Personal Reflection

Dear Mrs. Donnelly,

      I have to be honest. I went into The Yellow Wallpaper prepared to be bored. However, once we got started, I began to like it. When I realized the bigger thinking of the story, everything clicked and I enjoyed the story. I'm even making my mom read it to see if she can understand it. 

    There are a couple different ways I understood the story through Gilman's eyes. One way I understood it was that Jane was dreaming or making it up the whole it up the whole time she is awake during the day because Jennie told her that she "slept a good deal in the daytime" (10).  This was a part that made me wonder if the story was a dream or if she is just mentally crazy. I had to stop and think about what I wanted to believe for the story.

      I learned that story's can have a deeper meaning for the whole thing. Also, that stories use symbolism to show the deeper meaning and theme. My least favorite part of the assignment was that we needed so many different things to complete the project. However, in the long run I know you are just preparing us for high school and our education ahead of us. After this project, I feel well prepared for the many different projects in high school to come. With this project came confusion and many questions. I appreciate how quickly and with patience you answered all of my questions. Overall, this project was a creative way to learn how to write a literature anyalysis. The Yellow Wallpaper is an interesting short story that will help me understand literature analysis forever. 

     From,

      Christine Bescript 

Jane Against Society: Societal or Historical Connections

Throughout the short story The Yellow Wallpaper, Gilman relates society and history. At the time that the story takes place, woman were considered not as intelligent as men and should just stay in the house and do woman tasks. Men don't take woman seriously and that's why John talked and treated Jane like a child. "Then he took me in his arms and called me a blessed little goose, and said he would go down to the cellar, if I wished, and have it whitewashed into the bargain"(3).  John called Jane a "blessed little goose" like the child story reference of mother goose. This means John looks at Jane as if she is a child. "What is it, little girl?" he said. "Don't go walking about like that-- you'll get cold"(6). In this statement John literally said to Jane she is a little girl. Also, John was concerned for her like she didn't have the ability to know she would get cold like a little kid. 

Society: an organized group of persons associated together for religious, benevolent,cultural, scientific, political, patriotic or other purposes.

http://m.dictionary.com/definition/society This source helped me understand what society meant.
http://www.loyno.edu/~kchopin/Women's%20Rights.htm This source helps me understand the rights and the way woman were treated in the time period The Yellow Wallpaper was written.

The Underneath: Symbolism

What could that really mean? Is there a deeper meaning? These are the thoughts that went through my head as I tried to comprehend the deeper meaning of The Yellow Wallpaper. Jane becomes more and more obsessed with the yellow wallpaper throughout the story. She started out hating it and ended up becoming so obsessed, she felt the need to rub against it constantly up to the point where she was yellow and smelled like it. Gilman used her personal intentions through Jane's story. The story says, "I always lock the door when I creep by daylight"(9). Also, the story says,"I see her on that long road under the trees, creeping along, and when a carriage comes she hides under the blackberry vines" (9). In the daytime men would be working and woman would be home doing their duties they were responsible for. However, "creeping" is just a symbol of an activity that brings a woman happiness. For Jane, it's rubbing against the wallpaper, but for other woman it is going for walks outside and when the woman would see a carriage (with men) she would hide in fear. Later in the story, Jane pulls off the paper. "'And I've pulled off most of the paper, so you can't put me back!' Now why should that man have fainted? But he did, and right across my path by the wall, so that I had to creep over him every time!" (11).  When Jane is yelling to John, this is symbolism meaning that she is out and free and there is no going back. Earlier in the story, when Jane talked about getting all the paper down before she left, that was symbolism meaning she needed to be free before she left the house therefore reaching her goal at the conclusion. John fainted which could have really meant to Gilman, was that all of the men's power over woman was gone. Then when Jane continued to creep, (do what made her happy) she stepped over John which meant she didn't need men and they were no longer dominant. 

