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Charlotte Perkins Gillman (1860-1935)
Contributing Editor: Elaine Hedges
Classroom Issues and Strategies
Students respond well to "The Yellow Wall-Paper." They like the story and don't have serious difficulty understanding it, and they enjoy discussing the meanings of the wallpaper. They may, however, oversimplify the story, reading the ending either as the heroine's victory over her circumstances, or her defeat. Have students choose and defend one or the other of these positions for a classroom debate (with the aim of showing that there is no easy resolution). Students might also want to debate (attack or defend) the role of the husband in the story.
Background information on medical treatment of women, and specifically white, middle-class women, in the nineteenth century, especially Dr. S. Weir Mitchell's "rest cure" (mentioned in the headnote) is useful.
Naive students sometimes wonder why the woman in the story can't just leave; they need to understand the situation of......

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Approximate Word Count: 882
Approximate Pages: 4 (250 words per double-spaced page)

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