Allister Lo
English 1B
Journal 35 Charlotte Perkins Gilman
Quote: “I am getting angry enough to do something desperate. To jump out of the window would be admirable exercise, but the bars are too strong even to try. Besides, I wouldn’t do it. Of course not. I know well enough that a step like that is improper and might be misconstrued.”
Summary: As the narrator attempts to rip the yellow wallpaper off the wall, she begins to get angry and desperate. She thinks about jumping out of the window, but she realizes that the bars were too strong and then tells the audience that she wouldn’t even do it.
Response: In this passage, the audience sees the extremely unstable state that the narrator is now in. Although she never states it outright, it looks like she is almost on the verge of suicide trying to get the woman out of the wallpaper. A little before this passage, she gets a rope to tie the woman up in so she cannot get away, but her thoughts and actions reflect that she might have attempted to hang herself if she had found something to hang on. Now the thought of jumping out of the window crosses her mind, but it is quickly shot down because she will not be able to remove the bars from the window. She then quickly reassesses her situation and says that she would not even do it if she had the opportunity.
Gilman probably put this chilling thought process of the narrator to show what goes through the mind of someone that has gone mad because she had done so herself. She shows the audience that her whole point of view of the world becomes distorted in that her life now revolves around trying to get that woman out of the wallpaper rather than having her own life as her focus. Essentially, her mind has become so confused that the woman in the wallpaper consumes her and affects her thoughts and actions. Gilman shows that the thought process of the narrator is never suicide, but rather it is her desperation and determination to get the woman out of the wallpaper that puts her life at risk. Clearly, the narrator is not well, and it is increasingly difficult for the reader to comprehend what she is thinking or trying to do, especially since she has now become an unreliable narrator.
Furthermore, Gilman probably put this account in to show what keeping a woman isolated and in bed all day can do to her. Since she has had no relationships and very little contact with the outside world, she has developed an imaginary world that threatens her health in the real world.
Friday, March 7, 2008
Journal 34 Charlotte Perkins Gilman - I Know Better
Allister Lo
English 1b
Journal 34 Charlotte Perkins Gilman
Quote: “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?”
Summary: The narrator believes that instead of being treated for her neurosis by being kept to bed all day that doing work that is exciting and a change for her normal routine would help in curing her ailment. Yet she cannot change the mind of her husband.
Response: The narrator in the Yellow Wallpaper is confined to bed and ordered to rest all day in order to cure her neurological disease. However, it seems that she is not that unwell and she opens the short story by speaking to the audience as if she was quite normal. However, after the rest treatment, she becomes much more sick and seems to experience many hallucinations.
Gilman may have wrote this story on her own behalf because she, too, underwent a depressed stage. This short story seems to reflect what her sentiments were as she was being treated for it. Although many physicians at the time wanted to put women to rest and let them sleep the depression away, this in fact may have been more harmful than having no treatment. Gilman believed that the best cure was not to be confined to a room, but rather she wanted to keep herself busy, with enjoyable and light work that broke up the monotony of her own life. Looking back on it, Gilman believes if she was treated in this fashion, then her ailment would not have gotten to be as bad as it became.
In this passage, she also makes the statement that sometimes all one has to do is listen to the sick person because in some cases, they may know how best to treat themselves. Furthermore, Gilman may have also been wanting to show the helplessness of women in this situation. In addition to being sick, their subordination to men sometimes made their conditions even worse because physicians, who were mostly male at the time, were so sure that rest was the best way to treat this depression that they would not even consider the opinions of those who were actually sick and probably knew how to treat themselves better than anyone else.
English 1b
Journal 34 Charlotte Perkins Gilman
Quote: “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?”
Summary: The narrator believes that instead of being treated for her neurosis by being kept to bed all day that doing work that is exciting and a change for her normal routine would help in curing her ailment. Yet she cannot change the mind of her husband.
Response: The narrator in the Yellow Wallpaper is confined to bed and ordered to rest all day in order to cure her neurological disease. However, it seems that she is not that unwell and she opens the short story by speaking to the audience as if she was quite normal. However, after the rest treatment, she becomes much more sick and seems to experience many hallucinations.
Gilman may have wrote this story on her own behalf because she, too, underwent a depressed stage. This short story seems to reflect what her sentiments were as she was being treated for it. Although many physicians at the time wanted to put women to rest and let them sleep the depression away, this in fact may have been more harmful than having no treatment. Gilman believed that the best cure was not to be confined to a room, but rather she wanted to keep herself busy, with enjoyable and light work that broke up the monotony of her own life. Looking back on it, Gilman believes if she was treated in this fashion, then her ailment would not have gotten to be as bad as it became.
In this passage, she also makes the statement that sometimes all one has to do is listen to the sick person because in some cases, they may know how best to treat themselves. Furthermore, Gilman may have also been wanting to show the helplessness of women in this situation. In addition to being sick, their subordination to men sometimes made their conditions even worse because physicians, who were mostly male at the time, were so sure that rest was the best way to treat this depression that they would not even consider the opinions of those who were actually sick and probably knew how to treat themselves better than anyone else.
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