Subject: 3.5…teacher additional instructions included as well·3.5 Dropbox – Critical Analysis of “The Yellow Wall-paper”: This is your first fully-developed literary analysis essay. Before beginning, make sure your thesis statement includes the title of the work (in quotation marks), the type of work, the author’s full name, two specific literary devices, and a universal theme. The theme cannot be limited to the characters in the story. Every part of the body of your paper should be focused on providing evidence for your thesis statement. Your claims must be plausible and supported using the text itself. Here is a template for your thesis statement: In Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s short story “The Yellow Wall-paper,” she uses (specific literary device #1) and (specific literary device #2) to show that (universal lesson, message, or theme). The thesis statement needs to be the final sentence of your introductory paragraph. Finally, don’t forget to evaluate Gilman’s message using biblical principles in your conclusion.IntroductionAlignmentFor this assignment, you will write a complete four-paragraph essay on Gilman’s “The Yellow Wall-paper.” This paper will build upon a revised version of the thesis you developed in the previous workshop.Upon successful completion of this assignment you will be able to:
Identify various literary devices (such as characterization, setting, and/or symbolism)Explain how literary devices are used to communicate truths about humankind (and perhaps about God) in a work of fiction.Construct an organized, coherent, specifically supported literary analysis.Analyze the message of a literary text using specific biblical principles.Resources
Textbook: Pearson Custom Introduction to LiteratureFile: Literary Analysis Structural Outline File: Literary Analysis Process Guide Website: http://www.gutenberg.org/files/1952/1952-h/1952-h.htm Bible: https://www.biblegateway.comInstructions
Content and Structure: Write a four-paragraph, two-to-three page-paper on Gilman’s “The Yellow Wallpaper” in which you use two separate literary devices to prove your thesis. One of your body paragraphs should focus on characterization of the central female character. You should focus on John (the husband) or on setting or symbolism for your second body paragraph. The conclusion of this paper also needs to evaluate all or part of Gilman’s message (as you are communicating that message in your thesis) with biblical principles. Use the Literary Analysis Structural Outline as a template for your paper. Treat the structural outline like a contract each individual piece of which you must try your best to carefully and creatively fulfill. After you have completed what you think is your final draft, compare it again to the structural outline link to make sure you have not missed anything!!!Process and Order: It is strongly suggested that you DRAFT the pieces of this paper in the order described in the Literary Analysis Process Guide and then arrange those pieces in the order described in the Literary Analysis Structural OutlineSave a copy for yourself and post a copy in Dropbox by the end of the workshop.
the_yellow_wall_paper.pdf
literary_analysis_proccess_guide.pdf
02_literary_analysis_structural_outline__3_5__aug_16_.pdf
Unformatted Attachment Preview
This is a reproduction of a library book that was digitized
by Google as part of an ongoing effort to preserve the
information in books and make it universally accessible.
https://books.google.com
Ji i ml;- A.
yjr Willi
ion
The Arthur and Elizabeth
SCHLESINGER LIBRARY
on the History of Women
in America
RADCLIFFE COLLEGE
Gift of
Reinhard S. peck
z.^
fc^VC”*)
in/^f
ip^^^^ ^.c ‘.
i
THE YELLOW WALL PAPER
THE
YELLOW WALL PAPER
BY
CHARLOTTE PERKINS STETSON
BOSTON
SMALL, MAYNARD & COMPANY
v Ou It
s / 3■ i
/?*/
4
Copyright, 1892
By New England Magazine
Corporation
Copyright, 1899
By Small, Maynard & Company
Rockwell & Churchill Press
Boston, U.S.A.
■
This story is reprinted from The
New England Magazine of January,
1892, by permission of the publisher,
to -whom the thanks of the Author are
due. The cover design is by Mr.
E. B. Bird.
THE
YELLOW WALL PAPER
IT is very seldom that mere ordinary
people like John and myself secure
ancestral halls for the summer.
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 that there
is something queer about it.
Else, why should it be let so cheap
ly?
And why have stood so long un
tenanted ?
John laughs at me, of course, but
one expects that in marriage.
John is practical
in
the extreme.
