PROMPT / Young Goodman Brown - Nathaniel Hawthorne

Just before the last paragraph in Nathaniel Hawthorne's "Young Goodman Brown," the narrator poses an interesting (and perhaps unsettling) question:

"Had Goodman Brown fallen asleep in the forest, and only dreamed a wild dream of a witch-meeting?"

THINK:
Why do you think Hawthorne would insert this question at the end of the story?
If Goodman Brown's curious experience in the forest had all been a dream, would the story change? HOW?

WRITE:
**Your assignment for next week is to tell us whether you DO or DO NOT think the answer to the narrator's question matters
or makes a difference in this story.
Explain/defend your position.

(Practice using the paragraph structure that we learned in class for this post.)

Roslyn Morrow- The Story of an Hour

Real Ending:
Some one was opening the front door with a latchkey. It was Brently Mallard who entered, a little travel-stained, composedly carrying his grip-sack and umbrella. He had been far from the scene of the accident, and did not even know there had been one. He stood amazed at Josephine's piercing cry; at Richards' quick motion to screen him from the view of his wife.
When the doctors came they said she had died of heart disease--of the joy that kills.

Alternate Ending:
Some one was opening the front door with a latchkey. It was Brently Mallard who entered, a little travel-stained, composedly carrying his grip-sack and umbrella. He had been far from the scene of the accident, and did not even know there had been one. He stood amazed at Josephine's piercing cry; at Richards' quick motion to screen him from the view of his wife.

Mrs. Mallard fainted at the sight of her presumed dead husband. Richard and Mr. Mallard quickly took her upstairs to her room. Josephine watched over her as she laid lifeless on the bed. Hours had passed when suddenly Mrs. Mallard leaped out of the bed and continued rejoicing in the fact that her husband was a dead. Josephine quickly grabbed her hand and sat her down.

"You don't remember anything do you?"

"What are you talking about, this is no time to sit and be sad my sister. We must celebrate!"

"You fainted when he walked through the door."

"Who walked through the door?"


"Brently, your husband."

"I will not hear anymore of your foolishness Louise. We must get started on the plans for his funeral at once. I'm thinking we have bright colors nothing dark, for this is a celebration and not a time of mourning."

"Listen to me closely, it was a mistake Brently was no where near the train when the accident happened he is alive and downstairs waiting for you to wake up."

"I don't believe it. What am I going to do now? I am still stuck with him. This can't be."

"It is and I'm sorry to be the one to tell you."

"I can not live like this any longer, I experienced pure happiness for but a moment then it was taken away from me."

"I'm sorry, but Richards and Brently are waiting for us downstairs, we must go see them."

"Okay, you go on ahead and I will be down shortly, I need to straighten myself up."

"Okay."

Josephine left the room and headed down the stairs.

Mrs. Mallard reached over into her bureau and mixed something into her cup of water. She drank it quickly and then laid back down.

"I shall be free once again but this time my pure happiness will not be taken from me."

Moments later Josephine came into the room to find the dead body of Mrs. Mallard. The one thing that she noticed was the peaceful smile that she had on her lifeless face.

Roslyn Morrow- The Yellow Wallpaper

"He says no one but myself can help me out of it, that I must use my will and self-control and not let any silly fancies run away with me."

After reading this story I found that this sentence answered most of my questions that I had about her being crazy. I realized that even though John didn't believe their was anything medically wrong with her, he knew that she wasn't in her right mind and that she was the only person that could cure herself. Instead of using will and self-control she gave into her hallucinations and delusions. She was able to trick John, Jennie, and herself into thinking she was getting better when in all reality she was worse off than she had been before. So in my opinion she had a problem to begin with and instead of being strong and finding a solution to whatever problem she had, she went off into her own world and drove herself crazy.

Brandi Brady- "The Yellow Wallpaper" by Charlotte Perkins Gilman

After reading this short story many questions are unanswered. Considering questions about the husband and lady behind the wallpaper such as, how long have he been over protective? Is his love real? How does writing make her worst? These questions that came to mind along with others made me consider that maybe she was not always "crazy" and that he made her this way. When he locks her in a room and tell her to rest all the time it really does not show his love, in my opinion, he always tell her to rest and it will take care of everything. Sleep is her medicine.

