Planning an empathic response

Plan an empathic response to the following questions:

1)

You are John in The Yellow Wallpaper. Your lease on the house will expire in three weeks’ time and your wife has asked you to take her away.

Write your thoughts.

2)

You are Mala in The Third and Final Continent (by Jhumpa Lahiri). You have just arrived in Boston and your husband has taken you to your new home. Write your thoughts.

3)

You are Willadean in The Taste of Watermelon. You’ve just seen your father’s reaction to the theft of the prize melon.

Write your thoughts

4)

You are the mother in On Her Knees.You’ve just found the jewellery.

Write your thoughts.

Plan by listing events referred to and key quotations which you could build a paragraph around.

Example:-

1)      John’s response to his wife’s comments to a possible haunting – “an intense horror of superstition”. She mentions a strange feeling about the house and he closes the window, putting it down to a draught. Refuses to acknowledge she is ill in mind – wants to discourage her ‘nervous troubles.’ He claims there is no reason for them. She claims to see people walking in the garden and he says these ‘excited fancies’ need to be checked by exertion of her ‘will’. Implies she needs to pull herself together and get a grip on these wild fancies. P.39 he refers to the need for his wife to exert her ‘will and self control in order to repress silly fancies. P.40 he stops her mid sentence when she implies that her body improves but her mind grows worse. ‘A false and foolish fancy’

2)      Discussion with narrator’s brother about her symptoms and prescription required. John is convinced that his wife is getting better ‘you are gaining flesh and colour, your appetite is better.’ Promises her a trip away.

3)      Opposition to the act of writing – thinks it tires her out and focuses her on her condition. John’s sister thinks narrator’s writing has caused her illness (p.38).

4)      Talk of the wallpaper – she tells him of her imaginings about the wallpaper which at first he finds amusing and is willing to indulge her by changing the paper. However, he changes his mind because he believes she is letting her inexplicable fancies get the better of her and she needs to face them(p.36). Develop paragraph on her increasing obsession with it until he finds her touching the walls in the night on p.40 which is the point at which she asks to leave the house.

5)      Paragraph on why he doesn’t feel the need to leave – pleasant airy environment conducive to recovery, their own house is undergoing alterations and not yet ready for their return, he is very busy with work and commitments and often away, but his sister with them and looking after narrator in husband’s absence.

6)   Visit of Mother and Nellie and children. He thought exposure to society and stimulus of others would take her mind off own illness but seems to have tired her out more than anticipated. Increased pattern of crying and resting even more. Narrator really keen to visit cousins but not considered strong enough by John.