评论
打印
Writing & Language
Ghosts, haunted houses, ancestral curses—these common tropes of Gothic literature might lead some readers to dismiss the genre as one better suited for entertainment than for serious literary scholarship. An analysis of Charlotte Perkins Gilman's 1892 short story "The Yellow Wallpaper," though, demonstrates that the Gothic was a vehicle for serious social commentary worthy of further study. The story's protagonist, suffering from a "nervous condition," becomes obsessed with the wallpaper in her bedroom. At one point, she conjures a disturbing image of a woman trapped behind the bars depicted in the pattern of the wallpaper. Though utterly fantastical, this image is very much grounded in the reality of the oppressive mores of the Victorian era: the trapped figure symbolizes the protagonist's sense of being imprisoned by her social circumstances. Since its inception with Horace Walpole's The Castle of Otranto in 1764, Gothic literature has been frightening reading audiences around the globe.
The writer is considering deleting the underlined sentence. Should the sentence be kept or deleted?
A.Kept, because it illustrates how the analysis of Gilman's story applies throughout the broader category of Gothic literature.
B.Kept, because it provides a second example that supports the paragraph's claim that the social commentary found in Gothic literature is worthy of further study.
C.Deleted, because it contradicts the paragraph's claim that some readers dismiss the genre of Gothic literature.
D.Deleted, because it weakens the paragraph's conclusion by introducing loosely related information about the general topic of Gothic literature.
