Early Stream of Consciousness and Feminism in Fiction Answers

Why did Gilman most likely choose an unreliable narrator to tell the story of "The Yellow Wallpaper"?

Read the excerpt from "The Yellow Wallpaper."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.He said there was only one window and not room for two beds, and no near room for him if he took another.He is very careful and loving, and hardly lets me stir without special direction.Which statement describes a gothic element in this excerpt that reflects a social attitude of Gilman’s time?

Read the excerpt from "Why I Wrote 'The Yellow Wallpaper.'"Then, using the remnants of intelligence that remained, and helped by a wise friend, I cast the noted specialist’s advice to the winds and went to work again—work, the normal life of every human being; work, in which is joy and growth and service, without which one is a pauper and a parasite—ultimately recovering some measure of power.Which social attitude of Gilman’s era does this excerpt demonstrate?

In "The Yellow Wallpaper," which description of John indicates that the narrator does not trust him?

Read the excerpt from "The Yellow Wallpaper."The front pattern DOES move—and no wonder! The woman behind shakes it!Sometimes I think there are a great many women behind, and sometimes only one, and she crawls around fast, and her crawling shakes it all over.Then in the very bright spots she keeps still, and in the very shady spots she just takes hold of the bars and shakes them hard.And she is all the time trying to climb through. But nobody could climb through that pattern—it strangles so; I think that is why it has so many heads.They get through, and then the pattern strangles them off and turns them upside down, and makes their eyes white!If those heads were covered or taken off it would not be half so bad.I think that woman gets out in the daytime!And I’ll tell you why—privately—I’ve seen her!I can see her out of every one of my windows!It is the same woman, I know, for she is always creeping, and most women do not creep by daylight.I see her on that long road under the trees, creeping along, and when a carriage comes she hides under the blackberry vines.I don’t blame her a bit. It must be very humiliating to be caught creeping by daylight!Whom does the narrator see hiding in the wallpaper?

In "The Yellow Wallpaper," which description of the narrator’s room best indicates that it probably was not a nursery in the past?

Read the excerpt from "Why I Wrote 'The Yellow Wallpaper.'"The little book is valued by alienists and as a good specimen of one kind of literature. It has, to my knowledge, saved one woman from a similar fate—so terrifying her family that they let her out into normal activity and she recovered.What does Gilman indicate is the impact of her work?

Read the excerpt from "The Yellow Wallpaper."At night in any kind of light, in twilight, candle light, lamplight, and worst of all by moonlight, it becomes bars! The outside pattern I mean, and the woman behind it is as plain as can be.What does the narrator’s description of the wallpaper reveal about the context of the story?

Read the excerpt from "Why I Wrote 'The Yellow Wallpaper.'"Being naturally moved to rejoicing by this narrow escape, I wrote The Yellow Wallpaper, with its embellishments and additions, to carry out the ideal (I never had hallucinations or objections to my mural decorations) and sent a copy to the physician who so nearly drove me mad. He never acknowledged it.What was Gilman’s most likely reason for sending a copy of her story to her former physician?

Read the excerpt from "The Yellow Wallpaper."If a physician of high standing, and one’s own husband, assures friends and relatives that there is really nothing the matter with one but temporary nervous depression—a slight hysterical tendency—what is one to do?My brother is also a physician, and also of high standing, and he says the same thing.So I take phosphates or phosphites—whichever it is, and tonics, and journeys, and air, and exercise, and am absolutely forbidden to “work” until I am well again. What does the narrator’s description reveal about the social context of the story?