“It is very seldom that mere ordinary people like John and myself secure ancestral halls for the summer.” In what ways does the opening of Gilman’s “The Yellow Wallpaper” avoid immediate Gothic tropes ?
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Answer: C. The first-person narrator
Explanation
The story employs an unreliable first-person narrator to anchor the horror in subjective human realism. Relying on a personal perspective avoids immediate reliance on standard supernatural entities typically found in Gothic fiction. The psychological deterioration unfolds through personal journal entries rather than traditional external spooky occurrences. Charlotte Perkins Gilman published The Yellow Wallpaper in 1892 as a critique of nineteenth-century medical treatments. Gothic literature traditionally features external supernatural elements like ghosts, monsters, or haunted medieval castles. First-person narration restricts the reader's view to the distorted perceptions of the troubled protagonist.
Option A is incorrect because mentioning ancestral halls actually invokes a classic trope of traditional Gothic settings. Option B is incorrect because unusual events are a staple of Gothic fiction rather than a departure from them. Option D is incorrect because class dichotomies often appear in Gothic literature to heighten social tensions.
- Subject
- English
- Category
- English Literature
- Topic
- —
- Difficulty
- medium
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