Student worksheet · Short story
The Yellow Wallpaper
Charlotte Perkins Gilman · 1892 · 6,147 words
Name ________________________ Date ________________________
Answer in complete sentences. Give source lines, chapters, parts or staves with each response.
- What do John and the narrator each infer from the rented house and her illness in the opening entries? Give one piece of evidence for each position.
- Track the wallpaper under two kinds of light. How does a change in the conditions of looking change the observer’s conclusion?
- Compare the nailed bed or the groove along the wall with a material detail in the final scene. Separate what is observable from what the narrator infers.
- Explain how the secret writing and the interruption of entries affect what a reader can know. Cite two occasions.
- Read the locked-door exchange and the last sentence closely. Give two defensible, competing interpretations of her apparent victory.
Essay
Who has the authority to describe a sickroom? Build a claim about how Gilman makes the same physical space support incompatible accounts. Consider a plausible rival reading.
Write at least 650 words on separate pages. Develop a thesis, interpret three located passages from different parts of the text, and address a serious counterreading.