To be honest, I found this story unusual. From the story, I detected that the writer had an illness (possibly a mental illness) that forced her husband to lock her up in a room for the summer.
I feel that in her situation, she felt trapped and contained. She wanted to roam around outside and enjoy the warm weather; her husband John thought that would be detrimental to her health (which I do not see how that is possible). I feel that she was so bored, that she began examining the wallpaper and writing about it; it is all sheer boredom. It made me question about the "rest" protocol that John put her one. Apparently, she was to only rest and not tend to daily duties, even separated from her child. I found this odd because in my opinion, isolation would create boredom and in extreme cases, madness. It reflects on the medical procedures back then, and how most of them would produce unsatisfactory results.
Also, when she talked about a woman in the pattern of the wallpaper, I found that odd. It made me question if her leisure was affecting her mental health. At the end when she tore down the wallpaper to "let the woman out", I really thought she lost her sanity.
This sounds really interesting! I like how you understand that the narrator cannot always be trusted in any literary form.
ReplyDeleteI never read this story but from the sounds of it this woman really seems crazy. I feel i would have found it unusual as well.
ReplyDelete