For Walker the use of language is to do with an expression of self in
opposition to gender oppression, of presenting self in opposition to a
language which is not your own.
Explain how this statement informs your reading of The Colour Purple (TCP), and
The Yellow Wallpaper (TYW).
In TCP, written in first person narrative, Walker uses the epistolary
style of writing, giving authority to the voice of Celie and enabling
the reader to accept her as having real presence and experience. In
her opening letter to God, it is obvious she has no self-confidence,
crossing herself out with a line through ‘I am’ (p.3 TCP). Because her
mother is so ill, Celie becomes a sexual commodity for her Pa,
epitomising a male dominated society, where women accepted patriarchy.
This epistolary style of writing was popular in the eighteenth
century novel sentiment, morally edifying the reader, with authority
being given to the protagonist, in this case, Celie. ‘Celie writes to
God, for lack of any living person with whom to share her troubles’
(p.155 Literature and Gender (LG). She is not able to defend herself
due to her multiple jeopardy, of being a woman, being black and being
uneducated. Celie is a woman who, through being raped and beaten by
her ‘Pa’, is ‘taught to fear men and devalue herself’ (p.55 LG). As
her letters progress, she grows in confidence within and about her own
language. In an early letter to God, written when her Pa stopped her
going to school after he got her pregnant the first time and her
younger sister continued to go, shows how she wanted to be educated,
‘I feel bad sometime Nettie done pass me in learnin’ (p.12 TCP). Later
on, she meets Shug Avery, her husband’s mistress, who helps her find
conf...
... middle of paper ...
...aper and uses it to ‘liberate’
herself from the normal domestic role expected of her, and from the
patronising husband’s language, such as ‘What is it little girl?’
(p.353 TYW). Through her hysteria, she interprets the patterns on the
wallpaper with a female language which is deliberately illogical,
Emotional, non-linear, intuitive, as opposed to rational and logical.
She writes, ‘There is a recurrent spot where the pattern lolls like a
broken neck and two bulbous eyes stare at you upside down’ (p.351 LG).
Both women are using their own language against male authority.
Bibliography
Goodman L. Approaching Literature. Literature and Gender.
Walker A. (1983) The Colour Purple. Great Britain The Women’s Press.
Audio/TV
Audio Cassette 2: Women and Poetry AC2121
Audio Cassette 3: Gender and Drama AC2122
TV 2 Alcott and Woolf, Gilman, and Walker.
"The Yellow Wallpaper" by Charlotte Perkins Gilman is a story about a woman’s gradual descent into insanity, after the birth of her child. The story was written in 1892 after the author herself suffered from a nervous breakdown, soon after the birth of her daughter in 1885. Gilman did spend a month in a sanitarium with the urging of her physician husband. "The Yellow Wallpaper" is a story about herself, during the timeframe of when Gilman was in the asylum.
Haney-Peritz, Janice. "Monumental Feminism and Literature 's Ancestral House: Another Look At 'The Yellow Wallpaper '." Women 's Studies 12.2 (1986): 113. Academic Search Complete. Web. 24 Nov. 2014.
The psychologically thrilling story of “The Yellow Wallpaper” by Charlotte Perkins Gilman explores the dark and twisted aspect of the American society in the nineteenth century. Through the use of theme, Gilman creatively captures the cultural subordination and struggles women faced on a regular basis.
Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s short story, "The Yellow Wallpaper," is the disheartening tale of a woman suffering from postpartum depression. Set during the late 1890s, the story shows the mental and emotional results of the typical "rest cure" prescribed during that era and the narrator’s reaction to this course of treatment. It would appear that Gilman was writing about her own anguish as she herself underwent such a treatment with Dr. Silas Weir Mitchell in 1887, just two years after the birth of her daughter Katherine. The rest cure that the narrator in "The Yellow Wallpaper" describes is very close to what Gilman herself experienced; therefore, the story can be read as reflecting the feelings of women like herself who suffered through such treatments. Because of her experience with the rest cure, it can even be said that Gilman based the narrator in "The Yellow Wallpaper" loosely on herself. But I believe that expressing her negative feelings about the popular rest cure is only half of the message that Gilman wanted to send. Within the subtext of this story lies the theme of oppression: the oppression of the rights of women especially inside of marriage. Gilman was using the woman/women behind the wallpaper to express her personal views on this issue.
