The Yellow Wallpaper

the yellow wallpaper

How does the polysyndeton on page 34 affect the point she is making?

Asked by
Last updated by Aslan
Answers 1
Add Yours

Polysyndeton is a term that describes deliberately used repetition of many conjunctions.

So I take phosphates or phosphites—whichever it is, and tonics, and journeys, and air, and exercise, and am absolutely forbidden to "work" until I am well again.

Here we can observe the narrator's frustration with her husband's "treatment" of her "nervous" condition. The narrator is not sick yet she must go through the humiliating routine of taking his tonics. Note the conjunctions signal her sense of despair.