My interpretation of this short story is that our protagonist is a hysteric who has been recommended the rest cure. She is stuck in a room with some horrid yellow wallpaper with different patterns. She studies the wallpaper because she has nothing else to do and is longing for something intelligent (since she thinks that stimulation could improve her condition). Gradually, she begins to see herself in the wallpaper's patterns. She destroys the room to let out her inner self. She had to destroy her prison before she can have a voice.
I don't feel that we can say that the ending is super liberating since the most likely conclusion is that she ended up in an asylum. It is liberating in a way because she has her voice, but someone will eventually shut it up again.
The in-class discussion made me wonder how society became so invested in patriarchy. Who invented it? Who decided that there would be a such thing as gender roles? If hysteria and it's male counterpart (which I can't spell) are basically the same, why so dramatically different treatments? (Yes I know it's patriarchy but why were they that stupid?) Also, how do people get postpartum depression- I'd think they would be happy that it's out! That's in my notes so it's relevant. I wonder if the list of things that caused men hysteria is a long as a women's.
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Just realized I don't know how to follow other blogs on here :(
And I don't have as many intelligent thoughts as I thought I would. I have a post about Dora sitting in Drafts because I apparently don't have my shit together so let's try again tomorrow :(
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