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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. Who faints at the end of the story?

2. What does the narrator say it looks like the bed has been through?

3. What does the narrator think is happening to the wallpaper pattern at night?

4. What does John promise the narrator?

5. What does the narrator believe cultivates deceit?

Short Essay Questions

1. Why does the narrator abruptly end her narration in the first few pages?

2. Who does the narrator believe she has become by the end of the story?

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

4. How is the narrator similar to the figure she sees in the paper?

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

6. Who does John tell the narrator is the only person who can truly help her out of her sickness?

7. What is suggested by the narrator’s concern for her reputation?

8. What description is horrifying about the wallpaper?

9. Who does the narrator want to help save the woman in the wallpaper?

10. How does the narrator describe the countryside?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Throughout the story the narrator becomes increasingly interested by the perceived woman in the wallpaper. How is the narrator symbolically similar to the woman she describes in the wallpaper?

Essay Topic 2

The story is written in the first-person from the narrator who is suffering a mental illness. How does the narrator’s writing and style change as the story progresses? What, in the writing, is indicative that the narrator is not well?

Essay Topic 3

How does the narrator change throughout the story? What moments in the story are indicative of a change?

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