The Yellow Wallpaper

Name:_____________________________________________
Give page references to supporting text with your answers
1. Why are they living in this colonial mansion? _________________________________________________
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2. What is its history? ______________________________________________________________________
3. How does the protagonist feel about the house? ________________________________________________
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4. Why does the narrator say Johns profession is "perhaps . . . one reason I do not get well faster?
Who else supports John's diagnosis?
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5. How does John act towards his wife? ________________________________________________________
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6. What clue does the narrator's repeated lament, "what can one do?" give us about her personality?
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7. What conflicting emotions is she having toward her husband? ____________________________________
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8. What conflicting emotions is she having toward her condition?
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9. What tells us she is imaginative? ____________________________________________________________
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10. What is the narrator's initial reaction and description of the wallpaper?
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11. How does her description of the wallpaper change?
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12. Who is Jennie? What's her function?
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13. What is Marys role? _____________________________________________________________________
14. What information does Gilman give about the narrator's state?
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15. How does the narrator try to reach out to her husband?
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16. Do you think John has no comprehension of the seriousness of her illness?
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17. Who has used this room before? ____________________________________________________________
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18. What is the central irony of the story?
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