He has no patience with faith, an in
tense horror of superstition, and he
I
THE YELLOW WALL PAPER
scoffs openly at any talk of things not
to be felt and seen and put down in
figures.
John is a physician, and perhaps —
(I would not say it to a living soul, of
course, but this is dead paper and a
great relief to my mind) — perhaps
that is one reason I do not get well
faster.
You see, he does not believe I am
sick!
And what can one do?
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 hysteri
cal tendency, — what is one to do ?
My brother is also a physician, and
THE YELLOW WALL PAPER
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.
Personally I disagree with their
ideas.
Personally I believe that congenial
work, with excitement and change,
would do me good.
But what is one to do ?
I did write for a while in spite of
them; but it does exhaust me a good
deal — having to be so sly about it,
or else meet with heavy opposition.
I sometimes fancy that in my con
dition if I had less opposition and more
3
THE YELLOW WALL PAPER
society and stimulus — but John says
the very worst thing I can do is to
think about my condition, and I con
fess it always makes me feel bad.
So I will let it alone and talk about
the house.
The
most beautiful
place!
It
is
quite alone, standing well back from
the road, quite three miles from the
village.
It makes me think of English
places that you read about, for there
are hedges and walls and gates that
lock, and lots of separate little houses
for the gardeners and people.
There
is
a
delicious
garden!
I
never saw such a garden — large and
shady, full of box-bordered paths, and
lined with long grape-covered arbors
with seats under them.
4
THE YELLOW WALL PAPER
There were greenhouses, too, but
they are all broken now.
There was some legal trouble, I
believe, something about the heirs
and co-heirs; anyhow, the place has
been empty for years.
That spoils my ghostliness, I am
afraid; but I don’t care — there is
something strange about the house —
I can feel it.
I even said so to John one moon
light evening, but he said what I felt
was a draught, and shut the window.
I get unreasonably angry with John
sometimes. Pm sure I never used to
be so sensitive. I think it is due to
this nervous condition.
But John says if I feel so I shall
neglect proper self-control ; so I take
5
THE YELLOW WALL PAPER
pains to control myself, — before him,
at least, — and that makes me very tired.
I
don’t
like
our
room
wanted one downstairs
a
that
bit.
I
opened
on the piazza and had roses all over
the window, and such pretty, old-fash
ioned 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.
I have a schedule prescription for
each hour in the day ; he takes all care
from me, and so I feel basely ungrate
ful not to value it more.
He said we came here solely on my
6
THE YELLOW WALL PAPER
account, that I was to have perfect rest
and all the air I could get.
“Your
exercise depends on your . strength, my
dear,” said he, ” and your food some
what on your appetite ; but air you can
absorb all the time.”
So we took the
nursery, at the top of the house.
It is a big, airy room, the whole
floor nearly, with windows that look
all ways, and air and sunshine galore.
It was nursery first and
ground
and
then play
gymnasium,
I
should
judge ; for the windows are barred for
little children, and there are rings and
things in the walls.
The paint and paper look as if a
boys’ school had used it.
It is stripped
off” — the paper — in great patches all
around the head of my bed, about as far
7
THE YELLOW WALL PAPER
as I can reach, and in a great place on
the other side of the room low down.
I never saw a worse paper in my life.
One of those sprawling flamboyant
patterns committing every artistic sin.
It is dull enough to confuse the eye
in following, pronounced
enough to
constantly irritate, and provoke study,
and when you follow the lame, uncer
tain curves for a little distance they
suddenly commit suicide — plunge off
at outrageous angles, destroy
them
selves in unheard-of contradictions.
The
color is repellant, almost re
volting; a smouldering, unclean yellow,
strangely faded by the
slow-turning
sunlight.
It is a dull yet lurid orange in some
places, a sickly sulphur tint in others.
8
THE YELLOW WALL PAPER
No wonder the children hated it ! I
should hate it myself if I had to
live in this room long.
There comes John, and I must put
this away, — he hates to have me
write a word.
THE YELLOW WALL PAPER
We have been here two weeks, and
I haven’t felt like writing before, since
that first day.
