Illustrations Courtesy of Cornell University Library,
Making of America Digital Collection
Gilman, Charlotte. "The Yellow Wallpaper"

1. What is your own gut feeling about the speaker of the piece in the first two “Parts?” Who do you trust here, the speaker or the two doctors cited? IS this woman “sick?” We will ask YOU to come to YOUR own conclusions and ask what elements in the first two chapters support your position? We will ask you to make a stand and then watch and see if your position changes or not, that takes courage, let’s give it a go!

2. The narrative is presented in the First Person (“I”) but what/ who is the intended audience? What form is this? Is it a diary?

3. “am absolutely forbidden to ‘work’ until I am well again.” (Part I) What 'work' does the narrator do? Is there an explanation? Who has given this order? Does the narrator seem to agree with this order? Is there any other unexplained element you are curious about?

4. The Yellow Wallpaper is the title of the piece, how does this title relate to the story?

5. “And when you follow the lame uncertain curves for a little distance they suddenly commit suicide…”

The first two Parts are full of fantastic, spooky, Gothic images which add wonderfully to the atmosphere of the piece, can you identify one that you thought particularly set the tone?

Here a curve “commits suicide,” which is an example of the literary device called personification, when something inanimate takes on human characteristics. Do you see any other examples of literary devices in the first two chapters?

What effect do these descriptive images have on the story?

6. “Ethically engaged fiction” raises important questions but does not undertake to suggest an answer. (www.ksu.edu/english...) Are there any questions nagging you in these chapters or coming chapters which the author does not answer?

7. Each of the 12 Parts in the story, underlined by the author herself, is felt to be a mini story, with its own plot, rising and falling action and climax, and sometimes and sometimes not denouements or summing up elements. Some sections may be arranged differently and these may be for a reason, let’s watch, let’s watch and wait through about 6 days of reading and see what all we can spot here? Each section may contain a change from the previous one, or may not: at the end, supposedly you can look at the end of each chapter and see the changes. We will want to watch carefully each mini story and see IF this theory holds true? We will want, EACH OF US as individual readers here, to watch for ourselves, this one is all YOU.

8. Is it possible that this woman is the product of her society and her time rather than a single man who has a support group of people who feel the same way he does? (Malryn)

9. Why would anybody want to drive anybody else insane? (Anneo)

10. Is there a Protagonist as yet unnamed in the story? (YiLi)

11. If her husband did hide and imprison her in this room, would it drive her mad if she was, as I think, undergoing a fairly normal reaction to childbirth; that is, hormonal changes and the attempt of her body to get back to its pre-pregnancy state? (Malryn)


We know that there are many other issues we will raise such as feminist issues, societal issues, medical treatment issues, Gilman’s own life and history, but we have time to get to all of these in their due, let’s BEGIN this morning with YOU, what is YOUR gut feeling about this writer and will you take a stand? Who do YOU trust here?