The Yellow Wall Paper

El esposo le aconseja ejercitar, tener la habitación más aireada. La esposa reflexiona sobre el empapelado de la habitación: lo odia. Que no escriba, pero ella no se siente fuerte, ni siquiera para vestirse. Tiene suerte de tener a Mary que la ayuda con el bebé.

Del cuento de Charlotte Perkins Gilman, The Yellow Wall Paper, (El empapelado Amarillo), unos párrafos en inglés. Al final galore, flamboyant y smouldering y el radio teatro de 1948. ¡Imperdible!

 

Of course it is only nervousness. It does weigh on me so not to do my duty in any way! I meant to be such a help to John, such a real rest and comfort, and here I am a comparative burden already!...

Sanatorio Broomfield, Inglaterra, 1945

Interpretaciones

Gilman utilizó sus escritos para explorar el papel de la mujer en Estados Unidos alrededor de 1900. Amplió muchos temas, como la falta de una vida fuera del hogar y las fuerzas opresivas de una sociedad patriarcal. A través de su trabajo, Gilman allanó el camino para escritoras como Alice Walker y Sylvia Plath.

Paragraphs

… He said there was only one window and not room for two beds, and no near room for him if he took another.

He is very careful and loving, and hardly lets me stir without special direction.

I have a schedule prescription for each hour in the day; he takes all care from me, and so I feel basely ungrateful not to value it more.

He said we came here solely on my account, that I was to have perfect rest and all the air I could get. "Your exercise depends on your strength, my dear," said he, "and your food somewhat on your appetite; but air you can absorb all the time." So we took the nursery, at the top of the house.

It is a big, airy room, the whole floor nearly, with windows that look all ways, and air and sunshine galore. It was nursery first and then playground and gymnasium, I should judge; for the windows are barred for little children, and there are rings and things in the walls.

The paint and paper look as if a boys' school had used it. It is stripped off—the paper—in great patches all around the head of my bed, about as far as I can reach, and in a great place on the other side of the room low down. I never saw a worse paper in my life.

One of those sprawling flamboyant patterns committing every artistic sin.

It is dull enough to confuse the eye in following, pronounced enough to constantly irritate, and provoke study, and when you follow the lame, uncertain curves for a little distance they suddenly commit suicide—plunge off at outrageous angles, destroy themselves in unheard-of contradictions.

The color is repellant, almost revolting; a smouldering, unclean yellow, strangely faded by the slow-turning sunlight.

It is a dull yet lurid orange in some places, a sickly sulphur tint in others.

No wonder the children hated it! I should hate it myself if I had to live in this room long.

There comes John, and I must put this away,—he hates to have me write a word.

We have been here two weeks, and I haven't felt like writing before, since that first day.

I am sitting by the window now, up in this atrocious nursery, and there is nothing to hinder my writing as much as I please, save lack of strength.

John is away all day, and even some nights when his cases are serious.

I am glad my case is not serious!

But these nervous troubles are dreadfully depressing.

John does not know how much I really suffer. He knows there is no reason to suffer, and that satisfies him.

Of course it is only nervousness. It does weigh on me so not to do my duty in any way!

I meant to be such a help to John, such a real rest and comfort, and here I am a comparative burden already!

Nobody would believe what an effort it is to do what little I am able—to dress and entertain, and order things.

It is fortunate Mary is so good with the baby. Such a dear baby!

And yet I cannot be with him, it makes me so nervous… (The Yellow Wall Paper, de Charlotte Perkins Gilman)

Vocabulario

Galore: in great amount or numbers (montones).

Flamboyant: elaborate and ostentatious (extravagante).

Smouldering (smoldering): burning slowly (ardiendo).

De la web

The Yellow Wall Paper, incredible radio adaptation of the short story of Charlotte Perkins Gilman. It is 1948 and the program is starred by Agnes Moorehead. Enjoy it!

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