Focus Questions: "The Yellow Wall-Paper"1. What sort of case can be made that the husband is really
trying to drive his wife insane? Does he have any defenses to
that charge? 2. In what ways does the image of the yellow wallpaper
contribute to the story? 3. What does Gilman achieve by allowing the wife to tell her
own
story? 4. What is dramatic irony? Are there many instances of this
form of irony in the short story? 5. Trace the progress through the story of the narrator's
"temporary nervous depression." 6. Show that the short story can be read as a parable or
allegory of the plight of women in a man's world. 7. Explain the relationship between the style of "The Yellow
Wall-Paper"--the way the story is presented--and its content or
meaning. 8. Does the short story as a whole endorse or undermine the
attitude expressed by the narrator's husband: "[John] has no
patience with faith, an intense horror of superstition, and he
scoffs openly at any talk of things not to be felt and seen and
put down in figures"?
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