"..... I don't blame her a bit. It must be very humiliating to be caught creeping by daylight! I always lock the door when I creep by daylight. I can't do it at night, for I know John would suspect something at once. And John is so queer now, that I don't want to irritate him. I wish he would take another room! Besides, I don't want anyone to get that woman out at night but myself."

The last sentence in Gilman's paragraph above shifts my thoughts. This woman she talks about that no one else sees does make her look crazy. The fact that she wants to her this woman behind the wallpaper but do not want anyone else to worries me a little. She wishes her husband would take another room so she can "creep" without any distractions of her husband. The fact that she does this a lot to the point that there is yellow on her shirt also concerns me. My opinion is that this paragraph clarifies anyone's thoughts on whether she was crazy or not. A sane women do not "creep" or crawl along the walls till the color appears on their clothing. I also believe that the trapped woman behind the wallpaper is herself. That also helped me come to the conclusion that that is why she does not want anyone to help the woman behind the wall paper but her because she feels her pain when being trapped she may also know that the woman represents her and that when the woman is free she will also be free.

Aaron Milton-YeLLow Wallpaper

In the short story The Yellow Wallpaper, Gilman tries to show the inner struggle and persistence of the deprived. Gilman focuses on showing the narrator's change and getting worse as she felt trapped with this statement: "I think that woman gets out in the daytime! And I'll tell you why--privately--I've seen her! I can see her out of every one of my windows! It is the same woman, I know, for she is always creeping, and most women do not creep by daylight." This quote in the story is very significant. It show the reader the extent of the narrators illness now that she has been confined in such a room for long. The narrator is in a constant fight between her anxiety along with her inner fight to break free.

J. Hunter- "The Yellow Wallpaper"

In the story "The Yellow Wallpaper," by Charlotte Perkins Gilman the paragraph that caught my attention came from the beginning, "But these nervous troubles aredreadfully depressing. John does not know how much I really suffer. He knows there is no reason to suffer, and that satifies him. Of course it is only nervousness. It does not weigh on me so not to do my duty in any way! I meant to be such a help to John, such a real rest and comfort, and here I am a comparative burden already!Nobody would believe what an effort it is to do what little I am able,--to dress and entertain, and order things. It is fortunate Mary is so good with the baby! And yet I cannot be with him, it makes me so nervous. I suppose John was never so nervous in his life. He laughs at me so about this wall-paper!" In this paragraph to me she is revealing alot about herself. She tells how she suffers from nervous troubles that make her very depressed, giving me an assumption that something may be wrong with her mentally throughout the rest of the story. To me she seems to be very normal by the way she writes and expresses herself, but finding out the nervousness is as serious as she says. Both her and her brother who are physicians say that nothing is seriously wrong with her and that she only has temporary nervousness which to them is nothing since to John she has nothing to be nervous about. In the paragraph she also reveals how she sees herslf as a burden to John and that bothers her because she wanted to be a help to him but she has become otherwise. This paragraph also brings into play the wallpaper that causes her problems with her seeing things making her experience her nervousness along with other things in the house. This paragraph in ways can relate her to Louise in " The Story of an Hour," the way their friend and loved ones treated them looking out for them so much that they were not allowed to do much of anything.

Ivory House- "The Yellow Wallpaper"

"John does not know how much I really suffer. He only knows that there is no reason to suffer, and that satisfies him."

I believe what the narrator meant by this was that she was really suffering and her husband didn't understand because he felt like there was nothing wrong with his wife. He felt that she was basically crazy and worried herself for no reason at all. He was satisfied with this because he was a physician and his wife had no idea what was wrong with her so he had to be right.

It was really hard trying to follow the story at first. I believe that the narrator was a little crazy, but I think that she was driven to that point. She may have had a nervous break down, but the people around her made things worse by keeping her locked away and talking to her as if she were a child instead of actually trying to understand and help her. Her husband and other people close to her kept telling her that she was sick he wouldn't let her go out and do anything she wanted to do. That would drive anyone crazy!

The women behind the wallpaper was the narrator. She felt trapped like she couldn't get out. When she tore down the wallpaper she was freeing herself and she wasn't going to let anyone make her feel trapped again. I believe what Gilman is trying to say is that people will drive you to the point of insanity if you let them, but it's up to you to free yourself.

Jazmyn Lamar-Bruce "The Yellow Wallpaper"

"You see he does not believe I am sick!"

