A Critical Analysis Of The Yellow Wallpaper By Charlotte Perkins Gilman

This view was very conflicting to those of the Progressive era. During this time period, suffragist were working very hard to get those past stereotypes thrown out the window. Charlotte Perkins Gilman, Author of “The Yellow Paper” and feminist activist, also wrote about her struggle with mental illness. She was directly affected by these misunderstood diagnosing of mental illness that differed from male to female. Gilman herself wrote and studied about this inequality in many of her life works. She was intrigued in why women were so socially criticized, in Ann Jane’s The Charlotte Perkins Gilman Reader, she wrote about Gilman’s ideas on this topic, “Gilman believed that women’s subordination started with the expropriation by men of the agricultural surplus women produced, limiting women’s full expression and autonomy and therefore dehumanizing them… men appropriated women’s work and by forcing them to depend economically on male authority, demeaned them” Gilman 's testimonies were taking very seriously because of her undeniable wit but later because of her shocking literature. Gilman is also known for her intellectual work in Women and Economics that was published in 1892. She was ahead of her time and seemed to foreseen what was to come with women’s advancement during the progressive era.

Charlotte Perkins Gilman primarily advocated for women to be financially self-supporting through many of her works specifically Women and Economics. Gilman believed that to achieve the ideal “new woman,” females needed to be educated in economics and have no need to rely on men. Gilman further analyzed this idea in her book Women and Economics where

For Gilman, the conventional nineteenth-century middle-class marriage, with its rigid distinction between the “domestic” functions of the female and the “active” work of the male, ensured that women remained second-class citizens. The story reveals that this gender division had the effect of keeping women in a childish state of ignorance and preventing their full development. John’s assumption of his own superior wisdom and maturity leads him to misjudge, patronize, and dominate his

The overall goals of womanhood included remaining passive and modest in all situations. During Gilman’s lifetime, women’s rights activists began to act out against The Cult of Domesticity, but society simply shunned them.

Women’s Rights has been a point of contention for a very long time. Especially during the late 19th and 20th century, it was a seemingly unorthodox idea in a patriarchal society. This is what makes Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s The Yellow Wallpaper a feminist piece still analyzed to this day. It was a story that was arguably ahead of its time, as was Gilman, with her utopian feminist ideals. She wrote the book with some introspection of her own postpartum depression. The Yellow Wallpaper has been deemed a classic feminist literature piece due to its layers of deeper meaning, achieved through Gilman’s use of symbolism, character, and setting, construed by many to represent the struggles faced by women in the late 19th century.

In the article “Catharine Beecher and Charlotte Perkins Gilman: Architects of Female Power” by author Valerie Gill, Ms. Gill attempts to bridge the gap between what appears to be two powerful women of their time with two totally different opinions of the American woman and the type of life they should lead. The author points out the obvious differences of opinions in the writings of the two women, who are related by the way, and the different era in which they write. Catharine Beecher was the great aunt of Charlotte Perkins Gilman and lived and wrote during a time when a woman working in any other place besides the home was not something that happened often. A woman’s job during this time was to raise children and make

The way woman were treated in the late 1800’s is totally different than today. At that time woman and men were not equal to each other. Women were confined to particular roles. The men usually played the dominant role which led women to just listen and follow their spouse. During that time woman were at the bottom of the social class. The regular household consisted of a male who handles all the important decision making things while the women were housewives. In the story “The Yellow Wallpaper” the author Charlotte Perkins Gilman who is a feminist who purposely shows examples of the roles women played in society in the late 1800’s. Gilman wanted to prove a major point that confining women to only womanly roles of the time, will drive woman crazy. The woman in the short story was forced to follow her husband instuctions. She was not able to make her own decisions and this infantilized her which drove her insane.

Postpartum depression has the following symptoms: paranoia, hallucination, and sleep troubles. However, back when the “The Yellow Wallpaper” was written by Charlotte Perkins Gilman in the late nineteenth century postpartum had a different name which was insanity of pregnancy/ lactation. During the story the narrator notices a woman in the wallpaper and starts to think someone is on the other side. As soon as that happens the hallucinations start and the narrator 's imagination starts to wander. When the narrator starts to develop sleep troubles from countless hours looking at the wallpaper, things do not go well for her.As far as the paranoia the narrator could receive that from isolation due to the time in society, which it was in the late 1800’s. Because of the psychological fight from postpartum, this causes the depression to subdue the narrator and lose her fight with sanity.