Symbolism: he practice of representing things by symbols, or of investigating things with a symbolic meaning or character.

http://m.dictionary.com/definition/symbolism This source helped me understand what symbolism meant. 

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Yellow_Wallpaper This source helped me realize and understand different things in the story that were symbolism that I didn't notice.

The Shadow of Who? : Protagonist

The protagonist in The Yellow Wallpaper  is Jane. Jane is a mentally sick woman whose condition is getting worse. Jane always insists seeing the woman in the wallpaper when it is all in her head. In the daylight she sees the woman on the wallpaper. "There is one marked peculiarity about this paper, a thing nobody seems to notice but myself, and that is that it changes as the light changes" (7). Jane doesn't realize that the wallpaper and the woman "within" the wallpaper changes because she is really acknowledging  her shadow throughout the day. "At night in any kind of light, in twilight, candlelight, lamplight, and worst of all by moonlight, it becomes bars! The outside pattern I mean, and the woman behind it is as plain as can be" (7).  At this point of the story, Jane is seeing herself lying in bed through her headboard bars. This woman she thinks she sees has been herself all along.  

Protagonist: : The leading character, hero, or heroine of drama or other literary work.

http://m.dictionary.com/definition/protagonist. This source helped me understand what a protagonist meant.

http://m.dictionary.com/definition/shadowThis source helped me understand what a shadow meant.

There is more than that! : Theme

The theme of The Yellow Wallpaper is to uncover what somebody's problems are before judging them. Gilman talks about different things throughout her short story that have a deeper meaning that she is having trouble expressing through normal sayings. "There were greenhouses, too, but they are all broken now" (1). Gilman could really be saying that she is broken and is trying to seek help. Gilman's conditions were judged my men because she is a woman and must be crazy. She really had some serious conditions and was very smart. Also, Gilman could be realizing her problems through the wallpaper. "The whole thing goes horizontally, too, at least it seems so, and I exhaust myself in trying to distinguish the order of its going in that direction" (5).  She really could be trying to say that with her mental diseases, she tries very hard to figure out why she has it and what's going on. Also, with her state of confusion it becomes exhausting to figure it out.  "... I determine for the thousandth time that I will follow that pointless pattern to some sort of conclusion" (5).  Here, Gilman is trying to say that every time she tries to figure out what's happening she doesn't reach a conclusion and she is determined to find the answer. Overall, The theme of The Yellow Wallpaper is that you should uncover the real meaning of people's story before you judge them. 

Theme: A subject of discourse, discussion, meditation, or composition; topic.

http://www.novelguide.com/the-yellow-wallpaper/theme-analysis  This source helped me understand other views of the theme.

http://m.sparknotes.com/lit/yellowwallpaper/themes.html This source helped me understand other views of the theme.

Mental woman or Gilman?: Gilman's Background

 Charlotte Perkins  Gilman is the author of The Yellow Wallpaper. The Yellow Wallpaper was published in 1892. She was considered sick and mental. "You see he does not believe I am sick!"(1) . Gilman knows she is sick, but her husband Charles, a high standing physician, believes she is fine. Charles talks to Gilman like a child and does not take her seriously. Gilman is a very smart woman and good writer. Charles however does not like for her to write and is against her happiness. In the short story, Charles is represented through John, Jane's husband. "There comes John, and I must put this away,-- he hates to have me write a word" (2). Gilman's aunt is Harriet Beecher  Stowe , and the author of Uncle Tom's Cabin. They both suffered from the same illness and were well-known writers of her time. 

Charlotte Perkins Gilman: well known author for her short story, The Yellow Wallpaper, a woman who suffered from "manic-depressive illness" and Post-Pardum Depression, wife of John, mother to Katharine, and a fighter for woman's rights. 

http://www.biography.com/people/charlotte-perkins-gilman-9311669 This source helped me understand who Gilman is.
http://www.csustan.edu/english/reuben/pal/chap6/gilman.html This source showed me the different things Gilman published in her life.