September 5

AGENDA:

1. "Yellow Wallpaper" continued
2. Discuss weekend analysis and choices for the paper - refer to your thesis work and class notes on writing


HW: Analysis due Sunday by midnight to dbyrne@righetti.us

REMEMBER: 

A thesis is an argument - We prove an argument with sound evidence -  a mature intellect, guide reasoned argumentation.

We prove an opinion with our emotions. A thesis is NOT an opinion......

Analysis Topics to choose from:

1. The narrator's life seems full of male doctors. Her husband John is a physician, as is her brother. Then, of course, there's Dr. Mitchell. Examine the significance of this relationship between make doctors and women in "The Yellow Wallpaper."

2. Writing is mentioned throughout "The Yellow Wallpaper" as an almost forbidden act. Develop an argument and analysis around the significance of the narrator's writing and its relationship to her mental state.

3. The narrator identifies herself and her husband as "mere ordinary people" who "very seldom" have the opportunity to "secure ancestral halls for the summer." What effect does this statement have on our reading of the narrator's perspective on class and her own character.

4. The narrator describes Jennie as "a perfect and enthusiastic housekeeper, and hopes for no better professions." What is the narrator's attitude toward Jennie's work? What kinds of work does the story, as a whole, seem to value? Use the story to develop a class argument and analysis about "valued work" and its relationship to women.

5. About midway through the story, the narrator begins to use the word "creep" in various ways: as a verb, an adjective, a gerund. How do the various forms of "creep" relate to the way in which the narrator develops as a character? Write an analysis that tracks the uses of "creep" in the story in order to devise an argument about the narrator's development throughout the story.

6. Compare the narrator to Jennie, John's sister. How are the two women different and how are they alike? What does Jennie's character help reveal about the theme of madness and its relationship to "woman's work'? Write an analysis that comparatively analyzes the two characters in order to develop an argument around the theme of madness.

7. Light appears throughout the story as, often , a source of anxiety for the narrator, especially in relation to the yellow wallpaper. According to the narrator, the subtle patterns in the wallpaper can only be seen in "certain lights" and, later, the narrator exclaims the "at night in any kind of light, in twilight, candlelight, lamplight, and worst of all by moonlight, the pattern becomes bars!" Track the variations of light used in the story and the potential narrative patterns found in the use of light. Write an analysis in order to develop an argument about the function and significance of light in the story.

8. Is the ending of "The Yellow Wallpaper" a moment of liberation for the narrator? Define the type of liberation (if any) that exists at the end of the story and the significance of that liberation (or lack thereof) to the story's political and philosophical contexts.

9. Write an analysis about the mysterious "woman in the wallpaper" - her changing appearance in the story, her function in the story, and her relationship to that narrator. Trace the variants of the "woman in the wallpaper" throughout the story in order to develop a nuanced argument about her significance to some of the story's larger concerns.