1. Imbedded within Charlotte Perkins Gilman's story "The Yellow Wallpaper," is her critique of the role and place of women in Western cultures. What does Gilman see as the plight of women in her own society? What is the cost to women of being consigned to that plight?

2. "The Cask of Amontillado" uses a first-person narrator (a narrator that is a character in the story), and, sometimes, first-person narrators can be untrustworthy.

How trustworthy or untrustworthy do you consider the narrator?

Are there any ways that the narrator might be manipulating the truth?

How would you describe the narrator's thoughts toward himself and his actions?

3. In Kate Chopin's "The Story of an Hour," after learning of the supposed death of her husband, Mrs. Mallard closes the door to her room so that her sister Josephine cannot get in, yet she leaves the window open. Why does Chopin make a point of telling the reader this? How might this relate to the idea of being "free" and to the implicit idea that she is somehow imprisoned? Do other words in the story relate to this idea?