Students in Mrs. Brittain’s AP Lit class have recently read the American short story The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman. An important work of feminist literature the story illustrates attitudes towards the mental and physical health of women during the 19th century.
Narrated in first person, the story is a collection of journal entries written by a unnamed woman suffering from depression. The woman’s husband is a physician who has rented an old mansion in the country side during the summer as a place where his wife can “recuperate”. The cure in the story is to keep the person on bed rest with no mental stimulation until better. The narrator mentally declines throughout the work while staring and imagining changes in the yellow wallpaper of the room. The story provides the stream of consciousness from the narrator’s point of view.
For the arts integration component students were introduced to color theory through the visual art media of watercolor. Using new visual art skills and techniques each student worked to create a section of wallpaper with patterns, shapes, colors and textures inspired from the detailed descriptions of the narrator. The results were a haunting collection of compositions appearing as a patchwork of eerie hues and tones embelleshed with mysterious designs, symbols, and motifs.