Bila Lee
English 48B
January 9, 2009
Journal #2 Charlotte Perkins Gilman
Quote
“John is a physician, and perhaps – (I would not say it to a living soul, of course, but this is dead paper and a great relief to my mind) – perhaps that is one reason I do not get well faster” (Gilman 808).
Summary
The quote was a narration found in the beginning of “The Yellow Wall-paper.” The narrator,
whose name was not known, suffered from a nervous depression. Her husband John and her brother were both physicians, and they recommended the best prescription to deal with the disorder was an isolation from the outer world – no writing, no thinking and no friends. As a professional writer with strong “imaginative power and habit of story-making” (Gilman 811), it is quite a mission impossible for the narrator not to think. The initiative to stay in the haunted house worsened her condition, and she did not dare to express her mind to John. Therefore the narrator complaint her husband was one of the biggest obstacles for her recovery.
Responses
Charlotte Perkins Gilman, in her controversial short story, “The Yellow Wall-paper,” depicts the emotional fluctuation of a lady who got a nervous depression in form of journals. Gilman uses first-person narration to describe both the fluctuation and frustration of the protagonist, which serves to create a better understanding of the story. For example, we knew the relationship between the couple was flawed, “John laughs at me, of course, but one expects that in marriage” (Gilman 808). It ironically illustrated the fact that the narrator was scared of her husband, and on another hand, as stated in Wikipedia, John did not trust his wife by “treating her like a powerless patient” (Wikipedia). Through reading the narrator’s personal journals, we could easily address her eagerness and hunger of critical thinking, and foreshadowed the imagination of creeping women.
Having a physician husband and a physician brother is supposedly a privilege because mutually trust and reliability are essential to both doctor and patient. The narrator disliked her bedroom with awkward yellow wall-paper and disgusting yellow smell, and her request to move to another room was unexplainably rejected. Readers realize it was John’s intension to keep track of his wife, but the poor narrator might interpret in an alternative way that her husband wanted to control everything, which could worsen her health condition. Yes, John and other physicians intended to control the narrator by prohibiting her from doing whatever she desired to do, from meeting whoever she desired to meet – what the narrator should do was to obey as if she were a robot.
It was literally a real life Pride and Prejudice between the couple. John was somehow arrogant because of his highly standard occupation; he believed his professional knowledge was the only solution to cure the temporary nervous depression, or in his diagnosis, “a slight hysterical tendency” (Gilman 808). On the other hand, the narrator possessed a prejudice attitude towards her husband; she disagreed with John and his methodology and did not agree rest cure would work. She even believed “John is a physician, and perhaps – (I would not say it to a living soul, of course, but this is dead paper and a great relief to my mind) – perhaps that is one reason I do not get well faster” (Gilman 808).
I had a similar experience in junior high school. I was nervous in Biology class because I was afraid of my Biology teacher. He was talented and energetic, and most students were fond of him. Nevertheless, he once commented my weaknesses after a test that made me feel ashamed – since then, I did not do well in his class because a sense of pride and prejudice existed between us.
English 48B
January 9, 2009
Journal #2 Charlotte Perkins Gilman
Quote
“John is a physician, and perhaps – (I would not say it to a living soul, of course, but this is dead paper and a great relief to my mind) – perhaps that is one reason I do not get well faster” (Gilman 808).
Summary
The quote was a narration found in the beginning of “The Yellow Wall-paper.” The narrator,
whose name was not known, suffered from a nervous depression. Her husband John and her brother were both physicians, and they recommended the best prescription to deal with the disorder was an isolation from the outer world – no writing, no thinking and no friends. As a professional writer with strong “imaginative power and habit of story-making” (Gilman 811), it is quite a mission impossible for the narrator not to think. The initiative to stay in the haunted house worsened her condition, and she did not dare to express her mind to John. Therefore the narrator complaint her husband was one of the biggest obstacles for her recovery.Responses
Charlotte Perkins Gilman, in her controversial short story, “The Yellow Wall-paper,” depicts the emotional fluctuation of a lady who got a nervous depression in form of journals. Gilman uses first-person narration to describe both the fluctuation and frustration of the protagonist, which serves to create a better understanding of the story. For example, we knew the relationship between the couple was flawed, “John laughs at me, of course, but one expects that in marriage” (Gilman 808). It ironically illustrated the fact that the narrator was scared of her husband, and on another hand, as stated in Wikipedia, John did not trust his wife by “treating her like a powerless patient” (Wikipedia). Through reading the narrator’s personal journals, we could easily address her eagerness and hunger of critical thinking, and foreshadowed the imagination of creeping women.
Having a physician husband and a physician brother is supposedly a privilege because mutually trust and reliability are essential to both doctor and patient. The narrator disliked her bedroom with awkward yellow wall-paper and disgusting yellow smell, and her request to move to another room was unexplainably rejected. Readers realize it was John’s intension to keep track of his wife, but the poor narrator might interpret in an alternative way that her husband wanted to control everything, which could worsen her health condition. Yes, John and other physicians intended to control the narrator by prohibiting her from doing whatever she desired to do, from meeting whoever she desired to meet – what the narrator should do was to obey as if she were a robot.It was literally a real life Pride and Prejudice between the couple. John was somehow arrogant because of his highly standard occupation; he believed his professional knowledge was the only solution to cure the temporary nervous depression, or in his diagnosis, “a slight hysterical tendency” (Gilman 808). On the other hand, the narrator possessed a prejudice attitude towards her husband; she disagreed with John and his methodology and did not agree rest cure would work. She even believed “John is a physician, and perhaps – (I would not say it to a living soul, of course, but this is dead paper and a great relief to my mind) – perhaps that is one reason I do not get well faster” (Gilman 808).
I had a similar experience in junior high school. I was nervous in Biology class because I was afraid of my Biology teacher. He was talented and energetic, and most students were fond of him. Nevertheless, he once commented my weaknesses after a test that made me feel ashamed – since then, I did not do well in his class because a sense of pride and prejudice existed between us.
20/20 "
ReplyDeleteIt was literally a real life Pride and Prejudice between the couple." Exactly.