I am sitting by the window now, up
in this atrocious nursery, and there is
nothing to hinder my writing as much
as I please, save lack of strength.
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 dread
fully depressing.
John does not know how much I
really suffer.
He knows there is no
reason to suffer, and that satisfies him.
Of course it is only nervousness.
It
does weigh on me so not to do my
duty in any way!
I meant to be such a help to John,
10
THE YELLOW WALL PAPER
such a real rest and comfort, and here
I am a comparative burden already!
Nobody would believe what an effort
it is to do what little I am able — to
dress and entertain, and order things.
It
is fortunate
with the baby.
Mary is
so
good
Such a dear baby!
And yet I cannot be with him, it
makes me so nervous.
I suppose John never was nervous
in his life.
He laughs at me so about
this wall paper!
At first he
meant to repaper the
room, but afterwards he said that
I
was letting it get the better of me,
and
that
nothing
was
worse for a
nervous patient than to give way to
such fancies.
He
said that after the wall paper
11
THE YELLOW WALL PAPER
was changed it would be the heavy
bedstead, and then the barred win
dows, and then that gate at the head
of the stairs, and so on.
” You know the place is doing you
good,” he said, ” and really, dear, I
don’t care to renovate the house just
for a three months’ rental.”
“Then do let us go downstairs,” I
said, “there
are
such
pretty rooms
there.”
Then he took me in his arms and
called me a blessed little goose, and
said he
would go down cellar if I
wished, and have it whitewashed into
the bargain.
But he is right enough about the
beds and windows and things.
It is as airy and comfortable a room
12
THE YELLOW WALL PAPER
as any one need wish, and, of course,
I would not be so silly as to make him
uncomfortable just for a whim.
I’m really getting quite fond of the
big room, all but that horrid paper.
Out of one window I can see the
garden, those mysterious deep-shaded
arbors, the riotous old-fashioned flow
ers, and bushes and gnarly trees.
Out of another I get a lovely view
of the bay and a little private wharf
belonging to the estate.
There is a
beautiful shaded lane that runs down
there from the house.
I always fancy
I see people walking in these numer
ous paths and arbors, but John has
cautioned me not to give way to fancy
in the least.
He says that with my
imaginative power and habit of story
13
THE YELLOW WALL PAPER
making a nervous weakness like mine
is sure to lead to all manner of excited
fancies, and that I ought to use my
will and good sense to check the ten
dency. So I try.
I think sometimes that if I were
only well enough to write a little it
would relieve the press of ideas and
rest me.
But I find I get pretty tired when I
try.
It is so discouraging not to have any
advice and companionship about my
work. When I get really well John
says we will ask Cousin Henry and
Julia down for a long visit ; but he
says he would as soon put fire-works
in my pillow-case as to let me have
those stimulating people about now.
H
THE YELLOW WALL PAPER
I wish I could get well faster.
But I must not think about
that.
This paper looks to me as if it knew
what a vicious influence it had!
There is a recurrent spot where the
pattern lolls like a broken neck and
two bulbous eyes stare at you upsidedown.
I got positively angry with the im
pertinence of it and the everlastingness.
Up and down and sideways they
crawl, and
those absurd, unblinking
eyes are everywhere.
There is one
place where two breadths didn’t match,
and the eyes go all up and down the
line, one a little higher than the other.
I never saw so much expression in
an inanimate thing before, and we all
know how much expression they have !
IS
THE YELLOW WALL PAPER
I used to lie awake as a child and get
more entertainment and terror out of
blank walls and plain furniture than
most children could find
in
a
toy-
store.
I remember what a kindly wink the
knobs of our big old bureau used to
have, and there was one chair that
always seemed like a strong friend.
I used to feel that if any of the other
things looked too fierce I could always
hop into that chair and be safe.
The furniture in this room is
no
worse than inharmonious, however, for
we had to bring it all from downstairs.
I suppose when this was used as a play
room they had to take the nursery things
out, and no wonder !
I never saw such
ravages as the children have made here.
16
THE YELLOW WALL PAPER
The wall paper, as I said before, is
torn off in spots, and it sticketh closer
than a brother — they must have had
perseverance as well as hatred.
