“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 repellent, 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.”
Charlotte Perkins Gilman, born July 3, 1860. She is most famous for her story, “The Yellow Wallpaper,” which is narrated by a woman recovering from mental exhaustion, at a rest home. It was written a few years before Gilman separated and then divorced her husband. The style of the writing is equally shocking for the period in that it is composed of short paragraphs, sometimes choppy, that vary in length but remain clipped. This heightens the sens of excitement, of the building hysteria of the narrator.It is a popular piece with feminists, but is also an important story to study for stylistic features.
To read the entire text of Gilman’s “The Yellow Wallpaper”: http://www.gutenberg.org/catalog/world/readfile?fk_files=1048618&pageno=1