In Search for Independence and self-fulfillment In the last half of the nineteenth century, Victorian ideals still held sway in American society, at least among members of the middle and upper classes. Thus the cult of True Womanhood was still promoted which preached four cardinal virtues for women: piety, purity, submissiveness, and domesticity. Women were considered far more religious than men and, therefore, they had to be pure in heart, mind, and, of course, body, not engaging in sex until marriage, and even then not finding any pleasure in it. They were also supposed to be passive responders to men's decisions, actions, and needs. The true woman's place was her home; "females were uniquely suited to raise children,care for the needs of their menfolk, and devote their lives to creating a nurturing home environment." (Norton, 108). However, the tensions between old and new, traditional and untraditional , were great during the last years of nineteenth century and there was a debate among male and female writers and social thinkers as to what the role of women should be. Among the female writers who devoted their work to defying their views about the woman's place in society were Charlotte Perkins Gilman and Kate Chopin. Charlotte Perkins Gilman (1860-1935) was a social activist and theorist of the women's movement at the turn of the twentieth century. She developed her feminist ideals in her novels, short stories and nonfiction books such as Women and Economics. Charlotte Perkins Gilman is best known for her short story The Yellow Wallpaper, (1892) which is based on her own experience. As the story begins, the woman-whose name we never learn- tells of her depression and how it is being treated by her husband and brother who are both doctors. These two men are unable to see that there is more to her condition than just a stress and depression and prescribe for her rest as a cure. The narrator is taken to a summer house to recover form her condition where she is not allowed to do anything but rest and sleep. Furthermore, she cannot do one thing that she loves the most: writing. " I must put this away, -he hates to have me write a word." She spends most of her time in a room with yellow wallpaper and very little to occupy her mind with. She becomes obsessed with discovering what is behind the pattern of the wallpaper and becomes determined that the image is a woman who is struggling to become free. The narrator wants to set this woman free, so she peels off the yellow wallpaper. Then she locks herself in the room and throws the keys out of the window. When her husband gets to the door and wants to break in, she tells him over and over again where the keys are. After he gets in and sees her creeping on the floor, he faints, and the narrator "had to creep over him every time." Though The Yellow Wallpaper is a fiction, it was based on Gilman's own experience after being diagnosed as a hysteric and prescribed a rest cure which prohibited her writing. However, The Yellow Wallpaper is more than a case study in mental illness or a horror story, it is a story of a dominant/submissive relationship between husband and wife. John, the narrator's husband, never takes her seriously. At the very beginning of the story she says " John laughs at me, of course, but one expects that in marriage." Anytime the narrator would make a suggestion for her recovery, John would give her a " stern reproachful look." Although the narrator feels desperate, John tells her that there is no reason for how she feels. He treats her like a child and makes her doubt herself. John is the man of the house and he expects the narrator to trust him completely, just as small children trust in their parents. The narrator often speaks in a manner that suggests that she cannot disagree with anything her husband says. She is a typical nineteenth century submissive wife and her "What is one to do?" means that she has no authority and no control over her life. The idea of resting is not something she likes, she would rather work, but she has no choice. Still, she manages to disobey her husband and write her journal without him knowing it. There are many other evidences of dominant-submissive relationship, and one of the most convincing is when John says, " I beg of you, for my sake and our child's sake, as well as for your own" By placing himself and the baby first he is unintentionally saying that she is not important enough. The main cause of the narrator's mental condition is her overbearing husband who stifles her emotional and imaginative impulses and forces her to concentrate on the objects that surround her. Furthermore, this inactivity pushes her deeper into madness. John imprisons her in a room that has no escape with bars on the windows and immovable bed which is "nailed down." But the narrator is not just a prison of this room, she is a prison of her marriage. Her developing insanity is a form of rebellion and a way to gain her own independence. Her struggle to set the woman in the wallpaper free symbolized her fight for independence. Kate Chopin's The Awakening (1899) carried out the same theme of struggling woman in a dominant/ submissive relationship. However, Kate Chopin was different from Gilman because she never joined or supported organizations though which women fought to gain political, economic, and social rights equal to those of men. At the same time they both felt that relationships founded