Then
the
floor
is
scratched
and
gouged and splintered, the plaster it
self is dug out here and there, and this
great heavy bed, which is all we found
in the room, looks as if it had been
through the wars.
But I don’t mind it a bit — only the
paper.
There comes John’s sister.
Such a
dear girl as she is, and so careful of
me !
I must not
let
her
find
me
writing.
She
is
a
perfect, an
housekeeper, and
ter profession.
hopes
enthusiastic
for no bet
I verily believe she
17
THE YELLOW WALL PAPER
thinks it is the writing which made me
sick !
But I
can write when she is out,
and see her a long way off from these
windows.
There
is one that commands
the
road, a lovely, shaded, winding road,
and one that just looks off over the
country.
A lovely country, too, full
of great elms and velvet meadows.
This wall paper has a kind of subpattern in a different shade, a particu
larly irritating one, for you can only
see it in certain lights, and not clearly
then.
But
in
the
places where
it isn’t
faded, and where the sun is just so,
I can see a strange, provoking, form
less sort of figure, that seems to sulk
18
THE YELLOW WALL PAPER
about behind that silly and conspic
uous front design.
There’s sister on the stairs!
l9
THE YELLOW WALL PAPER
Well, the Fourth of July is over!
The people are all gone and I am
tired out.
John thought it might do
me good to see a little company, so
we just had mother and Nellie and
the children down for a week.
Of
course
I
didn’t
do
a
thing.
Jennie sees to everything now.
But it tired me all the same.
John says if I don’t pick up faster
he shall
send me to Weir Mitchell
in the fall.
But I don’t want to go there at all.
I had a friend who was in his hands
once, and she says he is just like John
and my brother, only more so!
Besides, it is such an undertaking
to go so far.
I
don’t
feel
as if it was
20
worth
THE YELLOW WALL PAPER
while to turn my hand over for any
thing, and Pm getting dreadfully fretful
and querulous.
I cry at nothing, and cry most of
the time.
Of course I don’t
when John is
here, or anybody else, but when
I
am alone.
And I am alone a good deal just now.
John is kept in town very often by
serious cases, and Jennie is good and
lets me alone when I want her to.
Sd I walk a little in the garden or
down
that
lovely
lane,
sit
on
the
porch under the roses, and lie down
up here a good deal.
Pm getting really fond of the room
in spite of the wall paper.
because of the wall paper.
21
Perhaps
THE YELLOW WALL PAPER
It dwells in my mind so!
I lie here on this great immovable
bed — it is nailed down, I believe —
and follow that pattern about by the
hour.
It is as good as gymnastics, I
assure you.
I start, we’ll say, at the
bottom, down in the corner over there
where it has not been touched, and I
determine for the thousandth time that
I -will follow that pointless pattern to
some sort of a conclusion.
I know a little of the principles of
design, and I know this thing was not
arranged on any laws of radiation, or
alternation, or repetition, or symmetry,
or anything else that I ever heard of.
It is repeated, of course,
by the
breadths, but not otherwise.
Looked at in one way, each breadth
22
THE YELLOW WALL PAPER
stands alone, the bloated curves and
flourishes — a kind of “debased Ro
manesque ” with delirium tremens —
go waddling up and down in isolated
columns of fatuity.
But, on the other hand, they con
nect diagonally, and the sprawling
outlines run off” in great slanting waves
of optic horror, like a lot of wallow
ing seaweeds in full chase.
The whole thing goes horizontally,
too, at least it seems so, and I exhaust
myself in trying to distinguish the
order of its going in that direction.
They have used a horizontal breadth
for a frieze, and that adds wonderfully
to the confusion.
There is one end of the room where
it is almost intact, and there, when
23
THE YELLOW WALL PAPER
the cross-lights fade and the low sun
shines directly upon it, I can almost
fancy radiation, after all, — the inter
minable grotesques seem to form around
a common centre and rush off in head
long plunges of equal distraction.
It makes me tired to follow it. I
will take a nap, I guess.
24
THE YELLOW WALL PAPER
I don’t know why I should write
this.
I don’t want to.
