Question

1 Which of the narrator’s statements in "The Yellow Wallpaper" suggests that she does not think women are too frail to be intellectual?
I verily believe she thinks it is the writing which made me sick!
Of course I didn’t do a thing. Jennie sees to everything now.
I don’t feel as if it was worth while to turn my hand over for anything, and I’m getting dreadfully fretful and querulous.
So I walk a little in the garden or down that lovely lane, sit on the porch under the roses, and lie down up here a good deal. 2At first he meant to repaper the room, but afterwards he said that I was letting it get the better of me, and that nothing was worse for a nervous patient than to give way to such fancies.

Which gothic element in this excerpt reflects a social attitude of Gilman’s time?
The narrator feels an inevitable sense of doom.
The qualities of the wallpaper create a sense of mystery.
John appears to be a supernatural being.
John views his wife’s concerns as unimportant and silly.

Answer 1

1. "I verily believe she thinks it is the writing which made me sick!" — this line shows the narrator defending writing and implying she values intellectual activity, so she does not accept that women are too frail to be intellectual.

2. "John views his wife’s concerns as unimportant and silly." — the doctor-husband’s dismissive attitude toward her fears is a gothic element that reflects the era’s patriarchal medical and social view that women’s complaints were trivial or hysterical.