In "The Yellow Wallpaper" the narrator's family doesn't believe that her condition is serious or if she even has a condition. I think that is also why they want to believe she is getting better. I, on the other hand, don't think she is getting better because it seems that she is having hallucinations and becoming obsessed with the wallpaper. There is a lady behind the wallpaper that she keeps speaking of and I think that is possibly her alter ego. This is because the lady she talks about is able to walk outside and that's what the narrator wants to do.

The narrator in the story, to me, is not legitimately crazy because her family has left her in the house for so long, most of the time, by herself. Anyone that was put in that position would not be in their right mind for very long. What Gilman is trying to portray in this story is that if someone were left alone for long enough, they would start to do crazy things or think crazy thoughts.

Ivory House- "The Story of An Hour"

After reading this story I was really confused about a few things. Mrs. Mallard seemed very confused. I couldn't tell if she was upset that her husband died or happy about it. It also seemed as if the love that she shared with her husband didn't matter to her. I think she was sad that he died because she did have some love for him, but also happy to be free. I believe that she was sad with the news at first because it was her husband's "death" and maybe she felt that being sad was the right thing to do. She was kind of selfish in a way because I'm sure her husband loved her, but she cared about herself more than she cared about the love they had.

I was also confused at the end of the story when Mr. Mallard walked in. At first I thought it was his ghost, until it said he had been far from the scene and didn't even know about the accident. I don't get how his name came up if he wasn't even there. Then when Mrs. Mallard died "of the joy that kills" I couldn't tell if it was the joy of seeing her husband alive or because the joy and thoughts of her being free had ended because her husband was actually alive. The story should have ended with her waking up and realizing that it was all a dream.

"The Yellow Wallpaper" Morgan Stevenson

"I've got out at last," said I, "in spite of you and Jennie! And I've pulled off most of the paper, so you can't put me back!" (456)

I did not understand a thing that was going on in this story until the last section, section XI.  It started to slightly come together. From my understanding, the narrator is the woman that is behind the wallpaper shaking it trying to become "free". Just like Louis Mallard in "The Story of  an Hour", she is taken care of by her husband. Both of the women had some type of "disease" and the husband looked after them with overprotectiveness. Both wanted to be free. I feel that this so called disease the narrator had was a mental issue that was instilled in her head. Once she figured out that there was something special about the yellow wallpaper, she proceeded to find out what it was. This quote is important because it symbolizes the narrator freeing herself from her disease, the protection from John and Jennie, and  and whatever other problems she faced. In the quote it says how she stripped the wallpaper so she can't be placed back in it. This shows her refusal to be confined or controlled. The wallpaper symbolizes a prison like state of mind where everything is controlled by someone or something else but by destroying it, she received deliverance from bondage.

I still don't quite understand the story as a whole but that is what I got out of it.

Morgan Stevenson

Quorneshia Milner-The Yellow Wallpaper

The Yellow Wallpaper,was a very weird story that you would have to read until the end to even start to paint a picture of what was goin on. The wife in the story was basically ignored when she was telling her husband,John,and everyone else that somethinng was wrong with her, mainly because her husband and brother,which were physicians,found nothing wrong with her they believed in science and not faith or superstitions. With people all around basically putting her down and telling her there is nothing wrong with her and she knew there was that in itself could make a person have nervous break down. Her husband was always saying that she was improving but she did not see it but when see really started to improve Jennie,which is John's sisiter, and John started to act suspicouslly.

Jowin Okere- The Yellow Wallpaper

The Yellow Wallpaper is, in essence, a look at what can happen when a person's mind deteriorates due to seclusion. It also is an exaggeration of what is happening to men and women in today's society. The Narrator is the women who does not work and is just placed somewhere to be vegetative. While the man, John, is working and keeping his mind active. Thus the women nags and nags about something as insignificant as the wallpaper until she is driven to insanity.

I am not sure whether or not it was her making the wallpaper decay and tear or whether it was her mind giving the perception of it doing that. She did say some of the yellow residue would get on her so maybe it was her. However, there was no textual evidence that I could understand that made it clear as to whether she was vandalizing the wallpaper or not. Gilman could be leaving it to the reader to decide.

Just a little tidbit re: Gilman's ugly wallpaper...

This story by Charlotte Perkins Gilman will make you reconsider calling Chopin’s “The Story of an Hour” strange, no?

The Yellow Wallpapers is terrifically odd and (I think) rewards the patient reader. It had quite an impact on readers in 1892 when it was first published in the New England Magazine, and one reader even claimed (as if to censure Gilman for writing the story) that it could make one crazy just to read it. More than a century later, I have to say I agree with that fellow.

