Starter quiz
- What does 'hysterical' mean?
- getting angry easily
- constantly changing your mind
- affected by wild, uncontrolled emotion ✓
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- What does it mean if we have a first person narrator?
- we are given an objective viewpoint
- everything we are told is filtered through their consciousness ✓
- we can trust what they tell us
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- What does the word 'lurid' mean?
- decaying
- too sweet
- too brightly coloured ✓
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- What might dismissive behaviour look like?
- listening to someone carefully
- giving someone a hug
- not acknowledging someone's point of view ✓
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- What is agency?
- the ability to take action or choose an action ✓
- the amount of money you make
- what people are remembered for
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- How might someone show their agency?
- choosing which university to study at ✓
- doing what they are told to do by their friends
- doing something as directed by their horoscope
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Exit quiz
- Who narrates 'The Yellow Wallpaper'?
- a man named John
- a woman named Lily
- an unnamed woman ✓
- John and Lily's child
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- What is particularly concerning the narrator in 'The Yellow Wallpaper'?
- her husband's behaviour
- the wallpaper in the room she is staying in ✓
- the fact the house has been declared haunted
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- What does dismissive mean?
- listening carefully to others' viewpoints
- aggressively disagreeing with others' viewpoints
- not considering others' viewpoints ✓
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- What is true of the narrator and her husband's relationship in 'The Yellow Wallpaper'?
- The narrator's voice is valued in the relationship.
- The narrator has most control in the relationship.
- The narrator's husband, John, has control in the relationship. ✓
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- What does the narrator of 'The Yellow Wallpaper' implicitly tell us about her husband?
- he is patronising ✓
- he is a physician
- he is loving
- he is clueless
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- What might show the narrator's lack of agency in 'The Yellow Wallpaper'?
- She gives her opinion on her condition.
- She tells us her husband is "loving and careful".
- She repeats "what is one to do?" ✓
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Worksheet
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Lesson Details
Key learning points
- A first person narrator can often give the reader a unique insight into their personality, relationships and lifestyle.
- The narrator in 'The Yellow Wallpaper' is presented as silenced and powerless.
- The narrator exposes her husband as oppressive.
- Perkins Gilman employs many techniques to show the narrator's lack of agency.
- It could be argued that that narrator has agency since everything we learn is filtered through her consciousness.
Common misconception
Pupils may be used to encountering a detached third person narrator thus expecting most narrators to be trustworthy and reliable.
When a writer chooses to write a story from a characters' perspective, we have to consider that each character is fallible or unreliable. Thus, we have to re-filter (through our own consciousness) the information we get from a first person narrator.
Keywords
Dismissive - treating someone as if they are unworthy of consideration
Agency - the ability to take action or choose which action to take
Futility - pointlessness or uselessness
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