Yellow Wallpaper and Story of an Hour Mini-Test
Unlock all answers in this set
Unlock answersquestion
How women with mental conditions were treated in 1890s
answer
Prolonged rest and isolation. Doctors assumed women got "nervous conditions" because they were naturally weaker than men
question
John and narrator's relationship
answer
Very patriarchial. John is the ruler of the house and does not treat the narrator like an adult/wife but more like a child
question
How John and narrator disagree on how she should get better
answer
John thinks she should rest and be secluded but narrator wants to write and be active
question
Why the wallpaper angers the narrator
answer
It has a confusing pattern and is a "revolting" color. She believes it goes against the pattern of design
question
How narrator feels about how John has to take care of her
answer
She feels that she is a burden to John because it was women's role in society to cook and clean the house and she was not able to do this
question
Details of Narrator's room
answer
It's like an asylum to her. Yellow wallpaper, bed nailed down to floor, barred windows
question
Who she first imagines or "hallucinates"
answer
People walking in the garden
question
Why the narrator likes writing so much
answer
It allows her to escape her insane mind and gives her something to do
question
Narrator's behavior as a child
answer
She found faces and creatures in animate objects (walls, furniture) paranoia
question
Jennie
answer
John's sister who is also the housekeeper who hopes for a better profession - symbol of all women in that time
question
Who the women in the wallpaper represents
answer
the Narrator trying to break free from the "prison" she has been put into because of her illness
question
Why narrator constantly studies the wallpaper
answer
Because she wants to figure it out
question
Why narrator is losing motive to write
answer
It does not give her much relief anymore and she feels alone, unable, and at a loss of hope
question
Cousin Henry and Julia
answer
Family member who sometimes visit. Narrator tries to convince John to let her visit them but he refuses
question
Narrator's relationship to her baby
answer
Little to none. Narrator is not trusted around her
question
John's response when narrator tells him she wants to move because of the wallpaper
answer
John refuses and tells her that she is getting better and that they will leave once the rent is up
question
Narrator's attitude towards wallpaper towards the end
answer
She doesn't want other people looking at it because she wants to "solve" it before they do.
question
What happens at the end of Yellow Wallpaper
answer
Narrator tears down wallpaper with her hands, goes mad. John passes out in shock
question
Charlotte Perkins Gilamn
answer
Author of the Yellow Wallpaper. Influential feminist of her time who wrote poetry and short stories but they never became very famous because they were often very dry
question
The Forerunner Magazine
answer
Magazine Gilman published and edited
question
Women and Economics (book)
answer
Written by Gilman to portray the situation of women in society
question
How Gilman influenced other women of her time
answer
She was a passionate lecturer who was considered the leading intellectual in women's movement in the US of her time
question
Political meaning of the Yellow Wallpaper
answer
Directly confronts the sexual politics of male-female/husband-wife relationships
question
Pyschopathology and Literature
answer
Horror story about mental aberration. Feminist document which dealt with the unpopular sexual politics
question
How Gilman got The Yellow Wallpaper Published
answer
It was rejected several times. First to William Dean who recomended it to Editor of Atlantic Monthly (Horace Scudder), who rejected it because he disliked the destruction of main character. Story finally published in 1892 in New England magazine
question
Initial public reaction to The Yellow Wallpaper
answer
Some praised it for the accuracy of the portrayal of women and delicacy
question
Gilman's early life
answer
Born in 1860 in Conneticut and grew up in Rhode Island, hard childhood.
question
Gilman's mother and father
answer
Her mother bore 3 children, one died, and after the 3rd was born the father abandoned the family
question
Effect of parents broken marriage on Gilman
answer
Made her grow up without tenderness. Mother sacrified her and her daughters need for love to protect against betrayal
question
How tough childhood shaped Gilman
answer
She became tough, developed willpower and refusing to be defeated
question
Traits that characterized Gilman her personality and work
answer
Religious tendency and sense of duty from mother and desire to learn, willpower and need for perfection from her father
question
Charles Stetson
answer
An artist from Rhode Island who married Gilman because she admired his artistic ability, his ideals and loneliness that was similar to her own
question
Crucial decision Gilman faced after her marriage
answer
Marriage or a career. This was a choice many women of this time period had to make. She argued that women should be able to have a marriage as well as motherhood
question
What happened to Gilman after she gave birth to her daughter
answer
She fell into a state of depression. She constantly felt trapped in the role assigned tot he wife in a conventional 19th century marriage. It was because of this confinement that she wrote the Yellow Wallpaper 5 years later
question
Weir Mitchell
answer
Doctor from Philadelphia who prompted Gilman to write the Yellow Wallpaper. He had two categories of sickness: businessmen exhausted from too much work and society women exhausted from too much play.
question
Weir Mitchell's prescription for Gilman
answer
That she devote herself to domestic work and to her child, confine herself to at most, 2 hours of intellectual work a day and to never touch a pen, brush, or pencil for the rest of her life"
question
Effect of prescription on Gilman
answer
It made her much worse, she crawled into closets and hid from the grinding pressure of the profound distress
question
What happened to Gilman's marriage
answer
In 1887, they agreed to a divorce. When away from him, she made a trip to California where she felt healthy and recovered but when she returned she felt depressed again. She would suffer nervous breakdowns for the rest of her life
question
What happened to Gilman when she moved to California
answer
She struggled economically as a woman living alone. She recalls the period of 1890 and 1894 as being the hardest of her life. She fought against public opinion, outright hostility as she gave lectures on socialism and freedom for women. Produced the Yellow Wallpaper in this time
question
Kate Chopin childhood
answer
grew up in St Louis, Missouri. Father was killed in railroad accident when she was 5 years old.
question
Who Kate Chopin married
answer
Oscar Chopin, a businessman, in 1870, they settled in New Orleans. He later died of malaria after the birth of their 6th child so Chopin had to raise their children alone and managed his business
question
Moments of inspiration for Chopin
answer
She published her first story and poem in 1889. Over the next decade she published 2 novel, more than a hundred of short stories
question
Responses to Chopin's work
answer
She often wrote of women seeking to be free which often aroused protests. Severe criticism was directed at her second novel, The Awakening because of tis depiction of a woman's adulterous affair
question
Querulous
answer
Complaining
question
Patent
answer
Obvious
question
Perseverance
answer
To keep on going
question
Atrocious
answer
Dreadful
question
Undulating
answer
Wavy
question
Imperitence
answer
Rudeness
question
Inanimate
answer
Not living
question
Felicity
answer
Happiness
question
Derision
answer
Scorn
question
Basely
answer
Dishonorable
