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This test consists of 5 short answer questions, 10 short essay questions, and 1 (of 3) essay topics.

Short Answer Questions

1. What does the narrator “securely fasten” herself with?

2. When does the narrator think the woman in the wallpaper gets out?

3. John advices the narrator to not allow the what to run away with her?

4. The story covers the span of what season?

5. What year was this story published?

Short Essay Questions

1. What description is horrifying about the wallpaper?

2. Why does the narrator seem jealous when she catches first John, and then Jennie, looking at the wallpaper?

3. Besides the ugly wallpaper pattern, what does the narrator think she sees in the wallpaper?

4. What is the wallpaper’s odor a metaphor for?

5. What does the fact that the narrator says John “pretended to be living and kind” suggest about the narrator’s condition?

6. How has the major life event that the narrator recently endured affected her mental health?

7. Why does the narrator suggest she’s not getting well because ofthe fact that her husband is a physician? What does this say about their relationship?

8. Why doesn’t the narrator want to go outside near the climax of the story?

9. Why is the narrator glad that she is in the nursery and not the baby?

10. What does this quote suggest: “It is so pleasant to be out in this great room and creep around as I please.”

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Describe John’s character. Does he change? Is John a round or flat character? Static or dynamic?

Essay Topic 2

One moment the narrator says she likes the nursery and is glad for it, and the next moment she wishes that John would take her away. What do the inconsistencies suggest?

Essay Topic 3

Often, the narrator mentions that the nursery is more like an insane asylum rather than a nursery. What physical descriptions support this idea?

(see the answer keys)

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