Yellow Wallpaper

Part A

Gothic fiction traditionally presents:

 

    a.  confusion of actuality and fantasy by the main character

 

    b.  unreliable or misguided, and hence misleading, narrators

 

    c.  emphasis on the psychological states of the characters

 

    d.  what are thought to be ghosts, spirits, specters, phantoms

 

    e.  a woman in distress

 

    f.  detached, dispassionate keepers who dominate, or attempt to dominate, the heroine

 

    g.  impressionistic descriptions and images.

 “The Yellow Wallpaper” has all of the above, but it escapes the imitations of conventional gothic fiction.  Why?  Is it because the story lacks the dense atmosphere of secret evil?  Is it because the story concentrates more heavily on the mental aberrations of the heroine?  Is it because of the humanitarian sympathies the story evokes?

Part B

What similarities exist between Gilman's "The Yellow Wall-paper" and Wharton's "The Lady Maid's Bell"? What do these stories say about women and their mental health?