1. Discuss the following questions.
1) What must have happened to the narrator? How do you know?
2) How would you describe the story’s setting? How and why is the setting significant?
3) How would you describe the narrator’s husband?
4) What does the narrator believe would be the best cure for her?
5) How is her idea different from her husband and brother? What is the cause of their conflicting ideas?
6) What’s the narrator’s initial reaction and description of the wallpaper? What does the wallpaper symbolize?
7) Who is Jennie? What’s her function?
8) What does the narrator think to be good for her recovery? How are these requests turned down by John? Give examples.
9) What is narrative style of the story? What is the effect of the narrative style in developing the main character?
10) What are the themes of the story? How does the author develop them?
2. Tell whether the following statements are true (T) or false (F).
1) Both the narrator’s husband and brother are dentists. ( )
2) The colonial mansion is beautiful but queer in a way. ( )
3) Mary is the housekeeper who takes care of the house. ( )
4) The narrator has a child who stays away from her. ( )
5) The room the narrator is living in used to be a playroom or gymnasium. ( )
6) The wallpaper looks horrible to the narrator because there is a woman crawling inside. ( )
7) The story probably takes place in the late 19th century. ( )
8) The story is told from the first person point of view by a reliable narrator. ( )
9) The major conflict in the story is the struggle between the narrator and her husband over her treatment. ( )
10) The yellow wallpaper symbolizes the narrator’s state of mind. ( ) 3. Read the whole story and fill in the blanks to complete the summary of the story.
In “The Yellow Wallpaper”, the narrator suffers from a 1) condition, and her husband, who was a 2) , recommends that she 3) in solitude. He has forbidden her to 4) , because he insists it is too exhausting, so she writes her journal in 5) . She sleeps in a large room she believes was once a 6) . The room contains a bed, 7) windows and ugly yellow wallpaper. The woman slowly becomes obsessed with the hideous 8) . She stares at the pattern and eventually decides that it depicts a woman trapped behind bars. Ultimately, she 9) herself in the room and starts to peel the paper off the walls. She begins to think that she is a part of the wallpaper pattern and crawls along the floor following the pattern. Her husband returns home to find her crawling along the floor. He 10) across her path, and she continues to crawl over him.