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Early 20th century art
Feminist Essay
Role of women in the 19th century
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Are women equal to men? Are they essentially the same or wholly different beings? How are women to be treated and what is their position? In 1892 when this story was written, a woman’s place was at home and she was to be submissive to her husband. Charlotte Perkins Gilman, the author, was a feminist who disagreed with this principle. Her discontentment with a woman’s role in society, their medical treatment in regards to mental disorders, and the institution of marriage are evident in her writing. The Yellow Wallpaper is a powerful example of how sexism taken to the extreme can be catastrophic. In the late nineteenth century, women were to be wives and mothers. Women and men were seen as fundamentally different creatures, created with different purposes. The husband was the provider and the head of the family, while the wife was the homemaker. Males were the more social gender because they were deemed strong enough to deal with a complicated and crooked world. Women were seen as fragile and simplistic, and therefore their most fitting role was at home. They were to be passive, kind, respectful, and virtuous. The society in which Gilman lived had a very narrowly defined idea of what a woman was supposed to be. Charlotte Perkins Gilman defied this stereotype. Although she was married twice, in neither relationship did she follow the standard role of homemaker. Born in Hartford, Connecticut in 1860, she was raised by a single mother and grew up to be an artist and art teacher. She married in 1884 and had a daughter the following year. However, after her pregnancy she sank into a deep postpartum depression and was sent to a sanitarium for women. There, the prescribed treatment of rest and isolation nearly drove her insane and ... ... middle of paper ... ...ciety, marriage, and self-image from the midst of it looking out. Because of the realness of Gilman’s narrative and the pain from which she draws it out, The Yellow Wallpaper shows the devastation of sexism in a moving and potent way. Bibliography “Charlotte Perkins Gilman." In An Introduction to Literature, 14th ed. Sylvan Barnet, William Burto, and William E. Cain, 419. New York: Person Longman, 2006. Fortin, Elaine. "Early Nineteenth Century Attitudes Toward Women and Their Roles as Represented by Literature Popular in Worcester, Massachusetts." Teach US History. http://www.teachushistory.org/detocqueville-visit-united-states/articles/early-19th-century-attitudes-toward-women-their-roles. Gilman, Charlotte P. "The Yellow Wallpaper." In An Introduction to Literature, Sylvan Barnet, William Burto, and William E. Cain, 420. New York: Person Longman, 2006.
“The Yellow Wallpaper” was a groundbreaking piece for its time. It not only expressed feministic views through the defiance of a male but also discussed mental illness and the inefficacy of medical treatment at the time. This fictional piece questioned and challenged the submissive role forced upon women of the 19th century and disclosed some of the mental struggles one might go through during this time of questing. Gilman shows however that even in the most horrific struggle to overcome male dominance, it is possible. She herself escapes which again shows a feminist empowerment to end the
Charlotte Perkins Gilman lived a life full of ambition and revolutionary ideas; she contributed to many movements that helped change history. Gilman also battled with Bipolar disorder and experienced a psychotic breakdown brought on by postpartum psychosis. Her mental health suffered the greatest during her time living in a domesticated style, as a wife and mother. She thrived during her periods of writing, participating in radical movements and being able to live without dependents.
Charlotte Perkins Gilman uses “The Yellow Wallpaper” to express her thoughts on feminism and individuality. Gilman takes the reader through the mind of a woman who we’re not completely sure of how she became crazy. When does the woman become crazy and why? No one will ever surely know exactly what happened. The way that the woman narrates the story tells a lot of information about who the woman truly is and how she feels inferior to her husband John and the other men throughout the story. This inferiority may have caused the woman’s sickness.
Perkins, George B., et al. "Gilman, Charlotte Perkins (1860-1935)." Benet's Reader's Encyclopedia of American Literature, 1991. Literature Resource Center, go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?p=LitRC&sw=w&u=mill30389&v=2.1&id=GALE%7CA16849243&it=r&asid=5117efbccd169926fcbf4b9213508ea6. Accessed 23 Oct.
Wagner-Martin, Linda. "The Yellow Wallpaper." Reference Guide to Short Fiction. Ed. Noelle Watson. Detroit: St. James Press, 1994. 981- 982.
