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Feminism in american literature
Women and gender in American society in the 19th century
Feminism in american literature
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In 19th Century, there were a lot of short stories were written about psychology. One of the most demanded stories was “The Yellow Wallpaper” by Charlotte Gilman which was a short story about a woman named Jane who was having psychological problems about her life. The story is kind of parallel to problems she had in her life too. That’s why the can be examined three main ways: Nineteenth-century psychology, how she used imagery and rhetorical devices, and protagonist-author relationship.
As people know from her life, Gilman had psychological issues during her life. In addition to that, she wrote a short the short story that is called “ The Yellow Wallpaper” where she talked from a view of a woman who is having psychological problems in her
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life. So we know that a lot of woman in 19th century had post-partum issues and Gilman was one of them. That's why when she wrote this book she used what she had gone through as a referenced. Also in the story jane (author) has a doctor husband which leads us to a different point of 19th century psychology. At that time doctors’ didn't have very much technology or acknowledge which often led them to wrong diagnosis or different treatments which didn't work for some patients such as Gilman. Gilman had to do rest cure which actually made her life miserable and she describes the cure with these words: “This wise man put me to bed and applied the rest cure.”(Gilman,”Why I”). Also, Linda Wagner-Martin talks about the rest cure in one of her essays about Gilman she makes this statement about the rest cure: Gilman too was sent to Dr. S. Weir Mitchell, whose ‘cures’ for women were world famous. But Mitchell's treatment—of a rest cure which depended upon seclusion, massage, immobility, and overfeeding (some women gained 50 pounds during the six weeks of hospitalization)—had at its root complete mental inactivity. (Wagner-Martin) In relation to that Jane in Yellow Wallpaper always unhappy about her husband's attitude against her situation, and her husband is not really worried about her at all which is really not a great response from a doctor. While she was writing this story she uses rhetorical devices and imagery to reach out the readers. Especially imagery is used more frequently to describe the situations and events going on in the story. For example, in “The Yellow Wallpaper” Jane says: “For outside you have to creep on the ground, and everything is green instead of yellow.” (Gilman,9). So in this particular quote, Gilman tries to reflects what Jane sees when Jane looks out from the window. Since what Jane sees applies to one of our five fundamental senses which is our sight. Gilman also uses rhetorical devices in her story.
Specifically, she asks rhetorical questions to make readers think about the situation in the story. For example, in the story Jane says: ”You see he does not believe I am sick! And what can one do?” (Gilman,1). When Jane asks that question Jane is unhappy about John’s attitude against her situation. In addition to that she tries to say she can’t do anything by herself against John who is a doctor. Also she tries take attention about the women rights in 19th century. Because at that time, women didn’t have to right to vote or get education. So more than just saying that John doesn’t believe that Jane is sick, also Jane tries to say is that she can not argue with her husband John because she doesn’t really have the right to argue with him at that period of time. An article about the overview of the story talks about the woman rights at Gilman’s time period and makes this statement:”The Victorian ideal stressed female chastity and innocence and held that a woman's ultimate roles were those of wife and mother. She was thus discouraged from aspiring to other occupations.”(“Overview”). So Gilman tries to give more messages about different things in life by using parallelism and rhetorical questions in her
story. Besides only looking at the story, there is a lot going on behind “The Yellow Wallpaper”. First of all, when Gilman was writing “The Yellow Wallpaper” she created a story that it was pretty accurate to her own life. For example, in his essay, Patrick McGrath talks about Gilman and says: The author was a feminist, a philosopher, a socialist and an activist, and she was inspired to write the story after undergoing what in the late 19th century was called the ”Rest Cure.” This was a treatment prescribed for women deemed hysterical, a diagnosis invented by S. Weir Mitchell, a distinguished neurologist.(McGrath) So when she had a had a depression problems with her life and when she applied the rest cure, it didn’t turn out to work well for her and it messed her up even more. So Gilman decide to quit the rest cure and start writing “The Yellow Wallpaper”. In addition to that writing the story turned out to be a very good treatment to her depressive situation. Gilman describes this situation in her article with these words:”I cast the noted specialist’s advice and went to work again”(Gilman,”Why I”) To summarize, Gilman did not write this story just to tell about a crazy woman and her life. She included a lot more messages in the story by using characters especially Jane. That’s why there is a lot more in the story if you understand it rather than just reading.
The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman can be perceived in a few different ways. Greg Johnson wrote an article describing his own perception of what he believed the short story meant. In doing so, it can be noticed that his writing aligns well with what can be perceived from Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s story. The narrator Jane, experiences many things throughout Gilman’s story, which Johnson describes thoroughly. It is because of these descriptive points that allow Johnsons article to be a convincing argument. The main ideas that Johnson depicts that are supported and I agree with from the story include Janes developing imaginative insight, her husband and sister-in-law’s belief on domestic control, and her gained power through unconsciousness.
"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.
Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s "The Yellow Wall-Paper," does more than just tell the story of a woman who suffers at the hands of 19th century quack medicine. Gilman created a protagonist with real emotions and a real psych that can be examined and analyzed in the context of modern psychology. In fact, to understand the psychology of the unnamed protagonist is to be well on the way to understanding the story itself. "The Yellow Wall-Paper," written in first-person narrative, charts the psychological state of the protagonist as she slowly deteriorates into schizophrenia (a disintegration of the personality).
