The Rest Cure
A Rose for Emily
Gothic Elements
Narrative Voice
Symbols & Themes
200
This is the profession of John, the narrator’s husband, which gives him ultimate authority over her health.
Who is a physician (doctor)?
200
This man, a northerner and a laborer, becomes the object of Emily’s affection and the town’s gossip.
Who is Homer Barron?
200
This Gothic element refers to the dark, decaying, or eerie environment where the stories take place, such as Emily's house.
What is setting?
200
"A Rose for Emily" is told from this unique plural point of view, representing the collective voice of the town.
What is first-person plural (or "we")?
200
In Gilman’s story, this color is used to symbolize sickness, decay, and the "faded" lives of restricted women.
What is yellow?
400
John forbids the narrator from engaging in this activity, which she does secretly throughout the story to express herself
What is writing?
400
To deal with the "smell" coming from Emily's house, the town aldermen do this under the cover of darkness.
What is sprinkle lime around the house?
400
Both stories feature this Gothic trope, where a character is physically or metaphorically confined against their will.
What is imprisonment (or entrapment/confinement)?
400
The narrator of "The Yellow Wallpaper" is considered this type of narrator because her mental state affects her perception of reality.
What is an unreliable narrator?
400
This object in "A Rose for Emily" serves as a symbol of Emily’s high social status and her family’s refusal to change with the times.
What is the Grierson house?
600
The narrator is convinced that this many women are trapped behind the pattern of the wallpaper
What is many (or "a great many")?
600
Emily claims she does not have to pay these because of a "deal" made by the long-dead Colonel Sartoris.
What are taxes?
600
"A Rose for Emily" belongs to this specific sub-genre of Gothic literature, which focuses on the decaying South.
What is Southern Gothic?
600
"I've got out at last, in spite of you and Jane. And I've pulled off most of the paper, so you can't put me back!" These words are spoken by the narrator to this character.
Who is John?
600
The "Rose" in the title of Faulkner’s story is symbolic because Emily never receives one; instead, it represents this for the narrator/town.
What is a tribute (or pity/sympathy)?
800
This is the specific room the narrator believes her bedroom used to be, despite the bars on the windows and the rings in the walls.
What is a nursery?
800
This is the specific reason Emily gives the druggist for purchasing arsenic.
What is nothing?
800
A Doppelgänger is described as the sense of "doubling" or a character seeing a dark reflection of themselves. The woman sees this on this item.
What is the The yellow wallpaper?
800
Faulkner uses this narrative technique, which involves jumping between the past and the present, rather than following a straight line
What is non-linear narrative (or fragmented chronology)?
800
The "pattern" in the wallpaper is most likely a symbol for this abstract concept that traps women in 19th-century society.
What are social norms (or patriarchy/gender roles)?
1000
At the end of the story, the narrator "creeps" over this person, who has fainted in the doorway.
Who is John?
1000
This item, found on the pillow next to the skeletal remains of Homer Barron, implies Emily had been sleeping next to the corpse.
What is a long strand of iron-gray hair?
1000
"The Yellow Wallpaper," the narrator describes the wallpaper's smell as this—a term used when one sense is described in terms of another.
What is The Yellow Smell?
1000
"The Yellow Wallpaper," the narrator’s voice changes from rational and descriptive to what type of thought.
What is obsessive, mad, fragmented?
1000
Both stories share this major theme, which explores the negative effects of being cut off from society and human interaction.
What is the danger of isolation?