MODEL REVISED E1
E1 CHECKLIST |
ARGUABLE
Claim: Would anybody disagree? GOOD! Then
it is worth arguing your claim. |
ENOUGH
IN-TEXT CITATIONS to support your claim. |
CONCLUSION
should mention name of writer and text. (1)
You should explain why you have shown your position to be a stronger reading then another
one, which you describe. (2) Yes, you need to use "I" in this
conclusion and self-reflect upon the work you have done.
(3) Why has this work aided and deepened our appreciation of the text(s)? (4) You also should tell anything that you learned
in process of analysis. (5) Optionally, what
more work that could be done? (This is important when wanting yet another grant for
your research!) |
WORK
CITED: list your main text! Example: Poe, Edgar Allan. "The Cask of
Amontillado." Literature: Reading, Reacting,
Writing. Ed. Laurie Kirszner and Stephen Mandell.
Boston: Thompson Heinle, 2004. 217- 222. |
“The Yellow Wallpaper” A
Husband’s Love Beyond a Veil of Madness
It is my claim
that in Charlotte Perkins Gilman's, “The Yellow Wallpaper,” the writer creates a
narrator whose tone toward the husband seems critical of his care and devotion to his
wife’s illness. In the following narrator remarks, you can see her
assumption that ” John does not know how much I really suffer. He knows there is no reason to suffer, and that satisfies him”
(Gilman 163). The story was written in the late nineteenth century, a time when women in
general didn’t have much control over their own lives. The treatment that they had
given the unnamed protagpnist was “…complete bed rest and mental activity”
(Gilman 161). “…a treatment paralleling Gilman's own life and that, Gilman said
later, drove her “so near the borderline of utter mental ruin that I could see
over” (Gilman 161). This was how they treated depression during that era. The author
was a feminist and was seeking out to discredit to some degree the care she received in
her life as she suffered with depression.
Book title: Italics
MLA In-text Citation format: We only need the name "Gilman" ONCE in the paragraph below, not every time. Only when you change writer names, do you need to repeat a name in a paragraph.
According to the Biography information on Gilman in Literature: Reading, Reacting, Writing,
“Her essays, lectures, and nonfiction works…are forceful statements of
Gilman’s opinions on women’s needs for economic independence and social
equality” (Gilman 160). In
“The Yellow Wallpaper”, Gilman depicts John, the husband in the story, as a
physician who is prescribing similar treatment to his wife. We
should also note she says the reason that she does not get better is because he is a
physician “… John is a physician, and perhaps…perhaps that is one reason I
do not get well faster” (Gilman 161). Then she goes on to say that, “If a
physician of high standing, and one’s own husband, assures friends and relatives that
there is nothing the matter with one but temporary nervous depression-- a slight
hysterical tendency—what is one to do” (Gilman161)? The unnamed narrator only loves writing and they
have forbidden her to do the one thing that she loves. “I write for a while in spite
of them; but it does exhaust me a good
deal—having to be so sly about it, or else meet with heavy opposition” (Gilman
162). “There comes John, and I must put this away, -- he hates to have me write a
word” (Gilman 163).
Why does she believe she won’t get
better faster because her husband is a physician? Depression
is so immobilizing, and creates such a sense of despair and helplessness she probably
could not see past the intense bleakness of her feelings. She is
“This wallpaper has
a kind of sub-pattern in a different shade, a particularly
irritating one, for you
can only see it in certain lights, and not clearly then. But
in the places where it
isn’t faded and where the sun is just so—I can see a
strange, provoking,
formless sort of figure, that seems to skulk about behind
that silly and
conspicuous front design” (Gilman 165).
She becomes increasingly delusional about
the wallpaper, her condition becomes
“In early 19th century America, care
for the mentally ill was almost non-existent: the afflicted were usually relegated to
prisons, almshouses, or inadequate supervision by families. Treatment, if provided,
paralleled other medical treatments of
the time, including bloodletting and purgatives” (Univ. of Toledo Library).
John knew this and tried his best to confine her to that room with the hope
she
“And dear John
gathered me up in his arms, and carried me upstairs and laid
me on the bed, and sat by
me and read to me till it tired my head. He said I
was his darling and his
comfort and all he had, and that I must take care of
myself for his sake, and
keep well” (Gilman 167).
“He is very careful and loving, and hardly lets me stir without special
direction.” “He said we came here solely on my account, which I was
to have perfect rest and all the air I could get. …your exercise depends
on your strength, my dear” (Gilman 162).
I am sure, since John was a physician; he knew the seriousness of her condition. It was not his intention to cause her more harm. They had just had a baby and he was trying to help her get better so she could return to care for the child and regain her sense of self. It is an interesting twist that Gilman chose to depict the husband in the story as a physician, when Gilman was actually married to a young artist. But more interesting she shows how the woman’s depression grew more and more into a psychotic episode. This is where Gilman shows the doctor’s realization of the progression of the illness.” Why there’s John at the door! It is no use, young man, you can’t open it! How he does call and pound! Now he is crying for an axe. It would be a shame to break down that beautiful door” (Gilman 173)!
It does seem like she was trying to make a
mockery in the end of the story when John fainted on the floor. I think this showed the
utter shock he felt from the truth of his w
“The Yellow Wallpaper” by
Charlotte Perkins Gillman was published in
intriguing. In an effort to understand and analyze this story, it is obvious that
Gilman hasn’t made a strong enough case in this story to rule out the husband’s
love and protective behavior. Perhaps in further exploration of the subject we would
probably find a long standing history of mental illness in
Gilman’s life or of someone in her family. Gilman
lived well into the 20th century, she died in 1935.
Best ending for a conclusion gives your
credentials, explains why you have argued your view over a diff. one.
Also, explain how knowing your analysis helps to appreciate text better.
I believe I have shown that…
By my use of…
Work Cited
Gilman, Charlotte Perkins. “The Yellow
Wallpaper.” Literature: Reading, Reacting,
Writing Ed. Laurie Kirszner and
Stephen Mandell. Boston: Thompson Heinle, 2004. 160-174
Student added a secondary scource. This was not required! If more than one source, then it must beWorks Cited.
University of Toledo Library. “Mental
Health”2 Sept. 2004. 2 Sept. 2004.
<http://www.cl.utoledo.edu/canaday/quackery/quack5.html