Discuss the collapse of “The Yellow Wallpaper”
“The Yellow Wallpaper”
1. What point of view is this written in? And how does that point of view affect readers’ ability to understand the plot, setting, conflict, and characters?
2. Explain how the yellow wallpaper is a symbol for the narrator’s situation. Additionally, explain how the narrator’s changing attitudes toward the wallpaper reflect changes in her perception of her situation/attitude.
3. In what ways does the conflict explored in this story seem dated? In what ways does it seem relevant to today’s world?
4. Why do you think the narrator’s baby is barely mentioned throughout the course of the text? What role does the baby play in the plot and conflict?
“Trifles”
1. Even though most of the play is devoted to the conversations and activities of the two women, why do the men speak first?
2. In what way do the men’s comments and dialogue in the play undermined women?
3. What evidence do the women uncover that might be motive for the murder?
4. All the “villains” or antagonists in this play are male. Explain who the “villains” are and why they are villainous or antagonists.
Textbook
Mays, Kelly J. The Norton Introduction to Literature: Portable 12th Edition. New York: Norton, 2017.
Thomas Dileo
The Yellow Wallpaper
1. What point of view is this written in? And how does that point of view affect readers’ ability to understand the plot, setting, conflict, and characters?
This short story is written in first person by the “sick” women. This affects the readers ability to understand because without her narration the plot and conflict would be non-existent. This story is narrated by her because considering it is her journal, it shows exactly what she is thinking and her findings about the wallpaper, day to day. Her narration also shows what kind of character John and Jennie were towards her and how that changes as she gets healthier. Furthermore, this story couldn’t have been told in any other point of view, without this womans point of view there would be no specific details, context or story.
Thomas Leonard
Trifles Question 2
In the play “Trifles” by Susan Glaspell, the men undermine the women by making jokes and comments expressing how they really feel about women. While looking for clues they start in the kitchen, but they soon dismiss the location as a place for possible clues because all they see is “kitchen stuff”. To them the kitchen is the womans place of work, nothing of big significance could be held there. Later after the women discover some clues that could lead them to the killer, they are made fun of by the men again. The men claim the women are only worrying about trifles, even though the women are piecing together the motive for the murder: the only thing the men cant figure out.
Can you answer their discussion?
