answered: For this discussion, post on “The Yellow Wallpaper, there ar

  

For this discussion, post on “The Yellow Wallpaper, there are no specific discussion questions. You can discuss whatever you choose. If you are not sure of where to start, you can always answer one of the questions I pose in “Professor’s Notes”.
Text link:
http://www.eastoftheweb.com/short-stories/UBooks/YelWal.shtml
Lecture link:

Professor’s Notes:
This story can be seen as semi-autobiographical. Make sure that you read the brief background of the author as well as the assigned supplementary reading. When reading this story, it is important to remember what we have talked about regarding point of view. “The Yellow Wallpaper” is told in 1st person by the un named narrator. Pay attention to the time period. The woman most likely suffers from post-partum depression (Notice how she talks about her baby that makes her too nervous to spend time with him). Post-partum depression was not recognized as it is today, so nobody thought there was anything wrong with this woman.
Also, during this time period, women were not supposed to be overly emotional. Today we easily excuse an over emotional woman for being hormonal or moody, or just tired or annoyed, as long as it is not a constant thing. When this story takes place, if a woman was overly emotional at all, she was diagnosed with what was called “hysteria.” Many times “the rest cure” that the narrator is using was perscribed. At first glance, it may seem like a good idea. Who can’t use a little rest? Picture though, what that rest entailed: being alone in your room with nothing, no books, no people, and no writing. I think that any of us would go crazy after a whole summer of that. The sad part is that while her husband, a doctor, is trying to help her, she is actually getting worse.
What can become confusing about this story is that the woman narrator goes crazy while she is telling the story. That means that the audience needs to figure out when to beleive her and when not to, since by the end of the story, she does not have a firm grip on reality. This can be accomplished by paying attention to what she says in the beginning of the story when she is sane. After finishing the story, read the 1st paragraph of the story again and then read the last paragraph of the story again. You will notice a distinctly different voice narrating each of these two paragraphs. It doesn’t even really sound like the same person is speaking. Then skim over the story again and see if you can recognize at what points she appears to be slipping further into her own imagined world.
Another important aspect of this story is symbolism. I would argue that the wallpaper as well as the woman in the wallpaper are both symbolic of greater things. What do you think the wallpaper stands for? What about the woman in the wallpaper? We can presume that the un named narrator is hallucinating the woman in the wallpaper and this is not a magical world where women live in the wallpaper.