on economic dependence and household duties had to be reconsidered. Kate Chopin and Charlotte Perkins Gilman had very different views on women's sexuality. Gilman spoke out strongly against eroticism in women's life while Kate Chopin concentrated mainly on the biological aspects of women's situation and was the first writer in her country " to accept passion as a legitimate subject for serious, outspoken fiction." ( Per Seyerted, 198) The Awakening tells the story of a middle class woman, Edna Pontellier, who lives in New Orleans. She is married to a man she no longer loves and she looks for excitement and passion that they don't have in their relationship. She falls in love with a young man, Robert Lebrun, but he goes to Mexico when he discovers that his feelings toward Edna are very strong. During their separation Edna becomes involved with another man even though she doesn't love him. After Robert Lebrun comes back from Mexico, he meets Edna and admits to her that he loves her, but their happiness doesn't last long. Edna leaves to see her friend, Adele, and when she comes home, there is a note that is left by Robert Lebrun that says, "I love you. Good-by- because I love you." Edna decides to take a swim and she never returns. Edna, as the narrator in The Yellow Wallpaper, isn't satisfied with her marriage which is based on dominant/ submissive relationship. Her husband, Mr. Pontellier, doesn't treat Edna as human being , rather he treats her like one of his possessions paying just enough attention to make sure Edna is physically well and does everything that is expected from her. Mr. Pontellier lives for his business, social respect, and a decent family. As soon as he sees Edna's behavior changing, he seeks advice of a doctor. He is concerned about the fact that Edna "lets the housekeeping go to the dickens" and about her "some sort of notion in her head concerning the eternal rights of women." While Edna seeks romance as a source of happiness, she experiments with art, and as she awakens personally, she develops a deeper commitment to it. Art plays a very important role in the life on the narrator in The Yellow Wallpaper too. For Kate Chopin and Charlotte Perkins Gilman, art is work because it is both difficult labor and "one's true vocation", the idea that wasn't very common among nineteenth century women. Adele plays piano to enrich lives of her family and to beautify her home; she sees music a supplement to family life. Edna and the narrator in The Yellow Wallpaper were not able to succeed in art because of the limitations of family life. Edna's dependency disturbed her from her work, although she isn't prohibited from doing what she likes, while the narrator in The Yellow Wallpaper is told to keep away from writing by her "loving" husband. Kate Chopin and Charlotte Perkins Gilman held different views on motherhood. The narrator of The Yellow Wallpaper doesn't talk a lot about her baby, but every time she does, she speaks of her baby with love, "There's one comfort, the baby is well and happy, and doesn't have to occupy this nursery with this horrid wall-paper." Charlotte Perkins Gilman sees motherhood to be essential for women's lives. Edna, on the other hand, understands "that her role of a mother also makes impossible her continuing development as an autonomous individual."(Dyer, 27) Edna fears motherhood, perhaps because this is the role she cannot change. The nineteenth century's message of the importance of motherhood was so extremely strong and intense that it couldn't be entirely opposed even by women like Edna who valued their independence more than family life. Still, Edna refused to live for her children rather than for herself. Edna's friend Adele is perfect in her role of mother, she is an example of "mother woman". It isn't a coincidence that last pages of the book's final chapter are dominated with the issue of motherhood. When Edna parts from Robert to go to Adele when she gives birth, Edna still believes that she has control over her own destiny. But seeing Adele's agony reminded her about her duties toward her children as their mother and she realizes that her dreams about her independence can never come true. This realization that comes along with loosing the man she loves forces her to take her life because she understands that there is no way for a mother to be truly independent. The Robert's note makes her understand not just that he is scared of having an affair in public, but that he would never be able to accept her urge for independence and equality. Female passion was thought to be immoral and unhealthy by Charlotte Perkins Gilman and other proponents of realism and feminism in the last decade of the nineteenth century. The color yellow in The Yellow Wallpaper has been interpreted as the narrator's "sexual repression, her sexual fear, her disgust of sexuality" (Knight, 13).According to Denise D. Knight in her A Study of the Short Fiction, in the original manuscript of The Yellow Wallpaper, there was a sentence that described this color as " a sickly penetrating suggestive yellow, " that points out the fear that narrator feels toward sexuality. (p. 12) Kate Chopin in The Awakening suggested that guilt shouldn't accompany sex even if it isn't sex in marriage. She didn't judge Edna as a fallen woman, moreover, it seems like Chopin's view of sex was that sexual growth of a woman didn't end with her marriage. To us, modern readers, sexual