The Yellow Wallpaper
Awesome story. Due to the beginning of the story i thought it was going to be another woman's rights commentary. I was definitely incorrect. It started to get disturbing when night came and the main character was able to see what the design truly was. The implied visuals of a woman pounding against the bars of the outer layer of paper was genuinely bizarre. Then, as she started to see the 'creeping' women out the windows you knew that her insanity was beginning to climax. (I prefer to read the story as her being insane rather then the implied concept of the house being haunted due to my personal disregard of anything supernatural or religious. A crazy woman is far creepier then any ghost-tale.)
The final scene where she has completely and utterly lost her mind gave me the pit of the stomach,
disturbed feeling usually only brought on by a similarly creepy film. The idea of her scurrying around on all fours, grinding her shoulder up against the marks already present on the walls was absolutely sickening. And then to finish it off, he husband's fainted body has no affect on her mental state as she scurried right over him. Creepy as hell.
Now, reading it again I suppose it could be perceived as a woman's rights tale, with her going mad over being kept locked up. That she was the woman behind the wallpaper - but i severely hope that is not what was implied. Sometimes reading too far into things ruin the fun...
posted by MatthewKaplan @ 10:07 AM
7 Comments:
This story does seem to be a lonesome tragedy and I also preffer to see the woman as insane rather then the house being haunted. I think it was a bit creepy also that she ignored the fainted body of her husband but only stayed concious of the fact that she can finally rise above him, or the repression that was kept over her by John.
I agree with thinking that she was crazy as appose to the house being haunted. I think it was all in her mind everything about the wallpaper and had nothing to do with the actual paper itself. And I definitely agree with the story being very creepy.
Yes, but try to get beyond the surface "creepiness" or "craziness"--like it or not, you're getting closer to some kind of symbolic/metaphoric significance of events and set detials in your second par.; and Namra's point about "repression" is also relevant. There are other social/cultural issues, besides gender, that come up, as well--see my comments on the class blog under "older posts"
i think the story was about womens right because she has no independence and she wanted to get away from her surroundings...and in the end she trys to be free. also i think that a crazy woman is much creepier then any ghost-tale.
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Never mind, so I got it. The story is written from her point of view since it's her journal, right? And although she see the world pleasantly for the most part, when she in fact is kept hostage against her will. "It was nursery first and then playroom and gymnasium, I should judge; for the windows are barred for little children... " Throughout the story she makes excuses for her being captive. Then she goes freakin' nuts and becomes like the animal they made her by craving routine and not wanting to leave her cave. "For outside you have to creep on the ground, and everything is green instead of yellow. But here I can creep smoothly on the floor, and my shoulder just fits in that long smooch around the wall, so I cannot lose my way." Epic.
I wish I had the ability to edit comments. So apparently i completely missed the point that she had just had a child - yet she is never with it. It's been assumed that she may have had "postpartum psychosis" and she wasn't to be trusted with the child. THEN apparently there was black mold mentioned. And the smell was it growing and the yellow splotches on them were a result of that. Apparently "The woman shows symptoms of black mold poisoning like hallucinations, lethargy, irritability, etc." That would be nuts if that was why she was going nut. But the source I got that from had mad spelling errors so go figure.
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