The Yellow Wallpaper
The Unique Ambiguity of the Theorized Wall-paper
February 07, 2011
There are several theories about realism and fantasy. In which several of them will be discussed in this essay in relation to the short story of Charlotte Perkins Gilman “The Yellow Wall-paper”. This story represent the genre that is on the line between fantasy and realism, since it fits to both genres criteria written by Rosemary Jackson, Ian Watt and Tzvetan Todorov. Also, it can 't be decided (until the very end perhaps) to which genre it belongs to, by most readers, and in particularly by the “ideal reader”. In “Fantasy: the Literature as Subversion” (second chapter) Jackson opens with the original meaning of the word fantasy, which came from Greek, that makes every kind of literature fantastic because it generally means an activity of the imagination. Fantasy is a protean form since it includes every kind of narratives that represent a supernatural world, which makes it difficult to define. Fantasy is about braking the rules of the natural world that we know. This activity happens in “The Yellow Wall-paper” when the narrator, the main character says where the sun is just so -- I can see a strange, provoking, formless sort of figure, that seems to skulk about behind that silly and conspicuous front design. this is her first description of the imprisoned woman inside the wall-paper, and by other, more specific and vivid descriptions she basically describes a supernatural world, since according to her she is being haunted by this woman. By doing so, this story obeys to the idea that: “ a fantasy is a story based on and controlled by an overt violation of what is generally accepted as possibility” (Irwin, p.x “Fantasy: the Literature as Subversion” 2nd chapter page 14) However, the reader may assume that she is insane and she has overdeveloped imagination, bu still, it 's ambiguous because this woman seems reasonable when she says It is an airy and comfortable room as any one need wish,
February 07, 2011
There are several theories about realism and fantasy. In which several of them will be discussed in this essay in relation to the short story of Charlotte Perkins Gilman “The Yellow Wall-paper”. This story represent the genre that is on the line between fantasy and realism, since it fits to both genres criteria written by Rosemary Jackson, Ian Watt and Tzvetan Todorov. Also, it can 't be decided (until the very end perhaps) to which genre it belongs to, by most readers, and in particularly by the “ideal reader”. In “Fantasy: the Literature as Subversion” (second chapter) Jackson opens with the original meaning of the word fantasy, which came from Greek, that makes every kind of literature fantastic because it generally means an activity of the imagination. Fantasy is a protean form since it includes every kind of narratives that represent a supernatural world, which makes it difficult to define. Fantasy is about braking the rules of the natural world that we know. This activity happens in “The Yellow Wall-paper” when the narrator, the main character says where the sun is just so -- I can see a strange, provoking, formless sort of figure, that seems to skulk about behind that silly and conspicuous front design. this is her first description of the imprisoned woman inside the wall-paper, and by other, more specific and vivid descriptions she basically describes a supernatural world, since according to her she is being haunted by this woman. By doing so, this story obeys to the idea that: “ a fantasy is a story based on and controlled by an overt violation of what is generally accepted as possibility” (Irwin, p.x “Fantasy: the Literature as Subversion” 2nd chapter page 14) However, the reader may assume that she is insane and she has overdeveloped imagination, bu still, it 's ambiguous because this woman seems reasonable when she says It is an airy and comfortable room as any one need wish,
Bibliography: Charlotte Perkins Gilman- “The Yellow Wall-paper” (was taken from the virtual) Rosemary Jackson- Fantasy: the Literature of Subversion: the Fantastic as a Mode http://virtual2002.tau.ac.il/bareket/ShowItemByType.asp? random=6402&sid=327065&iid=683649&sentfrom=ExerciseMenu.asp&vcCours eGuid=0xe5b273e9d1a9ca47b51658dbb18bfbcc&vcCourseID=295941&headerty pe=2 Ian Watt- The Rise of the Novel http://www.scribd.com/doc/35172618/The-Rise-of-the-Novel-Ian-Watt Tzvetan Todorov- Definition of the Fantastic http://virtual2002.tau.ac.il/bareket/ShowItemByType.asp? random=1657&sid=327065&iid=683648&sentfrom=ExerciseMenu.asp&vcCours eGuid=0xe5b273e9d1a9ca47b51658dbb18bfbcc&vcCourseID=295941&headerty pe=2 George Levine- Realism http://virtual2002.tau.ac.il/bareket/ShowItemByType.asp? random=6436&sid=326132&iid=674917&sentfrom=ExerciseMenu.asp&vcCours eGuid=0xe5b273e9d1a9ca47b51658dbb18bfbcc&vcCourseID=295941&headerty pe=2 7