descriptions in The Awakening may seem hardly explicit, however, contemporary readers would have founds them inappropriate. However, Edna's awakening to her own sexuality can bring only partial fulfillment because Edna comes to understanding that female biology can also enslave and she thus takes her life because she needs sexual and spiritual freedom, but acknowledges a duty toward her children. Charlotte Perkins Gilman suggested that women in dependent relationships are always removed from their physical environment( Dyer, 55) Could it be that Edna and the narrator of The Yellow Wallpaper responded to the environment that surrounded them because they started doubting their own place in the dependent/ submissive relationship? Excessive physicality of Grand Isle are irresistible to Edna, and her sexuality awakens under the influence of nature, sea, Creole women and men, and her longing for love and passion. This environment sharpens Edna's senses. The sea becomes very important to Edna as she learns to appreciate it. At first, Edna was afraid of swimming not because of her physical limitations, but because of her fear of being alone in the water. Edna's desire to swim alone in the sea without anyone standing near emphasizes her growth as an individual. She is no longer afraid of loneliness, she realized that she is not only part of domestic place, but part of the world. The Awakening is about the beginning of selfhood, and Edna's return to the sea, " the source of life" can `be interpreted as a beginning of self-understanding. Edna's victory is in her awakening to an independence, passion, and self-understanding, but she refuses to live without human status and be judged by her ability to be a dutiful mother. The narrator in The Yellow Wallpaper doubts her husband's opinions and her own role in their relationship; being unable to write and communicate with her friends, she sees herself in the image of the woman in the wallpaper and identifies her thoughts and doubts with this image. The narrator's urge for independence is more unconscious than Edna's , who fully understands expectations that her husband has of her and her own urges and desires. In the final scene when John faints and she creeps over him she says, " I've got out at last...And I've pulled off most of the paper, so you can't put me back!" She achieved her independence and doesn't need anybody to rely on for survival. She achieved her independence from her submission to her husband, but this independence came at a terrible price- her sanity. The uniqueness of The Awakening and The Yellow Wallpaper caused early reviewers to greet it with hostility. Thus the nation was not ready to wake up to the truth about feminine passion and independence. Kate Chopin and Charlotte Perkins Gilman saw no happy end to the woman's urge for freedom. The narrator's and Edna's achievement of independence brings them despair rather than fulfillment and happiness. The Yellow Wallpaper and The Awakening are both about the beginnings; they begin a painful process of " bridging two centuries, two worlds, two visions of gender." (Dyer,116) Works Cited: ? Dyer, Joyce. The Awakening: A Novel of Beginnings New York: Twayne Publishers,1993. ? Knight, Denise D. Charlotte Perkins Gilman: A Study of the Short Fiction. New York: Twayne Publishers, 1997. ? Scharnhorst , Gary. Charlotte Perkins Gilman. Boston: Twayne Publishers, 1985. ? Per Seyersted. Kate Chopin: A Critical Biography .Norway: Universitetsforlaget, 1969. ? The Awakening Chicago:Herbert S. Stone&Co.,1899. Reprint ? The Yellow Wallpaper. Boston: Small, Maynard &Co., 1899. Reprint. Afterword by Elaine Hedges. New York: The Feminist Press, 1973
Edna Pontellier was on her way to an awakening. She realized during the book, she was not happy with her position in life. It is apparent that she had never really been fully unaware However, because her own summary of this was some sort of blissful ignorance. Especially in the years of life before her newly appearing independence, THE READER SEES HOW she has never been content with the way her life had turned out. For example she admits she married Mr. Pontellier out of convenience rather than love. EDNA knew he loved her, but she did not love him. It was not that she did not know what love was, for she had BEEN INFATUATED BEFORE, AND BELIEVED IT WAS love. She consciously chose to marry Mr. Pontellier even though she did not love him. When she falls in love with Robert she regrets her decision TO MARRY Mr. Pontellier. HOWEVER, readers should not sympathize, because she was the one who set her own trap. She did not love her husband when she married him, but SHE never once ADMITS that it was a bad decision. She attributes all the problems of her marriage to the way IN WHICH SOCIETY HAS defined the roles of men and women. She does not ACCEPT ANY OF THE BLAME, AS HER OWN. The only other example of married life, in the book, is Mr. and Mrs. Ratignolle, who portray the traditional role of married men and women of the time. Mr. Pontellier also seems to be a typical man of society. Edna, ON THE OTHER HAND, was not A TYPICAL WOMAN OF SOCIETY. Mr. Pontellier knew this but OBVIOUSLY HAD NOT ALWAYS. This shows IS APPARENT in the complete lack of constructive communication between the two. If she had been able to communicate with her husband they may have been able to work OUT THEIR PROBLEMS, WHICH MIGHT HAVE MADE Edna MORE SATISFIED WITH her life.
