DIRECTIONS: Investigate and site those passages in “The Yellow Wallpaper” where Charlotte Perkins Gilman depicts how medical discourse functions in late nineteenth-century American culture. Use these questions and today’s discussion, moreover, as a prompt for Critical Inquiry #3
(1.5 – 2 pages, double spaced).
To get started, focus on the first page of the story where Gilman introduces the term “hysterical.”
Origin of HYSTERIA
New Latin, from English hysteric, adjective, from Latin hystericus, from Greek hysterikos, from hystera womb; from the Greek notion that hysteria was peculiar to women and caused by disturbances of the uterus First Known Use: 1801
Give some thought as to why this term is important here. How, moreover, does the
discipline or practice of medicine (the language of medicine or medical discourse)
construct concepts of femininity? How does language (gendered or otherwise) produce a
set of realities?
Why might the narrator mention that both her husband and brother are doctors? Is this
trivial or important? Why?
The narrator uses the words “love,” “care,” and “careful” a number of times throughout
the story. Where do these terms arise? And why do you think she repeats them? Beyond
the obvious, what do these words mean here? And how are these words—“care” and
“love”—reflective of the type of relationship the narrator has with her husband?
After reading the story, do you get any sense of where the story takes place? And why is
this setting is important?