I’m attaching to this post a link to the story with a supplementary article (found at the bottom of the document) that Gilman wrote in 1913 called “Why I Wrote The Yellow Wallpaper.” It’s a must-read. I thought it was comPLETEly fascinating, and it's not even a page long. And while it provides us with plenty of insight, there is still so much more to explore and discover in the individual lines and paragraphs of the story, (which I hope you’ll prove with your responses to the prompt).

THE LINK:
Charlotte Perkins Gilman, "Why I Wrote The Yellow Wallpaper" (1913)
(This article originally appeared in the October 1913 issue of The Forerunner.)
http://www.library.csi.cuny.edu/dept/history/lavender/yellowwallpaper.pdf

As this is a provocative piece, you may have other things to write about beyond your response to the prompt. I encourage you to write freely, and I will look favorably upon you. ☺ But be sure that whatever you write is IN ADDITION TO your 2-3 paragraph response to the prompt. Write any additional thoughts/comments/questions you have regarding the story and/or the article attached as a separate post. I know how much you guys just love to blog.

PROMPT / The Yellow Wallpaper - Charlotte Perkins Gilman

After reading The Yellow Wallpaper (from start to finish), find a paragraph in the story that you find particularly intriguing.

**YOUR ASSIGNMENT IS TO QUOTE THE PARAGRAPH THAT YOU CHOSE AND PROVIDE YOUR OWN ANALYSIS OF THAT PARAGRAPH IN THE CONTEXT OF THE WHOLE STORY.

Some things to consider as you do your analysis:

1. Is the narrator legitimately crazy? How would you diagnose her condition?
2. The narrator’s neurosis (or psychosis) seems to grow more intense as the story goes on, and yet those around her seem to think she is improving. What do you make of this?
3. Who are the other characters in this story? (There are more than a few.) What roles do they play, and what do they tell us about the narrator?
4. Who is the woman behind the wallpaper?
5 What do YOU think Gilman is trying to say in with this crazy story?

These are just some basic questions (with complex answers) to get you thinking about what’s going on in the story. You do not have to respond directly to any of them. Your main objective in this post is to do a thorough (and original) analysis of one particular paragraph.

TIP: Don't worry about giving a "correct" interpretation of your paragraph. Just think it out, and write as much as you can.

As always, have so much fun. ☺

The Story of an Hour

1. This story was a good one, but a little confusing or strange. I don't understand how Brently Mallard could be identified as a person on the "killed" list if he was nowhere near the accident. He also didn't know there was even an accident that happened. Another thing that was puzzling to me was the thing that was coming towards her from the sky or whatever she was looking at. I thought that might have symbolized her husband coming to take her with him in death maybe, but by the end of the story I knew that wasn't it. Even though there was some confusion, this was an interesting read.

2. An alternate ending to this story could possibly be: the figure that is coming towards her from the sky could have been her husband's spirit coming to take her with him into death. She would die peacefully knowing that she's with her husband for eternity.

J.Hunter - " Story of an Hour"

After reading Kate Chopin's " The Story of an Hour," there are many questions that I have. Questions like, What is Louise's deal?, how can she just change from being heartbroken and in tears when the (false) news of her husbands death was told to her, to being filled with joy. Was this a case of a marrige that started off as true love and over the yaers turned out to not be what she truly wanted, but she did'n't want to divorce for some reason. what werethe reactions of her sister and Richards when she came out of the room in joy? it seemed to me that they wern't really shocked.Was her husband's death the only way she could pursue her suddenly recongnized self-assertion? I can kind of see how that could be a possibility since Mr. Mallard was said to be very loving that he could have been very protective and caring for her that she was not able to pursue and do anything on her own, especially with her hearyt problems. How were the sister and the friend informed and so sure enough of Brently's death?Why did Richards try to hide Mrs. Mallard from Mr. Mallared when he entered the house? He had no idea of the accident that he was supposedly killed in and what was going on at home with his wife.
As for an alternate ending to the story, the only thing I would like to happen is for Mrs. Mallard not to die at the end. I want to know Brently's reaction when informed of the situation. How would Mrs. Brently explain herself.