In the last half of the nineteenth century, Victorian ideals still held sway in American society, at least among members of the middle and upper classes. Thus the cult of True Womanhood was still promoted which preached four cardinal virtues for women: piety, purity, submissiveness, and domesticity. Women were considered far more religious than men and, therefore, they had to be pure in heart, mind, and, of course, body, not engaging in sex until marriage, and even then not finding any pleasure in it. They were also supposed to be passive responders to men's decisions, actions, and needs. The true woman's place was her home; "females were uniquely suited to raise children, care for the needs of their menfolk, and devote their lives to creating a nurturing home environment." (Norton, 108). However, the tensions between old and new, traditional and untraditional, were great during the last years of nineteenth century and there was a debate among male and female writers and social thinkers as to what the role of women should be. Among the female writers who devoted their work to defying their views about the woman's place in society were Charlotte Perkins Gilman and Kate Chopin.
In Creole society, women are dominated by men, but at least the freer attitude toward sexuality allows a woman opportunities for romance which are lacking in Anglo-Saxon culture. But sexual freedom is of little interest to Edna unless it can be used as a means of asserting her overall freedom as a human being. Learning to swim is thus important to her, because it allows her to have more control over the circumstances of her own life through the overcoming of the dread of water and the fear of death which it symbolizes. Again, the process through which Edna attains liberation and, in the author's words, begins to "do as she likes and to feel as she likes," is a gradual one. From stat...
- - -. "The Yellow Wallpaper." 1892. Ed. Dale M. Bauer. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin's, 1998. 41-59.
In the 19th century, women were not seen in society as being an equal to men. Men were responsible for providing and taking care of the family while their wives stayed at home not allowed leaving without their husbands. In The Yellow Wallpaper, Charlotte Perkins Gilman writes about a woman named Jane who is trapped by society’s cage and tries to find herself. Throughout the story, the theme of self-discovery is developed through the symbols of the nursery, the journal and the wallpaper.
Lanser, Susan S. "Feminist Criticism, ‘The Yellow Wallpaper,’ and the Politics of Color in America." Twentieth-Century Literary Criticism, edited by Thomas J. Schoenberg, vol. 201, Gale, 2008. Literature Resource Center, go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?p=LitRC&sw=w&u=mill30389&v=2.1&id=GALE%7CH1420082954&it=r&asid=fa503d396619394dc49024ab2704723f. Accessed 30 Oct. 2017.
As Virginia Wolfe once stated, “For most of history, Anonymous was a woman” ( ). The word female has had countless meanings throughout its lifespan. Females can be seen as lowly and cheap, regal and sophisticated, or weak and underutilized. It has only been in the last 70 years that women have gained a foothold in society, to gain the rights they deserve. In the late 1800’s a new writer Charlotte Perkins Gilman questioned society’s views on the idea of being female and tried to make them understand that females are a force to be reckoned with and not a doormat for men to step on. She would not stand to be labeled anonymous.
The Yellow Wallpaper was written as a realism story. It showed how woman felt they had the same opportunities as men in their personal choices. In this story, the woman expressed her worries to her husband who through good intentions, required that his wife stay in bed 24/7, and not do any of the things she would normally do. In effect his wife became worse until she reached the limit. The behavior of the husband at this time was completely normal. Men were the higher power over women and women, like the one in this story, felt that they couldn?t stand count for themselves.
