The Yellow
Wallpaper (YW) is
a
novel written by Charlotte Perkins Gilman. This short story consists of
nine pages which are approximately 6000 words. The New England Magazine
was the one who first published The Yellow Wallpaper in January 1892.
This story is such an autobiography of Gilman herself in which tells that she
suffered from neurasthenia. YW is an epistolary novel; story that written in
kind of letter form. In Indonesia, we also have epistolary novel titled Habis
Gelap Terbitlah Terang composed by R.A. Kartini. The story also has been
classified a gothic and horror fiction. Below are the elements of fiction of
this story.
Gilman carried feminism as her theme in this story. Feminism is the belief and aim that women should have the same rights,
power, and opportunities as men. YW illustrated women’s condition in 19th
century, in which they did not have rights as men did. Gilman symbolized women’s
imprisonment as The Yellow Wallpaper itself. Yellow is convinced
representing woman. Additionally, the frame of the wallpaper represents prison.
Through The Yellow Wallpaper, Gilman tried to fight for women in order
to raise women’s degree.
There are six characters in this short story. They are
the narrator, John, Jennie, Henry, Julia and Mary. The first character is the
narrator (anonymous). She is a protagonist character that has main role in this
story. Second character is John as an antagonist who has a conflict to the
protagonist. He is the narrator’s husband. Next character is Jennie. She is
John’s sister which means she is the narrator’s sister-in-law. Then, the fourth
character is Henry. He is John’s cousin. The fifth character is Julia. She is
also John’s cousin. The last character is Mary. Mary is John’s housekeeper and
babysitter. All of the characters belong to round character, because they have
complex character which means that they have only one characteristic.
Six characters that mentioned above have different
characteristics. The narrator is a young wife that suffered from temporary
nervous depression. She becomes gradually insane because of her anxiety.
John, the narrator’s husband, is a physician. Actually, John loves his wife so
much, but he shows his affection in improper way; he is too protective to the
narrator. Jennie (the narrator’s sister-in-law) is one who takes care of the
narrator during her illness. She is an understanding person. Henry and Julia is
John’s cousin. They are not including in this story directly. Mary is one who
responsible either for the narrator and John’s house or their baby. As a
result, characters in this story are dynamic.
Characterization also takes a big part in building a
story. In The Yellow Wallpaper, the author uses mixing method of
characterization. Mixing method is combination of discursive and dramatic
method. Telling directly the characteristics to the reader named discursive
method. In this story, discursive method can bee seen in sentence ‘and also
of high standing’. In contrast, dramatic method is a method in which there
is no information about how the characteristics of the character are; the
readers have to conclude the characteristics themselves. As can be seen in how
the narrator tells people surround her are. Those characters, their own
characteristics and how the author characterizes them make this story alive.
Another important elements of fiction is Setting. Setting
is divided into two big branches. The first setting is physical setting. Place,
time, weather and environment are included into this physical setting. This
story takes place in a colonial mansion –including ancestral hall and bedroom-
and garden. Time setting of this story is daylight and moonlight during three months
they rented the house. In addition, they rent the house in summer. The
environment of that mansion is quiet and peaceful. The second one is social or
spiritual setting. Social setting of The Yellow Wallpaper is the inferiority of
woman in that era. The story clearly tells how a husband treats his wife. Both
physical and social setting is like the package of the story.
Plot is like the breath of the
story; without plot the story is nothing. This story has closed plot. The
author clearly tells how the story ends. Moreover, Gilman is chronologically
ordering sentence by sentence so that the story is built in good arrangement.
°
The first stage of plot is exposition. In this
exposition, the writer introduces the story and its elements –like characters,
characteristics and physical setting. As could be seen in the first page, exposition of this story is begun by the
introduction of the house (colonial mansion), John’s character and occupation, and the
narrator.
°
The second stage is rising action.
The characters begin having conflict in this stage. There are four basic
conflicts in The Yellow Wallpaper; they are person vs. person, person vs. self,
person vs. nature and person vs. fate. Person vs. person conflict is telling
how the conflict starts between the narrator and her husband does. It could be
known from sentence ‘you see he does not believe I am sick.’ The second
basic conflict is person vs. self. The narrator said ‘I do not know why I
should write this?’ which means that she has a controversial thought
against herself. Person vs. nature conflict in this story is about the
beginning problem between the narrator and the wallpaper. This conflict could
be seen in sentence ‘I used to feel that if any of the other things looked
too fierce. I could always hop into that chair and be safe.’ The last conflict
is person vs. fate; telling what problem with the fate she has. It is written
in the fifth page, ‘what a fortunate escape! Why I wouldn’t have a child of
mine, an impressionable little thing live in such a room for world.
°
The third stage is climax. Climax is
the turning point of the story; the protagonist could not solve the problem
herself. Beginning with this sentence ‘I really have discovered something at
last’, that is the climax of the story.
°
Falling action is the next stage. The
main role as if could solve her problem herself, but in fact she could not. The
proof of this stage is the sentence ‘Hurrah! This is the last day, but it is
enough.’
°
The last stage is denouement. This is
the closing of the story. It could be seen in ‘I’ve got out at last.’
At last but
not the least, coming to the most important part of the fiction is the moral
value behind the story. In the 19th century, men are superior and
women are inferior. Therefore, Gilman
intentionally influences the readers, especially women, to fight for the
equality of rights, power and opportunities as the men get. In addition, Gilman
is a feminist. Another lesson is the bad effect of keep a
tight rein on somebody. Although we
love this somebody so bad, we had better not to force his or her to follow what
we want. We should be happy if someone that we love is always happy. It means
that we love somebody we ought to love her or him just the way they are. That
should we know from this story.
Those
mentioned above are the elements of fiction. Those elements consist of theme,
character, characteristic, characterization, setting and plot. Value behind the
text is the additional aspect that should be considered in analyzing literary
arts, especially fiction. Analyzing fiction is not only analyzing the elements,
but also the moral value. It will be perfectly perfect if we could apply those
good moral values to our daily life.
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