Open Ended Ques
Kate Chopin - The Story of an Hour
1. Do you believe the Mallards' marriage was a loveless one? How would you describe the marriage, given what the story tells you?
Kate Chopin opens the story describing the scene to be one of epic emotion and made me believe that Mrs. Mallard was a woman madly in love with her husband; however as the story progresses the storyline changes. When Mrs. Mallard received the news of her husband and sat in the room alone and began whispering the words “Freedom” over and over again I realized that while yes she MAY have been in love with her husband, she felt a form of oppression by him. The narrator then continued and said that Mrs. Mallard did love Mr. Mallard, at certain times, but most of the times she did not. I believe the marriage was one in which the man demanded and commanded his wife to do a lot which in turn made Mrs. Mallard fall out of love with him.
Charlotte Perkins Gilman - The Yellow Wallpaper
1. The wallpaper is, as the title suggests, the chief symbol in this story. What details about the wallpaper seem significant? How does the narrator's attitude toward and vision of the wallpaper change, and what is the significance of those changes.
Charlotte Perkins Gilman vividly describes the wallpaper throughout the story, however the manner in which it is described from beginning to end changes dramatically. At the beginning of the story Miss Gilman describes the wallpaper as “ripped, soiled, and an unclean yellow.” This all changes the more she stares and observes it though; she notices a subtle pattern beneath the main pattern that can only be visible with certain light. She grows affection for the wallpaper because it signifies her perception of herself in her mind. The narrator describes her marriage by saying that her husband governs her because of his belief that he is superior in all senses. So her husband makes her feel like the wallpaper, “ripped, soiled, and an unclean yellow.”
Ann Beattie - Janus
1.
1. Do you believe the Mallards' marriage was a loveless one? How would you describe the marriage, given what the story tells you?
Kate Chopin opens the story describing the scene to be one of epic emotion and made me believe that Mrs. Mallard was a woman madly in love with her husband; however as the story progresses the storyline changes. When Mrs. Mallard received the news of her husband and sat in the room alone and began whispering the words “Freedom” over and over again I realized that while yes she MAY have been in love with her husband, she felt a form of oppression by him. The narrator then continued and said that Mrs. Mallard did love Mr. Mallard, at certain times, but most of the times she did not. I believe the marriage was one in which the man demanded and commanded his wife to do a lot which in turn made Mrs. Mallard fall out of love with him.
Charlotte Perkins Gilman - The Yellow Wallpaper
1. The wallpaper is, as the title suggests, the chief symbol in this story. What details about the wallpaper seem significant? How does the narrator's attitude toward and vision of the wallpaper change, and what is the significance of those changes.
Charlotte Perkins Gilman vividly describes the wallpaper throughout the story, however the manner in which it is described from beginning to end changes dramatically. At the beginning of the story Miss Gilman describes the wallpaper as “ripped, soiled, and an unclean yellow.” This all changes the more she stares and observes it though; she notices a subtle pattern beneath the main pattern that can only be visible with certain light. She grows affection for the wallpaper because it signifies her perception of herself in her mind. The narrator describes her marriage by saying that her husband governs her because of his belief that he is superior in all senses. So her husband makes her feel like the wallpaper, “ripped, soiled, and an unclean yellow.”
Ann Beattie - Janus
1.