No matter what one thinks happened at the end of Charlotte Stetson's, The Yellow Wallpaper, there is no argument needed to be made that it would indeed make for a great modern day horror film. As compelling and bizarre as this story is, the ending left nothing to be desired with the exception of many unanswered questions.
As we read and progressively watch this narrator, presumably Jane, go down a path of insanity it truly is both haunting and frightening from a reader's perspective. In my opinion as a reader, I believe that the woman, whatever her name may be, was schizophrenic. This severe mental condition leading her to what I believe was a murder of her husband and as the definition of this condition states "failing to acknowledge what is real world" from what the narrator is perceiving. As she is conceptually not in her right mind, she sees upon John entering the room in the last scene and states "Now why should that man have fainted? But he did, and right across my path by the wall, so that I had to creep over him
every time!"
Much of this is due to the behavior of her husband towards her, never acknowledging her mental instability when saying "He said we came here solely on my account,that I was to have perfect rest and all the air I could get."Your exercise depends on your strength, my dear," said he," and your food somewhat on your appetite; but air you can absorb all the time."So we took the nursery at the top of the house," and imprisoning her in what is basically a jail cell, barred windows included.
A lot of what I believed also contributed to the narrator's impending insanity is the time period that she is living in, the pre-women's rights movement era. In this time period, women were not looked upon to express themselves individually and were viewed as a way to have children and nothing more. This narrator especially struggles with this gender bound social class inequality throughout the novel as she is not allowed to write, leave the room or house, or see this conspicuous "baby" mentioned only twice. I believe that this combined with the actions of her husband, and of course whatever predisposition she was born with to have acquired this condition all lead to her downfall at the end of the novel.
Thursday, March 12, 2015
Sunday, March 8, 2015
Heart of Darkness as a Gothic Work
Struggling to classify Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness as Gothic is not a difficult task. When thinking about the conventions of a Gothic work we have learned about in AP Lit, conventions that include the presence of the sublime, a sense of misery or dread, ambiguity and ambivalence, or even the type of weather depicted, many of these conventions are incorporated heavily into the book. All of this before even mentioning that the key convention of Gothic literature, being intrinsic darkness as it relates to humanity, is used of all places in the novel's title.
The presence and use of the sublime occurs early on and often by Conrad. The sublime is defined as "an overpowering sense of greatness in nature that can be both terrifying or uplifting" (Heckmondwike Grammar). As Marlow first approaches the Outer Stations, this sublime power is depicted in Marlow's revelation of the horrid conditions of the native villages and their workers malnourishment and exhaustion when saying "It was unearthly, and the men were - No they were not inhuman. Well you know, that was the worst of it - the suspicion of their not being inhuman " (Conrad Part 2). While this plays into the concept of the sublime, it also plays into another major convention of Gothic Literature which is the darkness intrinsic to humanity.
This darkness, a moral darkness, is portrayed through the novel's main theme of the hypocrisy of imperialism. We see as readers throughout the novel this perpetual fear of Kurtz, the head man in charge throughout the Congo, and at the end of the novel learn of how he has asserted himself as a God over the African natives by means of force and aggression.
Other important conventions of Gothic Literature that are used in this novel is the dark and ominous weather. Often times, scenes are depicted as foggy or stormy. Historically, fog and rain used in novels often contribute to a darker tone that the author may be trying to convey to readers and even foreshadow events to come such as the fog in this novel foreshadowed the native Indian attack on Marlow's ship.
Conrad's writing as well gives off an ambiguous tone, one he was known for throughout the years as "he also said that he didn't like to explain what his books were about, because that would open him up to the criticism that he had failed as an artist to achieve understanding in" (Lipka 1). This writing style, combined with the Gothic nature of the text and the conventions employed certainly help to support this claim that Heart of Darkness does function as a Gothic novel.
Works Cited
Lipka, Jennifer. "The Horror! The Horror!: Joseph Conrad's Heart Of Darkness as a Gothic Novel."Web. 4 March. 2015.
Conrad, Joseph. Heart of Darkness. Print.
The presence and use of the sublime occurs early on and often by Conrad. The sublime is defined as "an overpowering sense of greatness in nature that can be both terrifying or uplifting" (Heckmondwike Grammar). As Marlow first approaches the Outer Stations, this sublime power is depicted in Marlow's revelation of the horrid conditions of the native villages and their workers malnourishment and exhaustion when saying "It was unearthly, and the men were - No they were not inhuman. Well you know, that was the worst of it - the suspicion of their not being inhuman " (Conrad Part 2). While this plays into the concept of the sublime, it also plays into another major convention of Gothic Literature which is the darkness intrinsic to humanity.
This darkness, a moral darkness, is portrayed through the novel's main theme of the hypocrisy of imperialism. We see as readers throughout the novel this perpetual fear of Kurtz, the head man in charge throughout the Congo, and at the end of the novel learn of how he has asserted himself as a God over the African natives by means of force and aggression.
Other important conventions of Gothic Literature that are used in this novel is the dark and ominous weather. Often times, scenes are depicted as foggy or stormy. Historically, fog and rain used in novels often contribute to a darker tone that the author may be trying to convey to readers and even foreshadow events to come such as the fog in this novel foreshadowed the native Indian attack on Marlow's ship.
Conrad's writing as well gives off an ambiguous tone, one he was known for throughout the years as "he also said that he didn't like to explain what his books were about, because that would open him up to the criticism that he had failed as an artist to achieve understanding in" (Lipka 1). This writing style, combined with the Gothic nature of the text and the conventions employed certainly help to support this claim that Heart of Darkness does function as a Gothic novel.
Works Cited
Lipka, Jennifer. "The Horror! The Horror!: Joseph Conrad's Heart Of Darkness as a Gothic Novel."Web. 4 March. 2015.
Conrad, Joseph. Heart of Darkness. Print.
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