Several times at the beginning of the story, the narrator says ...

[shofmannx20]

Several times at the beginning of the story, the narrator says such thingsas What is one to do? and What can one do? What do these comments refer to? What, if anything, do they suggest about womens roles at the time the story was written?
 
  What will be an ideal response?

Question 2

What is the nature of the ceremony going on in the woods? What is beingtransacted between the old man and the townspeople?
 
  What will be an ideal response?

[Cheesycrackers]

Answer to Question 1

When the narrator repeats, What is one to do? at the beginning of the story, she draws the reader into her situation in order to evoke sympathy. Locked in a nursery by family members who claim to love her, the narrator feels powerless and helpless at the beginninga reality only worsened because her husband, John, is also her doctor, who does not believe I am sick (par. . At the beginning of The Yellow Wallpaper, the narrator is not willing to openly question her husbands decisions for fear of losing his love and affection, and thereby her only means of survivala common circumstance for nineteenth-century women. With very little power to change her situation, she has at least one place for self-expression: the yellow wallpaper in her room.

Answer to Question 2

The ceremony is a Black Mass, in which the fiend-worshippers pay homage to and demonstrate their fealty to their master, the old man, who is of course the devil. In pledging themselves to him, they acknowledge their acceptance of his pronouncement that Evil is the nature of mankind. Evil must be your only happiness (