Atmosphere In The Yellow Wallpaper

After reading the short story, did you find that the atmosphere changed from the introduction to the conclusion of the short story?

After reading the story I found that there is a shift in the atmosphere from the introduction to the conclusion of the story where the mood transitioned from genial, cozy, and snug to depressing, eerie, and frightful. In the beginning of the story, the speaker and her family move into a "beautiful place, quite alone, standing well back from the road, quite three miles from the village"(page 4). John is “very careful and loving, and hardly lets [her] stir without special direction” (page 4) The shift of mood initiate when the speaker begins observing the “repellent, almost revolting unclean yellow”(page 7) wall

paper that has “strangely faded by the slow-turning sunlight"(page 7); constantly being surrounded by this uneasy wallpaper leads her to stress over it.
There are transition of how she observes the wall paper.In the beginning she just looks at the wallpaper as a way of passing time.

As time goes on, she starts getting frustrated and a little bit delusional. She is not just glance at them anymore; she starts noticing the patterns on the wallpaper, and this can be viewed as an indication of hallucination. Moreover, she sinks into her imagery world and seriously thinks there is a woman trapped inside the wallpaper. She believes John is plotting something. By the end of the story she crawls over her husband and this is the point where we ultimately know she is crazy. The strange yellow wall paper greatly contributes to the eerie atmosphere and mirrors the horrifying mood of the story. The author's degree of insanity has gradually increased during the period of living in the room with the yellow wallpaper. By the end of the story, she becomes completely insane and believes she is the woman who is being trapped in the hideous wall paper and finally reaches

freedom.

2. Explain the relationship between the narrator and her husband John. Do you believe it is a loving relationship? Why or why not?

The relation between John and the narrator differs from the average couples; I believe the relationship between them is not a loving relationship, but more like a superficial relationship between ownership and possession or "physician" and patient. A true loving relation is supposed to be selfless, mutually respected, equal and considerate, however, John is too opinionated and egoistic to respect his wife's needs and desires. For example, because he is a physician, he believes that the best remedy to cure his wife is through resting, which was a popular methodology applied by many doctors and psychiatric wards in the 18th and 19th century. Rather than listening to his wife's desire to switch bedroom, he brushes it off believing science and medicine he knows is the only solution; instead of treating his wife with love and care, he treats her more so hostilely like a 'case' or a patient. The author does not wish to obey John's commands, because she "believe[s] that congenial work, with excitement and change, would do [her] good"(page 3) but since her husband only allows her to "take phosphates or phosphites, and tonics, and journeys, and air, and exercise, and [she is] absolutely forbidden to "work" until [she is] well again", (page 3) she can only follow what her husband thinks is 'good' for her. The author has to stick with her routine life according to "a schedule prescription for each hour in the day" (page 5) that John plans for her. The lack of communication and the long term imprisonment by her husband incites to the deterioration of her illness from the state of depression to insanity thoroughly.

3. What does John claim to be wrong with his wife and what are his cures for her? Do you as the reader believe that John's wife is sick?

At the beginning of the story, John claims that his wife is not sick but only having "temporary nervous depression—a slight hysterical tendency" (page 3). His cures for his wife is to "take phosphates or phosphites, and tonics, and journeys, and air, and exercise, and [is] absolutely forbidden to "work" until [she is] well again" (page 3). As I continue reading the book, I do believe that John's wife is sick, after the long period of time which she has completely no freedom, she becomes a phrenetic psycho. At the beginning of the story, her symptoms do not appear as severe and, in fact, John appears to be overly protective; but as time pass by, she gradually emerges into a lunatic who tears all the wall paper and "creep over" her husband. Jean's acute depression was partly propelled by John's decision to force her into a room which she warned against. Through the evidences above, it is convincing enough for me as a reader to believe John's wife is really sick.

4. Explain the symbolic signficance of the author seeing 'unblinking eyes' everywhere. Why would she see this in the wallpaper?

The symbol of 'unblinking eyes' plays a significant role in the story; it helps the readers to better understand the situation which the speaker is facing. The 'unblinking eyes' which she sees everywhere is symbolism of surveillance and the lack of freedom she has. Due to the mental illness, therefore, she must agree to do whatever her husband asks her to do without a revolt. Her husband even has "a schedule prescription for each hour in the day"(page 5) for her. She is trapped in the room cannot go any where without John's permission. She is being spied on at every moment even when John is not in the room, like "unblinking eyes"! Every action of her is under the monitor of John, without any acceptance. It is unblinking because there is always someone watching her at anytime, anywhere, nonstop. She has been locked in the room by her husband and does not even have the ability to see her children.This is hard for us to not relate to her husband who wants to gain total control of her and convince her that she is truly ill.The eyes may also symbolizes John is only able to see her not profoundly but could not hear her inner needs and desires. It seems like she is not living in a home but a prison, while John, being the prison guard, not only locks her up but her freedom and rights as well. After the long period of time under John's scrutiny, Jane starts to get an illusion of 'unblinking eyes' everywhere watching her doing everything. The unblinking eyes are not simply patterns on the wall but reflects how John and the society was treating her.

5.

As the story progresses provide three examples of when the female narrator showed a change with regards to her personality and actions. Did she get 'better' or 'worse' as the story progressed?

At the beginning of the story, the narrator, Jane, appears to be a normal woman with great imagination and curiosity although her husband John claims that she has a "temporary nervous depression—a slight hysterical tendency" (page 3).The first shift regards to Jane's personality and actions lies in her discovery of the hideous yellow wallpaper after they move into what she calls a "haunted house" (page 1). She feels uncomfortable and becomes a little bit unconscious. Furthermore, the second shift begins when she sinks into her imaginary world within the yellow wallpaper; the awful wallpaper has "dwells in [her] mind"(page 11). She is gradually "getting dreadfully fretful and querulous"(page 11). Her delusional state utterly takes her over as she hallucinates the patterns on the wall paper as "a woman stooping down and creeping about behind that pattern"(page 13). She starts to sleep at morning and observe the "woman inside the wall paper" at night. The last shift regarding to Jane's personality and action appears to be when she claims that "the front pattern DOES move"(page 18) because "the woman behind shakes it"(page 18). Moreover, she sometimes "think[s] there are a great many women behind, and sometimes only one, and she crawls around fast, and her crawling shakes it all over"

(page 18) and they all struggle in vain to climb through the pattern. Her firm belief that she is the woman trapped inside the wallpaper and that if she can tear the wall paper, she can break the cage and be free, emphasizes her final transition into complete insanity. Based on the evidence above, we can certainly make a statement that Jane's state of illness has gotten 'worse' gradually over time as the story develops.

6. Analyze John's actions in the short story. Do you believe you can trust his actions towards the narrator? Why or why not?

In my opinion, I found John's action towards the narrator is relatively not trustworthy because his highly opinionated, self-righteous and self-assertive persona eventually leads to progression of his wife's insanity. In fact, he never tries to take the author's feeling and needs into a consideration, and only does what he thinks is good and right for her from a physician's point of view at the same time he refuses to listen to others or any disagreements from them. The speaker "believe[s] that congenial work, with excitement and change, would do [her] good"(page 3) but her husband only allows her to "take phosphates or phosphites, and tonics, and journeys, and air, and exercise, and [she is] absolutely forbidden to "work" until [she is] well again" (page 3). Eventually his stubbornness worsens the mental state of his wife rather than curing it. The above evidence adequately proves that John's actions are not relatively trustworthy since his narrow-mindedness led to a tragic consequence. However, everything we know so far is from an unreliable point of view from a mentally ill person only, therefore, descriptions of John and the events that occurred at the house may be erroneous to begin with.