Stories Of Ourselves Flashcards
Yellow Wallpaper
Themes:
- Lack of identity, both in marriage and as a woman
- Mental health or Madness - later on as liberation?
- Relationships and Gender Roles (Patriarchy)
- Isolation and female resistance
- Freedom and Imprisonment (repression), freedom and madness
- self destruction vs empowerment
- superficial normalcy vs internal conflict
Symbols:
- Bed frame, yellow paint, wallpaper, garden, window sill
- nameless characters which are representative of a wider society
- wallpaper is an eerie symbol of how the mind can unravel under pressure - showing a lasting impression of the psychological horrors caused by repression - grotesque, which symbolises the psychological horror of domestic entrapment
Personal Response:
- how societal expectations suffocates individuality and autonomy, particularly for women at the time
- claustrophobic struggle of the protagonist mirrors the restrictive roles forced on women - where you were expected to be prim and proper at all times - to lock women in a room was seen as the solution but just worsened it - lobotomisation, or how postpartum depression was disregarded
- sense of injustice when reading about the dismissal of her thoughts and feelings by male authority figures, reflecting broader patterns of gender-based oppression
- the breakdown of the protagonist’s mental state highlights how isolation, a lack of support, and being stripped of agency can devastate a person, which is still relevant in discussion about mental health today
- patriarchal structures not only dismiss women’s autonomy but also pathologist their emotions and intellect
Key parts to analyse:
Opening - establishes setting of the colonial mansion with a deceptively light tone - unreliable narrator, journal form, irony, foreshadowing, domestic Gothic tropes to smuggle radical feminist critique into a familiar literary form, Freud’s uncanny, colonial mansion appears idyllic but becomes sinister, which is a metaphor for how domestic spaces can ironically become prisons for women
Wallpaper - increasingly obsessive and symbolic descriptions of the wallpaper - repetition, sensory imagery, metaphor, personification
John - Power dynamics in marriage and the infantilisation of the narrator, mention how John is a basic name which can be attributed to any man - Dialogue or the lack thereof, patronising tone, juxtaposition
Climax and mental decline - narrator’s psychological break and identification with the woman in the wallpaper - stream of consciousness that is an internal monologue that is very personal and emotional, disjointed syntax with disordered sentences and fragmented thoughts which blurs the line between thought and action, symbolism, narrative fragmentation
Finale - complete narrative unreliability and dramatic irony - first person narration, irony, symbolism of crawling which is a low and degraded movement that symbolises her husbands control but at the same time signifies defiance by rejecting the role of the obedient wife and escaping mental confinement and societal structures but rather embraced a more primal form that is symbolic of a psychological collapse - she now crawls because she has been infantilised and so becomes the child they treated her as - unclear if its liberation or total breakdown which is a hallmark of Gothic fiction, and ironically has gained freedom by acting in the very way she was afraid of - a madwoman
The Prison
Themes
- regret
- a lack of control - over his own life and over her life
- trapped - inability to escape, paralysis
- hope and hopelessness
- youth and growing up - he works in a candy shop
- freedom and defiance
Symbols
- name - Tony to tommy changes his identity, and changes the vibe of his personhood
- candy shop - innocence and childish desires
- prison - lack of freedom and control over his life even though its his life
Personal Response
- little girl is defying authority figures in her life
- reflects a profound sense of regret for choices made and paths not taken - how small decisions can have long lasting impacts on one’s life and how longing for a different life evokes empathy and introspection about one’s own dreams and aspirations
- the struggle between societal roles and personal authenticity
- evokes sympathy and a desire for redemption
- desire to break free from self-imposed limitations and to actively seek out opportunities for change and growth
Key parts to analyse-
The Son’s Veto
Themes
- family obligation filial duties - love vs duty and desire vs duty
- class importance
- societal expectations
- regret
- freedom
- patriarchy
- role of women
Symbols
- sophy’s braid - she takes the effort to do it every morning to present herself in front of the public, and does so because its expected of her - symbolic of societal expectations and her role in the family
- wheelchair - restraint on her life, but if she wasn’t married to try to she may not even have been able to afford it or need it - represents the monotony of her life
Personal Response
- Randolph becomes increasingly self-righteous and critical of his mother’s choices
- complexities of family dynamics and societal pressures
- reflect on the sacrifices that many individuals make in the name of family and how these sacrifices can lead to personal unhappiness
Key parts to analyse
Games at Twilight
Themes
Symbols
Personal Response
Key parts to analyse
The Door in the Wall
Themes
Symbols
Personal Response
Key parts to analyse
Tyres
Themes
Symbols
Personal Response
Key parts to analyse
Five-Twenty
Themes
Symbols
Personal Response
Key parts to analyse
The People Before
Themes
Symbols
Personal Response
Key parts to analyse
