Journal entry# 37 Charlotte Perkins Gilman

Siu Faat Jimmy Wong
English 48b
March 7, 2008
Professor Lankford

Quote:

It is a big, airy room, the whole floor nearly, with windows that look all ways, and air and sunshine galore. I was nursery first and then playroom and gymnasium, I should judge; for the windows are barred for little children, and there are rings and things in the walls. The paint and paper look as if a boys’ school had used it.

Summary:

This quote is found in the beginning of the story. It explains the room of the narrator which is designed by John.

Response:

I think that the whole story has a lot of ironic sentences. Among them, I think this quote is the most ironic one. The “big, airy room” makes me think that the room is very beautiful and well-built for her to help her problem. However, when I keep reading the quote, I found out that it is so ironic.

In the quote, the “playroom” shows that John considers the narrator as a child or an infant. At this point, I think it is not common for a woman to be treated as an adult in that century. Moreover, in the room, there are even “windows [which] are barred and rings and things in the wall”. I don’t think they should be existed in a room for the narrator who only has suffered from a “temporary nervous depression”. These kinds of stuffs should only appear in a room for a person who has serious mental disorder. Not only there are horrible equipments in the room, the room is covered with yellow wallpaper. I think the yellow is a disturbing color which definitely worsens her mind. However, the narrator does not intend to ask for a change. I think that not only the color is bad, but the quality of the wallpaper is also terrible. In the quote, it explains that “the paint and paper look as if a boys’ school had used it”. I think that Gilman wants to magnify how terrible the wallpaper is. At this point, I really can’t find any reason for John, a so called “professional physician”, to put his wife into this poor room to cure her “temporary nervous depression”. I think that the narrator indeed wants somebody to accompany her, rather than the “rings and things in the wall”. Also, I guess if the narrator was not put into this terrible room, her problem would not be worsened into that level.