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Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s “The Yellow Wallpaper”
“The Yellow Wallpaper” is a first-person narrative told in the form of a journal entry. Readers can tell that the journal is written in secret as the narrator explains her situation. She is at an old summer house because her husband, John, a physician, has taken her there to treat her sickness. Just as treatment for women was in that period, he confines her and forbids her from doing any intellectual activities. As a very creative and imaginative woman, the narrator secretly writes journal entries as a means of escape from her frustration. Reading on, we come to realize that the treatment John believes will help his wife actually worsens her case, consequently driving her to complete and incurable insanity.
The speech in which the narrator tells her story expresses, subtly at first but very explicitly towards the end, the process in which the narrator was driven to absolute craziness. Through significant change in tone, attitude, and speech concerning herself, the wallpaper, and her husband John, readers are able to catch hints of her deteriorating condition and anticipate the horrific ending of the story.
In the beginning of the plot the narrator shows very obedient and submissive character. She believes John truly loves and cares for her. “I get unreasonably angry with John sometimes…I think it is due to this nervous condition.”(pg.308) Even though she tends to feel misunderstood or angry because of her husband, she rationalizes his authority by blaming herself as a sick woman with a nervous condition who does not know what is good for herself. The narrator’s first encounter with the yellow wallpaper was not very pleasant. “I never saw a worse paper in my life...It is dull…constantly irritate and provoke study, and when you follow the lame uncertain curves…suddenly commit suicide...destroy themselves in unheard of contradictions. The color is repellant, almost revolting, a smoldering unclean yellow…” (pg.309) The vocabulary she uses to describe the wallpaper displays not only her feeling of disgust towards it but also her imaginative and complex character and thoughts.
As the story continues, hints of increasing mental instability are shown. She talks about her worsening nervousness and depression. Also, although she still hates the wallpaper, she begins giving lengthy descriptions of it, expressing much interest. Readers can tell she is totally out of her mind when she identifies a creeping woman in the wallpaper pattern trying to escape. “The faint figure behind seemed to shake the pattern, just as if she wanted to get out.”(pg.314) As such, the narrator begins to race towards her insanity.
At the end of the story, the narrator’s submissive and passive attitude is totally turned around. “The fact is I am getting a little afraid of John. He seems very queer sometimes...” Compared to her attitude in the beginning of the book she no longer perceives him as a loving, caring husband and instead sees him in a very suspicious way. Furthermore, she chooses to release her conscience as opposed to the beginning of the story in which she tried to restrain her imagination. By this point her insanity has fully developed and is revealed in the last scene. “It is so pleasant to be out in this great room and creep around as I please…” Her full adjustment of the wallpaper, self- identification as the woman in the pattern, and display of bizarre behavior at the end of the story finally confirms her irrevocable mental condition.
The plot being written directly by a crazy woman was an important element in delivering this story. By the narrator delivering her thoughts firsthand, readers were able to more effectively understand what it meant to be an intellectual at that time, trapped, frustrated and consequently driven to insanity.
1. English writing 자체는 흠잡을 데가 없다. 시종일관 적절한 어휘를 사용했고, 문법적으로도 정확한 문장을 썼으며 유려한 문체를 가졌다.
2. 그러나 내용적으로는 좀 아쉬운 점이 있다. 줄거리를 따라가면서 “그녀가 점점 미쳐가고 있다”는 것을 보여준 것 이외에 별다른 것이 없다. 그렇다면 이 소설이 왜 흥미로운가? 무슨 가치가 있는가?
3. 이 소설의 초점은 그녀의 광증은 심해지지만, 그와 비례해서 남성중심문화의 근본적인 문제점을 꿰뚫어보는 그녀의 통찰력(insight)도 점점 예리해진다는 점이다. 점점 예리해지는 통찰력과 그것에 기반을 둔 남편에 대한 저항과 복수, 바로 이런 것이 이 소설의 진짜 내용이다. 이 부분을 짚어내야 이 소설을 옳게 읽었다고 볼 수 있는데, 그 유려한 문장 속에는 그런 내용이 거의 없다.
4. 좋은 영어구사력을 가지고 있기 때문에 앞으로 경험이 많아지면 아주 좋은 글을 쓸 수 있는 가능성이 많다. 4.5
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