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Choose one of the stories to apply feminist criticism to the reading. Identify the protagonist and antagonist and describe their relationship as it relates to the theme. How does the relationship to the foil, if there is one, reflect the theme? Identify whether the protagonist is round or flat, dynamic or static. Support your response with examples from the text.
 * Chopin’s “Story of and Hour” and Gilman’s “The Yellow Wallpaper”**

__The Yellow Wallpaper__

Stereotypes created by society limit people. Some of it is demonstrated in __The Yellow__ __Wallpaper__ by Charlotte Perkins Gilman. The protagonist is the narrator, which we later learn is called Jane. The antagonist in this story is 1800’s society, which was patriarchy (men having authority over women and children).

Jane is told to stay in a room with deeply disturbing wallpaper and a chewed up bed to supposedly help her get better from the sickness she has by her husband, John. John is a physician, so Jane trusts his decision to the way he treats her illness. John treated her like this because of the stereotype that women were weak.

Jane is a round, dynamic character. During Jane’s 3 month seclusion to the room, we see all her emotions, frustrations, thoughts, and fear. The sickness she had was depression, she was still sane though. Being alone all the time with only her diary and the wallpaper caused her to feel free, but it made her become insane.

The stereotypes in the 1800’s limited Jane to what she could and could not do. John had complete authority over her and it was acceptable at that time.

Select an example of imagery that creates the mood of the story? How does the mood of the setting reflect the character’s motivations driven by their id, ego, and superego?
 * Crane’s “Mystery of Heroism”**

“The battery on the hill presently engaged in a frightful duel… The guns, with their demeanours of stolidity and courage, were typical of something infinitely self-possessed in this clamour of death that swirled around the hill,” quoted from __Mystery of Heroism__ by Stephen Crane. Fred Collins, the protagonist, was egged on by his comrades from Company A to bring back water from the well in the middle of the battlefield. The mood that seeps from the scene of him going into the battlefield is fear or determination. Imagery in this story is exquisitely vivid. Lightning and thunder describing the artillery rounds, tremendous roars, all make a powerful impression while reading it. Sounds in Mystery of Heroism seem rather frightening. “The blaring thunder of a shell.”, but the welcoming roar after he accomplished his job seemed well, welcoming. Simple words cannot describe the taste. The only thing that could vaguely describe it, is when Fred tastes fear as he suddenly realizes what’s going on around him. There is no sense of smell, but the feel is interesting. The feeling that your life could be taken at any second while slowly filling canteens with water and deep ruts in the sod from horses and wheels really describes the feeling of time slowing down, and what happened to the beautiful landscape that had once existed in this horrific fight. Fred’s Id was strong enough that he didn’t realize the danger he was in until he had nearly gotten to the well. The super ego kicked in as he was nearing the well and an enemy group had begun to fire upon him. His heart gripped by the sharp claws of fear, he pressed on and made it to the well. When he had collected the water in a bucket he found, he came to the officer that was lying under the horse. At first his Id wanted him to push on and get out of danger, yet Collins mercifully let the man have a drink. Fred Collins’s determination to prove a point and his fear is what got him through his seemingly pointless task. Even though his actions were idiotic, Fred satisfied his Id without dying or disappointing his fellow Company A regiment.

How does the author indirectly characterize the protagonist through the use of dialect? What does this tell us about the character? How are they influenced by their id, ego, or superego?
 * Wharton’s “April Showers” and Twain’s “The Invalid’s Story”**

Long ago, Dr. Dace wrote a story. He submitted it to a publisher, but was rejected and walked home. After his daughter, Theodora, experienced a disastrous mishap concerning her book, “April Showers,” she too is sent walking home. All Theodora wanted to do was write a book, according to her id. Her superego decided that she should help her family, so her Ego made her want to write a book to get the money to help her family. Dr. Dace’s frustration and disappointment toward the publishers shows through the way he talks to his daughter when they ‘randomly’ meet each other on her way home. “It took me a year – a whole year’s hard work; and when I’d finished it the public wouldn’t have it, either: not at any price and that’s why I came down to meet you, because I remembered my walk home.”

In “The Invalid’s Story” by Edith Wharton, a man is stuck with his best friend’s body, taking it back to his friend’s parent’s house. The express man on the train, Thompson, showed a lot of character through the way he talked. Describing the narrator’s friend, “Well-a-well, we’ve all got to go, they ain’t no getting around it. Man that is born of woman is of few days and far between as Scriptur’ say. Yes, you look at it any way you want to, it’s awful solemn and cur’us…” Thompson’s and the narrator’s id both wanted to get rid of the smell, but the narrator’s superego didn’t want to dishonor his friend by leaving his side. The narrator and Thompson decided to try to extinguish the smell, not knowing it was only the cheese on the box of guns that the narrator accidentally mixed up earlier.