"The Yellow Wallpaper," by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, depicts a woman in isolation, struggling to cope with mental illness, which has been diagnosed by her husband, a physician. Going beyond this surface level, the reader sees the narrator as a developing feminist, struggling with the societal values of the time. As a woman writer in the late nineteenth century, Gilman herself felt the adverse effects of the male-centric society, and consequently, placed many allusions to her own personal struggles as a feminist in her writing. Throughout the story, the narrator undergoes a psychological journey that correlates with the advancement of her mental condition. The restrictions which society places on her as a woman have a worsening effect on her until illness progresses into hysteria. The narrator makes comments and observations that demonstrate her will to overcome the oppression of the male dominant society. The conflict between her views and those of the society can be seen in the way she interacts physically, mentally, and emotionally with the three most prominent aspects of her life: her husband, John, the yellow wallpaper in her room, and her illness, "temporary nervous depression." In the end, her illness becomes a method of coping with the injustices forced upon her as a woman. As the reader delves into the narrative, a progression can be seen from the normality the narrator displays early in the passage, to the insanity she demonstrates near the conclusion.
The most prevalent and obvious gender issue present in the novella was that Edna challenged cultural norms and broke societal expectations in an attempt to define herself. Editors agree, “Edna Pontellier flouts social convention on almost every page…Edna consistently disregards her ‘duties’ to her husband, her children, and her ‘station’ in life” (Culley 120). Due to this, she did not uphold what was expected of her because she was trying to be superior, and women were expected to be subordinate to men. During that time, the women were viewed as possessions that men controlled. It was the woman’s job to clean the house, cook the meals, and take care of the children, yet Edna did none of these things. Her lifestyle was much different. She refused to listen to her husband as time progressed and continually pushed the boundaries of her role. For example, during that time period “the wife was bound to live with her husban...
Finally, the yellow wallpaper presents perspectives of how men control females. As stated previously, In the story, John uses his power as a doctor to control his wife. He encaged his wife in a summer home, placing her in a room filled with barricades and many faults. As a human she is deprived of her rights and her ability to form house duties is taken away so she can rest as he calls it. Without a doubt, she fell into insanity because of the situation she was placed in. When she ripped the paper off the wall, it was a sign of freedom from her husband, and the bars that held her captive for weeks. Certainly she has a vivid imagination and being placed in bondage and unable to write which in turn lead her to mental health problems.
The woman behind this work of literature portrays the role of women in the society during that period of time. "The Yellow Wallpaper" written by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, is a well written story describing a woman who suffers from insanity and how she struggles to express her own thoughts and feelings. The author uses her own experience to criticize male domination of women during the nineteenth century. Although the story was written fifty years ago, "The Yellow Wallpaper" still brings a clear message how powerless women were during that time.
The sexual aspect of Edna’s awakening is formed through her relationship with a supporting character, Robert LeBrun. In the beginning of the novel, Robert assigns himself to become the helper of Mrs. Pontellier and his advances help to crack the barrier in which Edna is placed in due to her role as a woman of the Victorian era. Her feelings begin to manifest themselves as she intends to liberate herself from her husband and run away with Robert. He on the other hand has no intention of having a sexual affair because of the role placed upon him as a man of the Victorian era which is not to destroy families. Her quest for complete independence ultimately brings her to committing suicide at the end of the story. Her suicide does not represent a disappointment in how she cannot conform to the society around her but a final awakening and symbol for her liberation.
I will explore feminism on academic and personal perceptions. “Feminism is a movement to end sexism, sexist exploitation, and oppression” (Mehta, 2017, P.24; Hooks, 2013). In Hooks’s article, feminism is not about anti-male, but to announce equality and end patriarchy. She claims that under patriarchy, males are bothered by the violence of men, by hatred women and so much pressure that this society pushes to them. Therefore, it is of vital importance to let them know feminism and to release men from patriarchy. I think feminism is asking for equality between male and female. It is not about women better than men. The request is to diminish the stereotypes and discriminations on women and give women every right as males have. In this way, the
For hundreds of years, women have strived to gain equality with men. Women’s opportunities have been limited due to their gender. Feminism is the fight for equality of both genders due to economic, political, and social beliefs. Feminism is beneficial to all people because it allows everyone to have an equal opportunity in life to achieve all they can without any discrimination based on their gender. The first wave feminism movement was the fight for women’s suffrage and the right for women to vote during the 1800s to the early 1900s. The women of this time period “asserted their rights under the rubrics of rationality, the equality of women’s and men’s souls, the need for education, and the right of the individual to pursue her own agenda independently from others” and not be discriminated for it. “During