Yes, the story did definitely leave me with many unanswered questions, I basically had two questions that i wanted to address. first, being as a sister and as a women why did her sister seem as though she was so overly protective? I mean i love my sister and all but, it seems to me that there had to be a significant amount of age between them? She was more of a mother than she was a sister... ( she didn't even want her in the room thinking for herself) where was her mother? had she died at an early age in the sister's lives where her older sister had token the responsibility of a mother? I believe if this was a little more clear in the story we could have understood why her sister treated her the way she did. The next question i had was how long did she have a heart trouble from what we discuss in the classroom she was considered an upper class women...so had she been diagnosed in her youth or in adulthood? i believe this is an significant factor because if she had been diagnosed in her childhood it could possible explain her and her sisters relationship... but if she was diagnosed as a adult i am still puzzled on that the upper class part come into place because if diagnosed as a women it would seem that she married into money and got great doctors treatment if diagnosed as a child it would seem to me she was born into money.... these things are just floating in my head :)
As far as the ending... i really cant say i like it i actually was rather disturb by it (laughing) because i feel like she was somewhat tricked into death getting all worked up and finally coming to the conclusion that its finally something you have to deal with ( your husband passing) and then to see him walk in the door???? are you kidding me i would have died too or either relieved myself in my pants (laughing) but anywoo i would have loved it to end with her just falling down the stairs from pure shock from seeing him and getting on with her and her husband lives and had a couple of kids maybe one with a huge train birthmark on its forehead......

Aaron Milton- "Story of an Hour"

While reading "The story of an hour," one of the most important moments in the stroy i questioned was Mrs. Mallard's statement . . "free, free, free!" What could she possibly have meant by feeling free, when news of her husband's death was announced. Earlier in the story, it metions how Mrs. Mallard was "young, with a fair,calm face whose lines bespoke repression and even a certain strenth." This causes us to think a bit an wonder if Mrs. Mallard was a young lady not yet ready for marrige; however preasured into a halfhearted relationship with a prestigious older companion. Perhaps because of this she felt controled or unhappy in her realationship even though her husband was loyal an loving. The story also gives us reason to belive this when it says "she would live for herself." Now that her husband was dead she felt free.
I found the ending to the short story interesting. Towards the end Mr. Mallard returns in tact an alive. As soon as he walks in Mrs. Mallard dies; reading this causes us to asume she died of shock. When the doctors came in they said she died of the joy that kills. I beleive she was so happy and so joyfull of what was to come, that in seeing her husband, she entered shock knowing all that hope was gone. Already mentioning she had heart problems this could be a reasanable outcome. I would have changed the ending by elaberating more on what went on after she died. This way we could see what Mr. Mallard was thinking and how he reacted in this situation.

The Story of An Hour

One question that repeatedly came to mind while reading this story was how strong was her love? Many questions branch from that one question. Why did she marry him if she only loved him sometimes? How deep was her love if she had a type of relief and freedom from his death?

I would have like the story to end in a way where she could have spoken to her husband , letting him know the news that she had heard. Chopin never informed us if Mr. Mallard received the news or not. If I had to rewrite the I would of had Ms. Mallard speak her mind on the different topics/ideas that were in her mind when she believed he was dead.

p.s.

And please respond to BOTH parts (1 and 2) of the prompt. Thanks!

The story of an hou(what I thought)

I thought that this story had a very surprising ending. I did not think that the woman was going to

be the one who died, instead of her husband. It seemed as though she was sad a first, when she

thought her husband died. Then she realized, that him being dead would make her free. She then

became joyful, not because he was dead, but because she was finally able to be happy. Because

she said that she loved him; sometimes. I assume that she wasn't very happy being married to him

because if she was, she wouldn't have been so happy that he died. she went from sad, to happy.

once she found out that he was no longer dead, really shocked the mess out of her to the

point where she drops dead.Ths probably could have been because of her heart problems. this

story had a very surprised ending. I don't think that her husband knew all the things that she was

thinking.

"The Story of an Hour" / Kate Chopin

1. This story leaves us with so many unanswered questions! Reading through the story again after our class discussion, what specific questions do you have about what’s really going on with Louise Mallard (and/or the other characters)? You can list multiple questions regarding the text, or just focus on and detail one question that interests you most.

2. Write an alternative ending to "The Story of an Hour." Have fun with this.

**TIP: I think that a good response to this prompt will require AT LEAST 2 sizable paragraphs. Feel free to entertain us with a story that goes beyond the minimum length requirement.