Early Stream of Consciousness and Feminism in Fiction
Question 8 • GA-Literature and Composition III A
Read the excerpt from "The Yellow Wallpaper."The front pattern DOES move—and no wonder! The woman behind shakes it!Sometimes I think there are a great many women behind, and sometimes only one, and she crawls around fast, and her crawling shakes it all over.Then in the very bright spots she keeps still, and in the very shady spots she just takes hold of the bars and shakes them hard.And she is all the time trying to climb through. But nobody could climb through that pattern—it strangles so; I think that is why it has so many heads.They get through, and then the pattern strangles them off and turns them upside down, and makes their eyes white!If those heads were covered or taken off it would not be half so bad.I think that woman gets out in the daytime!And I’ll tell you why—privately—I’ve seen her!I can see her out of every one of my windows!It is the same woman, I know, for she is always creeping, and most women do not creep by daylight.I see her on that long road under the trees, creeping along, and when a carriage comes she hides under the blackberry vines.I don’t blame her a bit. It must be very humiliating to be caught creeping by daylight!Whom does the narrator see hiding in the wallpaper?
Answer
A
herself, trapped in her life
B
Jennie, trapped in her job
C
the neighbor, trapped outside the house
D
Mary, trapped with the baby
Explanation
The narrator sees a woman trapped behind the wallpaper, struggling against its pattern and bars. That woman reflects the narrator herself, who feels confined by her marriage and the restrictions placed on her. So the correct choice is “herself, trapped in her life.”
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