Sitater fra Det gule tapetet

10 kjente sitater fra The Yellow Wallpaper (1892) av Charlotte Perkins Gilman, ordrett, med forklaring og kilde.

26 min lesetid

1. 1

   It is very seldom that mere ordinary people like John and myself secure ancestral halls for the summer.

   Betydning: The narrator introduces their unusual summer accommodation, revealing her awareness of social status and her fascination with grand old houses.

   NarratorAvsnitt 1Kopier
2. 2

   John laughs at me, of course, but one expects that in marriage.

   Betydning: She treats her husband's dismissal of her feelings as an ordinary feature of marriage.

   NarratorAvsnitt 5Kopier
3. 3

   John is a physician, and perhaps—(I would not say it to a living soul, of course, but this is dead paper and a great relief to my mind)—perhaps that is one reason I do not get well faster.

   Betydning: She privately suspects that her husband's medical authority and treatment are hindering her recovery.

   NarratorAvsnitt 7Kopier
4. 4

   Personally I believe that congenial work, with excitement and change, would do me good.

   Betydning: She believes meaningful activity and variety would help her recover, contrary to the enforced rest prescribed by her doctors.

   NarratorAvsnitt 14Kopier

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5. 5

   There comes John, and I must put this away,—he hates to have me write a word.

   Betydning: She must hide her writing because John forbids the creative expression she finds comforting.

   NarratorAvsnitt 39Kopier
6. 6

   John does not know how much I really suffer. He knows there is no reason to suffer, and that satisfies him.

   Betydning: John dismisses suffering he cannot explain, leaving her pain unrecognized despite his confidence as a physician.

   NarratorAvsnitt 45Kopier
7. 7

   And I know John would think it absurd. But I must say what I feel and think in some way—it is such a relief!

   Betydning: Despite anticipating John's disapproval, she needs to express her thoughts and feelings to ease her distress.

   NarratorAvsnitt 108Kopier
8. 8

   At night in any kind of light, in twilight, candlelight, lamplight, and worst of all by moonlight, it becomes bars! The outside pattern, I mean, and the woman behind it is as plain as can be.

   Betydning: She sees the wallpaper as a prison holding a woman, reflecting her own confinement and worsening perception of reality.

   NarratorAvsnitt 153Kopier
9. 9

   “I’ve got out at last,” said I, “in spite of you and Jane! And I’ve pulled off most of the paper, so you can’t put me back!”

   Betydning: Identifying with the trapped woman, she claims freedom from control even as her mental condition has severely deteriorated.

   NarratorAvsnitt 266Kopier
10. 10

    Now why should that man have fainted? But he did, and right across my path by the wall, so that I had to creep over him every time!

    Betydning: John's collapse reverses their positions of power, but her continued crawling makes this apparent victory deeply disturbing.

    NarratorAvsnitt 267Kopier

Spørsmål om disse sitatene

What does the woman behind the wallpaper symbolize in The Yellow Wallpaper?

The woman reflects the narrator's confinement within marriage and restrictive medical treatment. Her imprisonment also suggests the broader limits placed on women's independence and self-expression.

What does the ending of The Yellow Wallpaper mean?

The narrator believes tearing away the wallpaper has freed her, but she now identifies with its imagined woman. The ending combines resistance to her husband's authority with a devastating loss of contact with reality.