A Feminist Reading of The Yellow Wallpaper In the late nineteenth century, after the American social and economic shift commonly referred to as the "Industrial Revolution" had changed the very fabric of American society, increased attention was paid to the psychological disorders that apparently had steamed up out of the new smokestacks and skyscrapers in urban populations (Bauer, 131). These disorders were presumed to have been born out of the exhaustion and "wear and tear" of industrial society (Bauer, 131-132). An obvious effect of these new disorders was a slew of physicians and psychiatrists advocating one sort of cure or another, although the "rest cure" popularized by the physician S. Weir Mitchell was the most embraced (Bauer, 131; Saur, 151-152). However, while the "rest cure" for men involved physical exercise and leisure activities, the cure for women was a suffocating slice of seclusion, bed rest, and no intellectual activity (Bauer, 131). Charlotte Perkins Gilman, a renowned feminist and author, was one of the women affected with "...a severe and continuous nervous breakdown tending to melancholia..," which was commonly termed as "neurasthenia" (Gilman, 348-349). However, rather than cure her, Mitchell's "rest cure" nearly drove her insane. As a result of her maddening experience away from writing and almost all intellectual thought, she wrote her short story, "The Yellow Wallpaper" not "...to drive people crazy," but instead to "...save people from being driven crazy" (Gilman, 349). Although her purpose in writing the story is clear, one can not help but wonder if she was motivated solely by her protest to nineteenth century medical practice or by her protest to the legal and socia... ... middle of paper ... ... Boston/New York: Bedford/St. Martin's, 1998. 130-132. Gilman, Charlotte Perkins. "The Yellow Wallpaper." The Yellow Wallpaper. Ed. Dale M. Bauer. Boston/New York: Bedford/St. Martin's, 1998. 41-58. Gilman, Charlotte Perkins. "Why I Wrote The Yellow Wallpaper?" The Yellow Wallpaper. Ed. Dale M. Bauer. Boston/New York: Bedford/St. Martin's, 1998. 348-349. Mitchell, S. Weir. "From Wear and Tear, or Hints for the Overworked." The Yellow Wallpaper. Ed. Dale M. Bauer. Boston/New York: Bedford/St. Martin's, 1998. 134-141. Saur, Prudence B. "From Maternity; A Book for Every Wife and Mother." The Yellow Wallpaper. Ed. Dale M. Bauer. Boston/New York: Bedford/St. Martin's, 1998. 151- 155. Williams, William C. "Old Doc Rivers." The Doctor Stories. Ed. Robert Coles. New York: New Directions Publishing Corporation, 1984. 13-41.
Gilman, Charlotte Perkins. “The Yellow Wallpaper.” 1892. Ed. Dale M. Bauer. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin’s, 1998.
Gilman, Charlotte Perkins. "The Yellow Wallpaper." The Norton Introduction To Literature. Eds. Jerome Beaty and J. Paul Hunter. 7th Ed. New York, Norton, 1998. 2: 630-642.
Gilman, Charlotte Perkins. "Why I Wrote 'The Yellow Wallpaper'" Ed. Catherine Lavender; The College of Staten Island of the City University of New York, Fall Semester, Oct. 1997. (25 Jan 1999) http://www.library.csi.cuny.edu/dept/history/lavender/whyyw.html
Raasch, Chuck. "Electoral College Debate Intensifies." USA Today. 24 September 2004. . [13 November 2004].
Wagner-Martin, Linda. "The Yellow Wallpaper." Reference Guide to Short Fiction. Ed. Noelle Watson. Detroit: St. James Press, 1994. 981- 982.
Beginning at the time the Electoral College was put into place, many debated over its pros and cons. As time has gone on, more and more people have begun to show support for a change in the system (Saad 2013). After George W. Bush defeated AL Gore in the 2000 election by losing popular vote, but winning the college, leading to a “legal recount contest”, many began to question the fairness of the college (Cohen, 2010). This marked the “third time in the nation’s history” the less popular candidate has taken office (Longley). However, the Electoral College should remain in place because it ensures the continuation of a Representative Democracy, maintains a two party system, and because currently no plausible plan has been produced as a means of replacement.
Gilman, Charlotte Perkins. “The Yellow Wallpaper”. The Story and Its Writer. Ann Charters. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2011. 462-473. Print.
The Art Nouveau style and movement, at its height between 1890 and 1910, enabled a sense of freedom for both its artists and the public as a whole. It offered strikingly original ideologies and transformed both the artistic and the mundane world alike with common characteristics like curvilinear shapes and a sense of the return to the natural and to nature as well as being at the crux of a fundamental change in how artworks were mass produced. The Art Nouveau style seemed to walk between the two worlds: it was simultaneously fantastical and grounded in reality and there was no artist in the period that was better equipped to “know and see the dance of the seven veils,” (Zatlin) than Aubrey Beardsley. It is impossible to fully discuss the value
"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 Art Nouveau movement stands as a marked shift in artistic production and artist liberties as it existed between two worlds: it was simultaneously fantastical and irrevocably real. It offered a return to the natural with characteristics like meandering curvilinear shapes and bold colorings. There is no artist within the Art Nouveau movement that was better equipped to “know and see the dance of the seven veils,” (Zatlin, 8) than Aubrey Beardsley. To attempt discussions of the complexity of Art Nouveau without including Beardsley is to not fully envelop the movement and style, as Beardsley himself moved between the two worlds of the fantastical and the real. He illustrated the sexuality and grotesque decadence of the era while maintaining
Kathy's odd disappearance is haunting the reader all the way throughout the novel. Her husband?s unstable emotional being is somewhat a key to the mystery. We examine his inner thoughts and simultaneous occurrences, but we are still left guessing. There are various situations that lead to multiple possibilities of Kathy?s disappearance. Did John eat Kathy? Did she take the boat and vanish, or did John murder her, and hide her in the Lake of the Woods? These are all possible hypotheses that will be looked into and taken apart to find out what really happened to Kathy.
Wohlpart, Jim. American Literature Research and Analysis Web Site. “Charlotte Perkins Gilman, “The Yellow Wallpaper.”” 1997. Florida Gulf Coast University
The Virgin and the Gipsy is written with little surprise or subtlety in it, as is suggested by the title. Lawrence has a theme of human connectedness throughout the story. However there is force that threatens the conventional existence of Yvette. Yvette is a young girl that in her own way was rescued by a dark manly figure from outside her world. However the stories intrigue is the intensity and conviction written by Lawrence. We never learn about Yvette "which they don't and would never see" (Lawrence 75). "The Wind" goes through little in the way of dramatic action. Our understanding of Matilda comes with her frustration of seemingly meaningless chores and a simple routine to wistfully thinking of places far away.
Gilman, Charlotte Perkins. “The Yellow Wallpaper.” The Yellow Wallpaper and Other Stories. Mineola: Dover, 1997. Print.
Gilman, Charlotte P. "The Yellow Wallpaper." The story and its writer: An introduction to short fiction. Ed. Ann Charters. Compact 8th ed. Boston: Bedford/St. Martins, 2011. 340-351.