Prompt In Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s “The Yellow Wallpaper,” there are many long

Prompt
In Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s “The Yellow Wallpaper,” there are many long descriptions of external objects—such as the nursery room, the house, the gardens, and, most famously, the yellow wallpaper. There are also plenty of passages in which the narrator describes her internal state of mind. What is the relationship between the narrator’s internal, mental landscape and her external, physical environment? How does her inner reality affect or shape her perception of her environment? Or, conversely, you might focus on developing an interpretation of how her external environment—the concrete, material conditions of her daily life—affects her psychic (mental) reality. (Basically, this prompt is asking you to consider whether the narrator’s mental health issues are affecting how she perceives her surroundings OR if the limitations/restrictions in her surroundings (and in society itself) are affecting her mental health, OR, is there a feedback loop that causes both to occur?)
Please provide textual evidence from “The Yellow Wallpaper” to support your interpretation (your thesis). No secondary sources. All of your analysis should be based on quotations from the story itself (no background information, no outside research, just your own, original interpretation of the story itself). I know it’s going to be hard to do this because the author based the story on a real experience in her life, so it’s super tempting to bring in information from the author’s life. But resist this temptation! What you’re trying to develop through this assignment is your own ability to “close read”/interpret literature (not research skills, which is more of an English 1A skill).
Essay Guidelines and Requirements
Length: 750-1000 words (3-4 pages)
Formatting: MLA (12 point Times New Roman or equivalent font, double spaced, 1-inch margins, works cited page)
Your essay should have:
An introductory paragraph that establishes the author(s) and title(s) that you plan to analyze, as well as any context/information that the reader will need to understand your thesis statement. Your thesis statement should be the very *last* sentence (or two sentences) of your introductory paragraph. Everything you write in your intro should lead up to your thesis. Don’t include anything that is not relevant to your thesis. (See below for more information on how to format your thesis statement. I care A LOT about the thesis statement. An essay without an effective thesis statement will receive a low grade).
2-3 body paragraphs, in which you develop and defend your thesis by “close reading” quotations from the text(s). Each body paragraph should be focused around a central idea or point that you need to establish in order to defend your thesis. Do not try to cover many different points in the same paragraph. Also, avoid giving lengthy summaries of what’s happening in the text. (1-2 sentences of summary is sometimes necessary in a body paragraph, but you can assume your reader is pretty familiar with the text. Don’t waste space re-hashing everything). Instead, in each body paragraph, you should focus your attention on a specific aspect of your thesis that needs to be established. Provide quotations in support of your idea, and spend time going into a lot of detail analyzing (“close reading”) the specific words, phrases, and formal devices in the quotations. Clearly explain how your analysis of the quotation relates to your thesis statement. Another important tip: Never end a body paragraph with a quotation! Always end the paragraph by explicitly stating how the language in the quotation supports your thesis statement (in other words, you want to end each paragraph by centering your own voice and your own interpretation/thesis, not the voice of the author).
A concluding paragraph that summarizes your essay’s argument and offers any additional insight or reflection that didnluv’t fit into the more tightly focused body paragraphs