Today, expectations concerning both men and women’s roles in society have become very similar. Nowadays, women and men are seen as equals and interchangeable within the workplace, but it was not always this way. In the past, gender discrimination was evident and women were considered inferior to men. In The Yellow Wallpaper, Charlotte Perkins Gilman criticizes men’s domination of women in all aspects of life. Perkins negatively portrays the patriarchal structure of the nineteenth century and society’s acceptance of the manipulation and control that many women experienced from men. In The Yellow Wallpaper, Charlotte Perkins Gilman condemns the dominance and power that men assert over women during this time period by revealing that John’s controlling
Wagner-Martin, Linda. "The Yellow Wallpaper." Reference Guide to Short Fiction. Ed. Noelle Watson. Detroit: St. James Press, 1994. 981- 982.
Gilman was a devoted feminist and social activist who worked towards ending gender-discrepancies by demanding the government to give women the same educational opportunities as men. Standing firmly on her beliefs, she stated, “In my judgment, 'the woman question ' has hardly been asked, much less answered. We have had the struggle for rights, and all this uproar about sex, but hardly any study of the biological and sociological effects of the aborted development of half the race” (Loyola University New Orleans n.pag.). Charlotte Perkins Gilman accused the government of delaying the intellectual advancement of women, and preventing them from being heard on the same platform as men were. Throughout her short story, Gilman placed satirical comments about feminism where the personal views of the narrator, a young, upper-middle-class woman, are being overlooked by her family and friends in comparison to her husband’s because he is of a higher intellectual background. The narrator, Jane, confessed that, “If a physician of high standing, and one 's own husband, assures friends and relatives that there is really nothing the matter with one but
Gilman, Charlotte Perkins. The Charlotte Perkins Gilman Reader. Editor Ann J. Lane. New York: Pantheon, 1980.
As a child Charlotte attended school for a total of four years, which was not an uncommon amount of schooling for girls in her class, or declassed, position. She went to seven different schools, her formal education ending when she was fifteen. In spite of her family’s problems, however, Gilman enjoyed a rich intellectual environment. Through her father, she had family ties to the famous Beecher clan, including clergyman Henry Ward Beecher, writers Harriet Beecher Stowe and Catherine Beecher, and suffragist Isabella Beecher Hooker.SIMON. Gilman learned to read before she was five and in her tee...
The short story "The Yellow Wallpaper" by Charlotte Perkins Gilman perfectly portrays and embodies the suppression of late nineteenth-century married women in a male-dominated society which resulted in a whole class of people plagued by the severe mental ramifications of this defective structure. The plot greatly aligns with a personal experience the author (Gilman) had in which the constraint of her freedoms following the advice of her doctor drove her near the edge of madness, nearly making "The Yellow Wallpaper" a personal account of these events. During this period in the nineteenth-century women held very few legal rights and were actively expected to take on the role of homemaker and were often bombarded by oppressive gender stereotypes,
Davis, Cynthia J. “CHARLOTTE PERKINS GILMAN A Biography.” Stanford, California: Stanford University Press, 2010. Print.
In the era in which this story was written, the obstacles that she faced were nearly impossible, whether that was because of ignorance or simply unknowing. She is seen as a sympathetic character because of her many woes, and how no one would help her outside of locking her in a room. As her mind slowly deteriorates, the story becomes less and less real, and more of her own imagination. Charlotte Perkins Gilman was able to convey her emotions and her own situation through the narrator, who without a name, represented a large portion of women at that time.
Charlotte Perkins Gilman was born feminist theorist in the mid eighteenth century. She focused largely on the gender inequalities within society. She shared views with other famous theorists and implemented their ideas in her own beliefs. Many of these beliefs and ideas are seen in today’s society. Topics like gender inequality, are often discussed today and woman are still fighting for equal pay.
Gilman, Charlotte Perkins. "The Yellow Wallpaper" The Harbrace Anthology of Literature. Ed. Jon C. Scott, Raymond E. Jones, and Rick Bowers. Canada: Nelson Thomas Learning, 2002. 902-913.