Gilman, ''The Yellow Wallpaper''

"It is dull enough to confuse the eye in following, pronounced enough to constantly irritate and provoke study, and when you follow the lame uncertain curves for a little distance they suddenly commit suicide -- plunge off at outrageous angles, destroy themselves in unheard of contradictions" (Gilman 532). Click here!

Hey there!

I am an NYC actress (and a former English Literature major) currently in production on a one-woman show (yes, ANOTHER one) of this phenomenal story.

I was doing some research and just this afternoon spent some very enjoyable time reading the blog entries from your students in 2007.

I have been in love with this story since I first laid eyes on it in HS American Literature course, and then a few years later in undergrad. From the time I read it, I thought it was written just like a monologue, and dreamed of doing it someday.

I will say that actually memorizing and "living" the words as I speak them has opened up all sorts of insights for me that I never had upon reading/rereading/deconstructing/etc. for many, many years!

That said, I still discovered new things to think about from your students, and am very much looking forward to peeking in on their discoveries (if that is allowed).

Thanks so much,
Annalisa

"I'm feeling ever so much better! I don't sleep much at night, for it is so interesting to watch developments; but I sleep a good deal in the day" (Gilman 536).

http://blogs.setonhill.edu/AngelaPalumbo/2009/01/mother_was_right_againyou_need.html

The Pattern on the Wallpaper Represented in Words
“I don’t know why I should write this.
“I don’t want to.
“I don’t feel able.
“And I know John would think it absurd. But I must say what I feel and think in some way—it is such a relief!” (Gilman 534)
http://blogs.setonhill.edu/GretaCarroll/2009/02/the_pattern_on_the_wallpaper_r.html

Oh Baby!

“It is fortunate Mary is so good with the baby. Such a dear baby! And yet I cannot be with him, it makes me so nervous” (Gilman 532).
http://blogs.setonhill.edu/JennaMiller/2009/02/oh-baby.html

:

Yellow Terror! " and yet I cannot be with him, it makes me so nervous"

Why nervous?

"I kept on creeping just the same...'I've got out at last...in spite of you and Jane. And I've pulled off most of the paper, so you can't put me back" (Gilman 538). I want so badly to do this with school, I am so very tired of walking in academic circles, learning the same things over and over again. I wish it would be so easy to pull away the paper that is blindfolding me. Maybe I am in the wrong, maybe I am the one not conforming to society, but who says I should, certainly not the shadow on the wall.

"I get unreasonably angry with John sometimes. I'm sure I never used to be so sensitive. I think it is due to this nervous condition."

"Dear John! He loves me very dearly, and hates to have me sick. I tried to have a real earnest reasonable talk with him the other day, and tell him how I wish he would let me go and make a visit to Cousin Henry and Julia.

But he said I wasn't able to go, nor able to stand it after I got there; and I did not make out a very good case for myself, for I was crying before I had finished" (Gilman 534).

"By daylight, she is subdued, quiet. I fancy it is the pattern that keeps her so still. It is puzzling. It keeps me quiet by the hour." (Gilman 536)

I Get Her Condition, but What about the Rest of the Story?
http://blogs.setonhill.edu/EricaGearhart/2009/02/i_get_her_condition_but_what_a.html

moonlight in a different light...hmmmm
http://blogs.setonhill.edu/BethanyMerryman/2009/02/reflectionsss.html

The Bug of Writing

"It is the strangest yellow, that wall-paper! It makes me think of all the yellow things I ever saw — not beautiful ones like buttercups, but old foul, bad yellow things. But there is something else about that paper — the smell!"
http://blogs.setonhill.edu/CoreyStruss/2009/02/the_yellow_wallpaper_as_a_femi.html

"It is the same woman, for she is always creeping, and most women do not creep by daylight," (Gilman 537).
http://blogs.setonhill.edu/BethanyBouchard/2009/02/what_a_creeper.html

Sorry, only just now realized that my link doesn't work. Try this: http://blogs.setonhill.edu/EllenEinsporn/2009/02/the_bug_of_writing.html