The Yellow Wallpaper

Lucaya · Eligible to vote! Joined: 06 Jun 2002 Posts: 16 Gender:

I am glad to see that you guys liked my idea. Greg, I am really hoping to hear from you on this one.

My suggestion for a short story is "The Yellow Wallpaper" by Charlotte Perkins Gilman. It is about a woman's road to insanity, written in 1913. She said that she did not write it to drive people crazy, she wrote it to prevent people from going crazy. Read at your own risk.

It can be found at:

www.cwrl.utexas.edu/~dani...rtext.html

Lauren

greg in the machine · Posted: Tue Jun 18, 2002 2:30 pm Post subject: Re: The Yellow Wallpaper

I'll print it out before I leave work and take it home with me tonight. Look for my response sometime late tomorrow or early Thursday.

And by the way, I'm moving this thread to the appropriate forum (the "Fiction" forum of the Additional Readings section). The forum it was originally posted to ("Short Stories" in the Member Writing Contributions section) is for BookTalk members to submit their own short stories to.

G

Edited by: greg in the machine at: 6/18/02 3:55:37 pm

Lucaya · Eligible to vote! Joined: 06 Jun 2002 Posts: 16 Gender:

OOPS!

Sorry about that. I should have paid closer attention.

DaRk Penguin · Eligible to vote! Joined: 16 Jun 2003 Posts: 16 Gender:

I enjoyed reading this story for an english class recently. The story merits discussion as many points are left open to interpretation and becuase Charlotte's form to emphasize content was skillful enough to elicit the emotions within me that the main character and arguably the author felt.
A woman entrapped in an attic to cure her sickness is directly connected to a woman entrapped in a household to fulfill her social role. At least the two situations produce the same feelings and activities in the woman; a life so dull its almost sickening. To defeat boredom the woman in the attic stares at wallpaper for hours eventually making out symbols and images that eventually become another woman, and keeps a hidden diary. First the woman in the wallpaper is symbolic of domestic entrapment, and secondly the diary that must be kept hidden reveals the oppressiveness of her cultural's views towards women.
The readers only see the story through the main characters diary, a diary which of course is the result of massive boredom. Because no one else is intended to see the diary the readers are able to see this bored womans foremost fantasies, which are to break free from her house and romp around outside. The woman trapped in the wall paper personifies this when she breaks free and does indeed romp around outside. Since roaming housewives/women in a sexist society is frowned upon the wallpaper woman half freely roams/ half hides, causing the main character to offer insight. "I don't blame her a bit. It must be very humiliating to be caught creeping by daylight!"
That takes care of all the levels of suppression/oppression.

DaRk Penguin · Eligible to vote! Joined: 16 Jun 2003 Posts: 16 Gender:

does anyone have an interpretation of the last 3 lines. We spent a few days in English class trying to figure those out.
The story is really short, and quality-wise goes uphill the entire time. In other words, I wholly recommend it.

AnnaACA · Newbie Joined: 17 Jul 2003 Posts: 1 Gender:

"The Yellow Wallpaper" is one of my favorite short stories. It is an amazing work. It is interesting to compare the author's life with the story she wrote.

The Dusty Shelf - a place for book lovers!

heather blaine · Newbie Joined: 20 Sep 2003 Posts: 1 Gender:

I just read it last night and it is an amazing peice of work.

No Choice In Ana,

Chris OConnor · Posted: Sat Sep 20, 2003 12:40 pm Post subject: Re: The Yellow Wallpaper

Is that your web site? I know quite a bit about these things from a past relationship.

Chris

"When once you have tasted flight, you will forever walk the earth with your eyes turned skyward,for there you have been, and there you will always want to be." -- Leonardo da Vinci

tarav · Posted: Wed Sep 24, 2003 4:39 pm Post subject: Re: The Yellow Wallpaper

I am glad that I happened to check this thread out. I enjoyed reading that short story. If you also enjoyed reading The Yellow Wallpaper, I recommend reading His Bright Light, by Danielle Steele. It is not a short story or a romance novel. It is biographical. I have never read anything else by Steele. This book was recommended to me by someone who suffered from depression. The book tells about Steele's son who was manic depressive and committed suicide at 19. There are excerpts from things he wrote and many reflections on his life. It is a downer, but provides great insight into the lives(and unfortunately, deaths)of people suffering from mental illness.

Jeremy1952 · Posted: Sat Jan 03, 2004 6:50 pm Post subject: Re: The Yellow Wallpaper

I've never poked my nose into this forum before. My wife was assigned "Yellow Wallpaper" in a psych class, and gave it to me to read. Fascinating.

If you make yourself really small, you can externalize virtually everything. Daniel Dennett, 1984


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