There are stories that take the reader into a different world, a different perspective from their personal opinion or beliefs; such stories make us feel intrigued of the event described and eventually we become attach to the characters in a manner that wakes our thoughts and feelings to the tragedy we are about to experience. The Yellow Wallpaper had me highly interested by its narrator especially by how Charlotte Perkins, a social activist, was inspired to write it. She had a difficult childhood, experiencing pain and solitude but somehow found comfort in the art field. In despite of this she had long episodes of sadness, unhappiness, and melancholia reason why her husband at that time Charles Stetson, sent her to the care of a doctor. She claimed it was desolation, and kept her captive from her art activities. This real life experience was what inspired her to write The Yellow Wallpaper. In 1900, she remarried to her cousin George Gilman and wrote novels as well as nonfiction works where she inspired woman to be more economically independent; she also established a magazine that was for the used of women and their ideas on women’s issues, which was called The Forerunner (SparkNotes Editors). Unfortunately, Charlotte
When looking at two nineteenth century works of change for two females in an American society, Charlotte Perkins Gilman and Stephen Crane come to mind. A feminist socialist and a realist novelist capture moments that make their readers rethink life and the world surrounding. Gilman’s “The Yellow Wallpaper” was first published in 1892, about a white middle-class woman who was confined to an upstairs room by her husband and doctor, the room’s wallpaper imprisons her and as well as liberates herself when she tears the wallpaper off at the end of the story. On the other hand, Crane’s 1893 Maggie: A Girl of the Streets is the realist account of a New York girl and her trials of growing up with an alcoholic mother and slum life world. The imagery in Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s “The Yellow Wallpaper” and Stephen Crane’s Maggie: A Girl of the Streets uses color in unconventional ways by embedding color in their narratives to symbolize the opposite of their common meanings, allowing these colors to represent unique associations; to support their thematic concerns of emotional, mental and societal challenges throughout their stories; offering their reader's the opportunity to question the conventionality of both gender and social systems.
“Yellow Wallpaper” by Charlotte Gilman was analyzed by many perspective readers and writers. In my research paper I analyzed work by Ann Oakley and Karen Ford. These two authors had similar but yet different arguments. During my review process on both articles, I found that there can be many interpretations of any literary work. When you typically see topics written about women, you tend to see biased explanations. Reading these from a female standpoint you would go on to assume the writer will only defend what is morally right.
The first person point of the view the author artfully uses and the symbolism present with the wallpaper cleverly depicts the inner conflict of the narrator, losing her own sanity due to the constraints of her current life. However, while it seems that the narrator in “ The Yellow Wallpaper” succumbed to her own insanity, the endless conflict within herself and her downward spiral to insanity is seen through a different light, as an inevitable path rather than a choice taken as the story is more closely analyzed.
David Cowart essay Heritage and Deracination in Walker 's “Everyday Use” he says, “Only by
Restraints are set by parents on their children to aid with the developmental process and help with the maturity level. Restrictions and the ability to control exist in our society and our lives. We encounter restraints daily: job, doors, people, and the most frequently used and arduous become intangible. In the following stories tangible and intangible scenarios are presented. Autonomy, desires, and talents spurned by the husbands in John Steinbeck’s “The Chrysanthemums and Charlotte Gilman’s “The Yellow Wallpaper.” The authors share views regarding a similar theme of male domination and imprisonment. “The Yellow Wallpaper” involves the treatment of a depressed woman who is driven insane in a male imposed detention in her own room. On the other hand, Elisa Allen in the “The Chrysanthemums” struggles internally to find her place in a fully male dominated society with definite gender roles. The mirror-like situations bring upon a different reaction for both the women in different ways. The importance of symbolism, control from their husbands, and the lack of a healthy marriage will be discussed in this paper in two stories.
1. The Yellow Wallpaper: The wallpaper is, as the title suggests, the chief symbol in this story. What does it symbolize, and how does it work as a symbol? What details about the wallpaper seem significant? How does the narrator 's attitude toward and vision of the wallpaper change, and what is the significance of those changes?
In a female oppressive story about a woman driven from postpartum depression to insanity, Charlotte Gilman uses great elements of literature in her short story, The Yellow Wallpaper. Her use of feminism and realism demonstrates how woman's thoughts and opinions were considered in the early 1900?s.
In the 19th century society was from different from what it is today. Women were not in the workforce, could not vote, or even have a say in anything. Women were not permitted to give evidence in court, nor, did they have the right to speak in public before an audience. When a woman married, her husband legally owned all she had (including her earnings, her clothes and jewelry, and her children). If he died, she was entitled to only a third of her husband’s estate. Charlotte Perkins Gilman wanted to change this. She wanted people to understand the plight of women in the 19th century. In her short story The Yellow Wallpaper she tries to convey this to the reader not just on a literal level, but through various symbols in the story. In The Yellow Wallpaper the author uses symbols to show restrictions on women, lack of public interaction, the struggle for equality, and the possibilities of the female sex during the 1800s.
Gruesser, John. "Walker's Everyday Use." The Explicator 61.3 (2003): 183+. Literature Resource Center. Web. 2 Feb. 2014.
The Yellow Wallpaper is overflowed with symbolism. Symbols are images that have a meaning beyond them selves in a short story, a symbol is a detail, a character, or an incident that has a meaning beyond its literal role in the narrative. Gilman uses symbols to tell her story of a woman's mental state of being diminishes throughout the story. The following paragraphs tell just some of the symbols and how I interpreted them, they could be read in many different ways.