Response 6 - close reading of \"the yellow wallpaper\" PDF

Preview

Summary

close reading of "the yellow wallpaper"...

Description

Response #6 Close Reading (Fiction)

I chose to do my close fiction reading on “The Yellow Wall Paper” by Charlotte Perkins Gilman. I chose to focus on symbol, narration/point of view, and character(ization) as my three elements of fiction in this short story. I chose to focus on symbol because I think that it plays a hug role for the main character, who remains nameless, and we only know her as John’s wife. I chose to focus on narration/point of view because I think that this particular point of view and how the story is written gives a totally unexpected perspective for readers. Finally, I chose to focus on character9ization) because I think that Charlotte Perkins Gilman was able to make some rather unexpected character choices within the short story.

Looking at the element of symbolism I would consider the biggest and most apparent symbol in “The Yellow Wall Paper” to be the yellow wall paper itself. In the story we have the yellow wall paper that is described as ripped, soiled and an “unclean yellow”; it is something that disgust all who enter the room yet it catches the attention of the woman from the second she enters her bedroom. After countless, endless hours of the woman staring at the wall paper trying to decipher where it begins and ends she sees a desperate woman stuck in the wall paper trying to escape. It is as if the woman in the wall paper is imprisoned within the bars of the wall paper much like a cage. I take this to symbolize the woman and how she is trapped in her own life with her husband the doctor and all the treatments he forces upon her.

I chose to look at the element of narration because although it is in first person point of view, as readers I do not think that we are getting the full view of the story even from first person

point of view because the woman as the main character has something going on in her head. Yes, we are only getting the perspective from the one character, the main character, the wife, but we are also getting a perspective from a woman who for a lack of better words is diagnosed as crazy. As readers we “See” this woman trapped in the wall paper but we are not able to get the perspective from other characters such as the nurse or the husband/doctor to see what is actually happening within the story. Charlotte Perkins Gilman really left us to our own imaginations to see what this would look like from an outsider’s point of view if they were to walk in on the woman tearing the wall paper off of the wall or even at the very end when she says, “…and right across my path by the wall, so that I had to creep over him every time!” (320). This single line in itself from the woman’s perspective leaves us an image of a deranged woman creepily crawling over her fainted husbands body as she tears the wall paper off of the wall.

Lastly, I chose to focus in on the element of characters or characterization because again Charlotte Perkins Gilman really gives us an unexpected look into this as well. For example, the woman is clearly the protagonist of the story but what might not be so obvious is the fact that the woman can also be considered her own antagonist as well. Obviously her husband is also working against her but as a reader that does not quite catch my attention quite as much as one’s self being their own antagonist. The woman could also be considered a round character just simply because she is so complex with her “messed up” mind and all that goes on inside of it. On the other hand, she could also be considered her own foil as well because her different moods or personalities serve as contrast to each other. The fact that one character can be considered so many types of characters made it an easy to choose and interesting fiction element to focus on....