Overall, I thought that The Yellow Wallpaper was a very interesting story, and enjoyed reading it. Last year my experimental novel was Vanishing Point, a very odd book where the narrator also goes crazy in the end. I feel like this short story had a similar effect, allowing the reader to see how someone can become insane. In my opinion, Jane started out a little bit crazy. However, her problem at the beginning of the short story was at a state where it could have been controlled and fixed with the correct methods. What caused her to reach her tipping point were all of the restraints that were put on her by her husband, John. Jane was trapped in the room for an extremely long period of time. When someone has nothing to do for a while, their minds tend to trail off and may start to make up extremely odd stories. Even normal people do this to an extent. For example, little children might be sitting in their beds at night and hear a small noise. Because they are alone and have nothing else to think about, they may take that noise and form an idea in their head that it is coming from a monster or another unrealistic source. When their parents deny that anything happened, it may anger the child. This is kind of like what happened when John ignored Jane’s plees to change rooms. The rest cure was clearly not effective, and was what drove her to her tipping point.
ReplyDeleteGood post Sydney. I like how to explain the external factors in the woman's (who could or could not be Jane) life. I definitely agree with you that Jane had a predisposition to becoming insane and does become so after experiencing isolation for a long period of time. I think it’s also important to remember that even though John was clearly wrong for locking Jane in the room, he probably didn’t know any better as that type of rest cure treatment was common during the nineteenth century.
ReplyDeleteGood post Sydney. I like how to explain the external factors in the woman's (who could or could not be Jane) life. I definitely agree with you that Jane had a predisposition to becoming insane and does become so after experiencing isolation for a long period of time. I think it’s also important to remember that even though John was clearly wrong for locking Jane in the room, he probably didn’t know any better as that type of rest cure treatment was common during the nineteenth century.