Charlotte Perkins Gilman does a remarkable job letting us get inside the head of her unnamed main character in “The Yellow Wallpaper” giving us a taste of the female psyche, in particular showing how historically some women subject themselves to the control of men. Alternatively, Nick Hornby does something altogether similar with “High Fidelity”, introducing us to Rob Fleming, whose male psyche reveals, among other things, how men focus and base their success one expectations influenced by gender roles. In the paragraphs that follow, I will attempt to compare and contrast Gilman’s and Hornby’s findings regarding the male and female psyche. In particular, I hope to explore how gender divisions have vastly influenced society.

In the 1800’s to the 1900’s, times were especially tough for women. Typically, women were not seen doing men’s work and had the important role of staying inside cooking, cleaning, and making sure their husbands were happy and pleased. In some cases, women were discouraged from doing any housework because of these roles; even writing, to express themselves, was forbidden. For Charlotte Perkins Gilman, that was not the case. Gilman was a lecturer, feminist, writer and social critic. Some of her most famous works of literature are, “The Yellow Wallpaper”, “To the Indifferent Women”, “The Crux”, and many more. Gilman found her love for literature as a child and the events of her early life inspired her to pursue a career in writing. As Gilman grew

Throughout the 19th century social constructs such as gender dominance was accepted widely in a patriarchal society. Charlotte Perkins Gilman was a prolific writer who made a huge influence in her time and continues to today. Feminism, an advocacy of women’s rights on the basis of the equality of the sexes that is a common motif in Gilman’s work. Gilman was best known as a women concerned mainly with practical tools in making the world a better place and a reformer. She worked diligently in shifting the culture. Willingly challenged tradition with a great deal of confidence and intelligence that was ultimately intimidating and unusual for a woman in the 19th century. Gilman’s life experiences are one of the most prominent and influential factors

Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s The Yellow Wallpaper is a short story first published in 1892 that depicts a woman’s struggles against a heavily patriarchal society while dealing with post-partum depression. A feminist text generally points out deficiencies in society in regards to gender equality. This is seen throughout the story which makes it possible analyze the text with the use of feminist theory. The oppression that women endured during the 19th century is seen in this story through the actions of her husband as well as in the crumbling of the Narrators mental state.

Charlotte Perkins Gilman, the author of “The Yellow Wallpaper,” was born on July 3, 1860, in Hartford, Connecticut. Throughout her life, she claimed herself to be a feminist. “...a feminist, she encouraged women to gain economic independence.” (bio.) Charlotte was also a social activist, one who strives to change society and the improve the problems within it. Growing up was difficult, for, her father abandoned the family after discovering her mother was unable to bear any more children. This left her mother to have to raise two children on her own. With an unsteady home-life her education suffered tremendously. In continuation, she married her husband, Charles Stetson, in 1884. At one point during her marriage to Charles, she underwent

“The Yellow Wallpaper” by Charlotte Perkins Gilman examines the negative effects of the “rest cure”, a common approach used in the nineteenth century to treat women suffering from severe nervous symptoms (Bassuk 245). The text not only condemns the callous medical treatment that the narrator endures, but it also addresses the misogynistic beliefs and the resulting gender inequalities that endorse the use of such treatments. This theme is made explicit in the narrator’s persistent attempts to escape the authoritarian confinement, gender discrimination and marginalization due to her mental illness, which are imposed on her by her husband and physician, John. The way in which male physicians treated women during the nineteenth century is challenged through the narrator’s lens as she struggles for freedom and for a life beyond the boundaries set by her husband.

Among various studies from past and present, with the efforts of understanding the writings of Charlotte Perkins Gilman, it is believed that she is one of the first influential sociologist of her time, with a better understanding of Gilman’s life and how her past changed her future with her short stories. “The Yellow Wallpaper”, as well as Women and economics: A study of economic relation between men and women as a factor in social evolution are still sparking conversation in today’s sociological world with the intent on understanding not just the feminist idea of her time, but how it actually coincides with current day.