Question

How does the narrator’s room inform both her character and plot?

Answer 1

Answer:

C. The room is a former nursery with bars on its windows, emphasizing her treatment as a child/prisoner and thus the eventual break from her identity as a sane adult woman.

Explanation:

The short story "The Yellow Wallpaper" by Charlotte Perkins Gilman is a feminist text which shows the constraints that women faced in their lives especially during the 19th Century. This particular text focus on the mental and physical health of women as regarded right by the 'men' or patriarchal society as a whole.

The room that the narrator and her husband had taken 'for the improvement of her health' is more like a cage. It was at the top of the house, a room with torn and dilapidated wallpaper, which was also a former nursery. It had bars and rings and things. She points out that "the windows are barred for little children", which is significant for it emphasizes her treatment as a child/ prisoner. She had no control over the diagnosing of her 'illness' nor does she have control over the medicines she's to take. Everything is taken care of by her husband John.

Thus, the room that she and her husband took represents her treatment as a child/prisoner and thus the eventual break from her identity as a sane adult woman.