Brown, B. D. A Psychological Approach to Charlotte Perkins Gilman's The Yellow Wallpaper. http://www.usinternet.com/users/bdbourn/yellow.htm, Aug. 2, 1999, 1-2.
Throughout the story, the reader is called to trust the narrator although it is clear she is going crazy, for she is the only telling the story. Gilman is able to develop the theme through this character’s point of view by showing that the narrator has no choice in the world in which she lives-- she must obey the men in her life above all else. If Gilman chose any other perspective, the story would not have been able to portray the woman’s oppression as well, because the reader would not have been able to see into her mind as it slipped away well into insanity.
“The Yellow Wallpaper” contains many symbols in which Charlotte Perkins Gilman develops the idea that society at the time of the story presumed certain things “proper” - without knowing that they were indeed harmful. In the 19th century, women had no power, worth, or opportunities, and that could have been enough to drive woman of the time, including the narrator, into madness. Women were involved in the workforce, could not vote, or have a voice in anything. Charlotte Perkins Gilman wanted to change the way in which women were viewed in the 19th century. In “The Yellow Wallpaper”, she uses numerous symbols to show the many restrictions upon women, lack of public interaction, and the struggle for equality.
Madness is one of the key themes in “The Yellow Wallpaper” by Charlotte Perkins Gilman. It is presented in a way that makes the work of literature a very diverse short story. Although madness isn’t the only theme, it helps the reader better understand many of the other themes in the story. For example, gender inequality, freedom, and confinement. All of these topics can be analyzed through the idea of madness in the story. When I first read this short story I was looking at it through a narrow view of madness and insanity. However, when I read the story again in another course, it allowed me to look at the other themes in this story and analyze them. Because of this I was able to notice things about the story that I had not encountered before. This is why “The Yellow Wallpaper” became one of the most interesting works I have read this semester.
Throughout “The Yellow Wallpaper,” Charlotte Perkins Gilman tells her readers the story of a woman desperate to be free. Gilman’s use of symbolism is nothing short of brilliant in telling the story of a new mother suffering from postpartum depression and fighting her way through societies ideas of what a woman should be. When her husband, John, also known as her physician, tells her nothing is wrong with her mind, at first she believes him because she knows that society tells her she should. However, with her husband’s misdiagnosis, or attempt to keep his wife sane for the sake of their reputation, comes a short journey into madness for his wife, Jane. Jane’s downward spiral, as one may call it, turns out to be not so downward when the reader
The "Yellow Wallpaper" by Charlotte Gilman is a great story about the repression of women in the late 1800's but is still representative of issues faced by women today. She writes from her own personal experiences and conveys a message that sometimes in a male dominated society women suffer from the relentless power that some men implement over women.
Many critics question whether this story is meant as a personal documentation about Gilman or a reflection of women’s position in society in 1892. However, due to her creation of this unreliable narrator, it creates the allusion that this story has many meanings. The narrator generates the way we see John and the ironic theme of entrapment, through many different angles. The subject of the story changes from reality, to her obsession with the wallpaper and consumes the narrator’s tone and thoughts. The way Gilman used narration to manipulate the reader’s interpretation John and to convey the theme of entrapment makes this an effective piece of literature.
After learning of Gilman’s life, and by reading her commentary and other works, one can readily see that The Yellow Wallpaper has a definite agenda in it's quasi-autobiographical style. As revealed in Elaine Hedges’ forward from the Heath Anthology of American Literature, Gilman had a distressed life, because of the choices she had made which disrupted common conventions—from her ‘abandonment’ of her child to her amicable divorce (Lauter 799). Her childhood is described notably by Ann Lane as an introduction to the 1979 publication of ‘Herland’, one of Gilman’s most notable novels.
Traditionally, men have held the power in society. Women have been treated as a second class of citizens with neither the legal rights nor the respect of their male counterparts. Culture has contributed to these gender roles by conditioning women to accept their subordinate status while encouraging young men to lead and control. Feminist criticism contends that literature either supports society’s patriarchal structure or provides social criticism in order to change this hierarchy. “The Yellow Wallpaper”, by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, depicts one women’s struggle against the traditional female role into which society attempts to force her and the societal reaction to this act.
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.
Role Reversal Since the beginning of time, gender stereotypes have existed. Children are born into gender stereotypes without even knowing it. In Alice Munro's "Boys and Girls", a brother and sister battle gender stereotypes in their own home. Little girls are raised to be compassionate and nurturing caregivers; while little boys are brought up to be strong and protective.
(Lanser , 2008) describes one of the main views of feminist criticism as being ‘that narrative texts ... are profoundly ( if never simply) referential’. Semiotics in relation to verbal language is described by Herman as 'a conventional relation between signifier and signified' (p281) One way of combining the mimetic and semiotic is to look at the conventions in the semiotics of verbal language ‘which suggests a synthesis of feminist narratology reflecting the referential or mimetic as well as the semiotic experience of reading literature’. (Lanser, 2008 , p. 345)