Who Exactly is Charlotte Perkins Gilman?
Charlotte Perkins Gilman was born on July 3, 1860, in Hartford, Connecticut.
A writer, a wife, a mother, an activist, and a human being living in her time period.
How exactly did history shape her short story "The Yellow Wallpaper"
A writer, a wife, a mother, an activist, and a human being living in her time period.
How exactly did history shape her short story "The Yellow Wallpaper"
Early Life of Gilman
Gilman was a writer and social activist during the late 1800s and early 1900s. Her father abandoned the family when Gilman was young, leaving her mother to raise two children on her own. Gilman moved around often as a result of her father leaving and her education suffered greatly for it.
The lack of a father forced Mary (Gilman's mother) to be her sole support emotionally and physically. To provide the family with money and shelter, Mary took on many jobs and was not around Gilman as often as a mother would be. Mary withheld affection and emotional connections from Gilman and wanted the girl under her strict control.
Gilman attended the Rhode Island School of Design from 1878 through 1883. To finance her education, Gilman gave drawing lessons, sold watercolors and painted advertisements for soap companies. During this time, Gilman enjoyed the presence of young women. She shared an intimate relationship with Martha Luther. Gilman describes their relationship in her autobiography:
The lack of a father forced Mary (Gilman's mother) to be her sole support emotionally and physically. To provide the family with money and shelter, Mary took on many jobs and was not around Gilman as often as a mother would be. Mary withheld affection and emotional connections from Gilman and wanted the girl under her strict control.
Gilman attended the Rhode Island School of Design from 1878 through 1883. To finance her education, Gilman gave drawing lessons, sold watercolors and painted advertisements for soap companies. During this time, Gilman enjoyed the presence of young women. She shared an intimate relationship with Martha Luther. Gilman describes their relationship in her autobiography:
"We were closely together, increasingly happy together, for four of those long years of girlhood. She was nearer and dearer than any one up to that time. This was love, but not sex...With Martha I knew perfect happiness...We were not only extremely fond of each other, but we had fun together, deliciously (Gilman, 1935, p. 78)."
Gilman's Marriages
Gilman's intimacy decreased for Martha Luther and she began to fulfill her expected role. Gilman found a more traditional love with Charles Walter Stetson and married in 1884. Together, the couple had a daughter named Katherine. Motherhood consumed her time, subsuming her ambition. Gilman underwent a series of unusual treatments for her depression. This traumatic experience is believed to have inspired her short story "The Yellow Wallpaper"
In 1900, Gilman had wed for the second time. She married her cousin George Gilman, and the two stayed together until his death in 1934. The year after, she discovered that she had inoperable breast cancer, leading to her suicide in 1935
In 1900, Gilman had wed for the second time. She married her cousin George Gilman, and the two stayed together until his death in 1934. The year after, she discovered that she had inoperable breast cancer, leading to her suicide in 1935
Summary of "The Yellow Wallpaper"
For those who did not read the story, a quick summary:
The narrator writes in a journal daily and begins by writing about a house is that she and her husband are staying in for their summer vacation. She feels that there is “something queer” about the situation of her staying there and it leads her into a discussion of her illness (nervous depression). She feels that her husband John, who is also her doctor, belittles both her illness and her thoughts in general.
Her treatment requires that she do almost nothing active, and she is forbidden from working and writing. She begins a secret journal to “relieve her mind.” She is particularly disturbed by the yellow wallpaper in the bedroom, and describes it as “revolting.”
The narrator becomes good at hiding her journal, and hiding her true thoughts from John. She longs for something more stimulating, and yet continuously returns to the wallpaper. She mentions that she enjoys picturing people on the walkways around the house and that John always discourages her fantasies. The narrator also begins to see a strange pattern behind the main design of the wallpaper.
John threatens to send the narrator to Weir Mitchell, if she does not improve. The narrator is alone most of the time and becomes almost fond of the wallpaper. She enjoys attempting to figure out its pattern and it becomes her main entertainment. As her obsession grows, the pattern of the wallpaper becomes clearer to her. It begins to resemble a woman “stooping down and creeping” behind the paper.
The wallpaper soon dominates the narrator’s imagination. She becomes secretive, hiding her interest in the paper and making sure no one else sees it so that she can “find it out” on her own .She sleeps less and is convinced that she can smell the paper. She discovers a strange smudge mark on the paper, running all around the room, as if it had been rubbed by someone crawling against the wall.
The pattern is clearly woman to the narrator, and the woman is trying to get out from behind the "bars". The narrator sees her shaking the bars at night and creeping around during the day. The narrator mentions that she, too, creeps around at times. She decides to destroy the paper, peeling much of it off and goes into a frenzy, biting and tearing at the paper in order to free the "trapped woman".
At the end, the narrator has gone insane, convinced that there are many creeping women around and that she herself has come out of the wallpaper—that she is the trapped woman. She creeps around the room, smudging the wallpaper as she goes. When John breaks into the room and sees the horror of the situation, he faints in the doorway, so that the narrator has “to creep over him every time!”
The narrator writes in a journal daily and begins by writing about a house is that she and her husband are staying in for their summer vacation. She feels that there is “something queer” about the situation of her staying there and it leads her into a discussion of her illness (nervous depression). She feels that her husband John, who is also her doctor, belittles both her illness and her thoughts in general.
Her treatment requires that she do almost nothing active, and she is forbidden from working and writing. She begins a secret journal to “relieve her mind.” She is particularly disturbed by the yellow wallpaper in the bedroom, and describes it as “revolting.”
The narrator becomes good at hiding her journal, and hiding her true thoughts from John. She longs for something more stimulating, and yet continuously returns to the wallpaper. She mentions that she enjoys picturing people on the walkways around the house and that John always discourages her fantasies. The narrator also begins to see a strange pattern behind the main design of the wallpaper.
John threatens to send the narrator to Weir Mitchell, if she does not improve. The narrator is alone most of the time and becomes almost fond of the wallpaper. She enjoys attempting to figure out its pattern and it becomes her main entertainment. As her obsession grows, the pattern of the wallpaper becomes clearer to her. It begins to resemble a woman “stooping down and creeping” behind the paper.
The wallpaper soon dominates the narrator’s imagination. She becomes secretive, hiding her interest in the paper and making sure no one else sees it so that she can “find it out” on her own .She sleeps less and is convinced that she can smell the paper. She discovers a strange smudge mark on the paper, running all around the room, as if it had been rubbed by someone crawling against the wall.
The pattern is clearly woman to the narrator, and the woman is trying to get out from behind the "bars". The narrator sees her shaking the bars at night and creeping around during the day. The narrator mentions that she, too, creeps around at times. She decides to destroy the paper, peeling much of it off and goes into a frenzy, biting and tearing at the paper in order to free the "trapped woman".
At the end, the narrator has gone insane, convinced that there are many creeping women around and that she herself has come out of the wallpaper—that she is the trapped woman. She creeps around the room, smudging the wallpaper as she goes. When John breaks into the room and sees the horror of the situation, he faints in the doorway, so that the narrator has “to creep over him every time!”
"The Yellow Wallpaper"
Holly Donnel
Eng 327
Tues-Thurs 9:30-10:45am
12/1/13
Eng 327
Tues-Thurs 9:30-10:45am
12/1/13