house and reach the height of romantic felicity – but that would be asking too much of fate. Still I will proudly declare there is something queer about it.”

In both stores, we have a house as the settings, but two very different houses. In “The Cottagette,” the narrator clearly is fond of the cottage. I feel that she admires its isolation, while in “The Yellow Wallpaper,” the narrator senses that there is something wrong about the house. The narrators set the tone for the setting in these passages which help shape the stories differently. The cottage is described as a delightful place, and so was the story, ending with the narrator getting a marriage proposal from the man that she loved. The colonial mansion was described, by the narrator, as a haunted house. This story was not as delightful as “The Cottagette.” In “The Yellow Wallpaper,” the narrator drivers herself insane from the obsession she had with the wallpaper, where she thought she saw a woman who was trapped behind bars and tries to escape.

 

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Week 5

Blogging on “The Yellow Wall-Paper” and “The Cottagette”

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Apologies for the lateness of these instructions. Here are a few options for your posts for this week. Choose one:

  • Choose two passages that epitomize the narrator of either of these stories. Explain what you understand about the passage and how it instructs you to read the narrator and her narration.
  • Consider the setting of these stories. Find a passage from each that identifies the setting, and compare how the settings help shape each into the drastically different stories that they are.
  • Using specific quotations from the story to support your claims, compare either or both of these stories in their depiction of marriage with any of the other marriages depicted in our readings this semester. Do you attribute the differences only to characterization and plot, or are there other ways these distinct situations are expressed?
  • Is there something else you’re eager to write about regarding “The Yellow Wall-Paper” or “The Cottagette”? Write it–but be sure to use quotations from the story or stories in your post.

Remember to follow our blogging guidelines, and categorize your post  Week 5 under Homework. Use any tags you find appropriate.

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Discussion, Week 5

Discussion: The Yellow Wall Paper and The Cottagette

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“The Yellow Wallpaper” is written in first person narrator as recognize by the use of “I” in text and the narrator is telling about what she sees, thinks, feels and what her experiences are in the story.  In the story, the narrator describes how she sees and thinks the house as “I would say a haunted house “(Pg 1) and she describes her feeling of someone is staring at her from the pattern of the yellow wallpaper in her bedroom as “There is a recurrent spot where the pattern lolls like a broken neck and two bulbous eyes stare at you upside down” (Pg. 4). I think it is an unreliable narrator because there are many areas that she mentions them but no further explanation are given and the sentence that gives me the narrator is unreliable is that when she talks about the smell as “I thought seriously of burning the house –to reach the smell. But now I am used to it. The only thing I can think of that it is like the color of the paper! A yellow smell” (Pg.9). I think this is the narrator’s distorted thinking and confusing me.

According to Merriam Webster dictionary, the meaning of the word “dystopia” is:  an imaginary place where people are unhappy and usually afraid because they are not treated fairly.    I think “The Yellow Wallpaper” is dystopian because the narrator is unhappy about the bedroom,   the work she is forbidden for taking care of her baby like other mothers, and not to write.

“The Cottagette” is also written in first person and reliable narrator since there is nothing confusing or distorted thinking. The meaning of the word “utopia” is:  an imaginary place in which the government, laws and social conditions are perfect. I think “The Cottagette” is utopian because everything in the story is perfect for both Mr. Matthew and Malda like they love each other, to get marry, the beautiful place they both like and most important thing that Malda doesn’t need to cook and Mr. Matthew loves her as a painter.

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