I don’t feel able.
And I know John would think it
absurd. But I must say what I feel
and think in some way — it is such a
relief !
But the effort is getting to be greater
than the relief.
Half the time now I am awfully lazy,
and lie down ever so much.
John says I mustn’t lose my strength,
and has me take cod-liver oil and lots
of tonics and things, to say nothing of
ale and wine and rare meat.
Dear John!
He loves me very
dearly, and hates to have me sick. I
tried to have a real earnest reasonable
25
THE YELLOW WALL PAPER
talk with him the other day, and tell
him how I wished he would let me go
and make a visit to Cousin Henry and
Julia.
But he said I wasn’t able to go, nor
able to stand it after I got there ; and I
did not make out a very good case for
myself, for I was crying before I had
finished.
It is getting to be a great effort for
me to think straight.
Just this nervous
weakness, I suppose.
And dear John gathered me up in
his arms, and just carried me upstairs
and laid me on the bed, and sat by
me and read to me till he tired my
head.
He said I was his darling and his
comfort and all he had, and that I must
26
THE YELLOW WALL PAPER
take care of myself for his sake, and
keep well.
He says no one but myself can help
me out of it, that I must use my will
and self-control and not let my silly
fancies run away with me.
There’s one
comfort, the
baby is
well and happy, and does not have to
occupy this nursery with the horrid
wall paper.
If we had not used it that blessed
child would have!
What a fortunate
escape!
wouldn’t
Why,
I
have
a
child of mine, an impressionable little
thing, live in such a room for worlds.
I never thought of it before, but it is
lucky that John kept me here, after all.
I can stand it so much easier than a
baby, you see.
27
THE YELLOW WALL PAPER
Of course I never mention it to them
any more, — I am too wise, — but I
keep watch of it all the same.
There are things in that paper that
nobody knows but me, or ever will.
Behind that outside pattern the dim
shapes get clearer every day.
It is always the same shape, only
very numerous.
And it is like a woman
stooping
down and creeping about behind that
pattern.
I don’t like it a bit.
I won
der — I begin to think — I wish John
would take me away from here!
28
THE YELLOW WALL PAPER
It is so hard to talk with John about
my case, because he is so wise, and be
cause he loves me so.
But I tried it last night.
It was moonlight.
The moon shines
in all around, just as the sun does.
I hate to see it sometimes, it creeps
so slowly, and always comes in by one
window or another.
John was
asleep
and
I
hated to
waken him, so I kept still and watched
the moonlight on that undulating wall
paper till I felt creepy.
The faint figure behind seemed to
shake the pattern, just as if she wanted
to get out.
I got up softly and went to feel
and see if the paper did move, and
when I came back John was awake.
29
THE YELLOW WALL PAPER
“What is it, little girl?” he said.
“Don’t go walking about like that —
you’ll get cold.”
I thought it was a good time to
talk, so I told him that I really was
not gaining here, and that I wished
he would take me away.
“Why, darling ! ” said he, “our lease
will be up in three weeks, and 1 can’t
see how to leave before.
” The repairs are not done at home,
and I cannot possibly leave town just
now.
Of course if you were in any
danger I could and would, but you
really are better, dear, whether you
can see it or not.
I am a doctor,
dear, and I know.
You are gaining
flesh and color, your appetite is better.
I feel really much easier about you.”
3°
THE YELLOW WALL PAPER
“I don’t weigh a bit more,” said I,
K nor as much ; and my appetite may
be better in the evening, when you
are here, but it is worse in the morn
ing, when you are away.”
“Bless her little heart!” said
he
with a big hug; ” she shall be as sick as
she pleases.
But now let’s improve
the shining hours by going to sleep,
and talk about it in the morning.”
“And you won’t go away?” I asked
gloomily.
“Why, how can I, dear?
It is only
three weeks more and then we will
take a nice little trip of a few days
while
ready.
Jennie
is
getting
the
house
Really, dear, you are better ! ”
” Better in body, perhaps ” — I be
gan, and stopped short, for he sat up
31
THE YELLOW WALL PAPER
straight and l …
Purchase answer to see full
attachment
