Examinatin of Charlotte Perkins Gilman

Examination of Charlotte Perkins Gilman

Intro:

Prominent and progressive writer Charlotte Perkins Gilman was an icon of the Women’s Rights Movement of the late 1800s, noted as the "brains of the US women's movement” (Davis). Often leading through example, her 1982 short story, “The Yellow Wallpaper”, is based upon her real life experience of undergoing the “rest cure”, prescribed by Dr. Weir S. Mitchell. “The Yellow Wallpaper” is a first person narrative of a woman’s descent into madness as she succumbs to the treatment for her depression shortly after given birth. Her husband, a physician, takes her out to the country and sequesters her in a dilapidated room with peeling yellow wallpaper. There she is cut off from all social contact and intellectual stimulation under strict orders from her husband. Despite her urgings that her treatment is detrimental to her health, her husband ignores her pleas. “The Yellow Wallpaper” is highly celebrated and considered, “the symbol of this oppression to a woman who feels trapped in her roles as wife and mother.” (Witalac).

Why I Chose This:

As a mother of two children, the themes of “the Yellow Wallpaper” resonate with me. I have always considered myself as a feminist, but lacked the knowledge and articulation to express my idea. I also have a morbid fascination with asylums of the 1800s.

Biography:

Prolific writer and progressive activist Charlotte Perkins Gilman was not without her struggles in life. However, it is perhaps such struggles that were instrumental in shaping Gilman who is today regarded as, “one of the foremost intellectuals in the United States women’s rights movement during the late 19th and early 20th centuries.” (Kester- Shelton).

Born during the civil war, in 1860, Charlotte Perkins Gilman was born into a well-known family of prominent intellectuals. Her father, Fredrick Beecher Gilman, was grandson of Lyman Beecher, an outspoken clergyman. Lyman Beecher, fathering twelve children, has been referred to as “’…the father of more brains than any other man in America.’” (qtd. In Miskolcze). This included Harriet Beecher Stowe, author of “Uncle Tom’s Cabin”. As stated by Miskolcze, Stowe’s book, “largely responsible for changing the nation's consciousness about the issue of slavery. “(Miskolcze).

Charlotte had a tumultuous upbringing. Her librarian father abandoned the family when Charlotte was young, leaving the family destitute. As a result, Charlotte’s mother had a hard time coping with an impoverished life raising two children on her own. This most definitely had great impact on Charlotte.

Observing her mother’s misery, the girl Charlotte never forgot the lesson: married or not, every woman needed the ability to earn a good living to insure her survival and sanity, not to mention her self-development. (Knight)

Clearly this led to her strident feminism in her later life. However, due to her impoverished state she spent a majority of her time with relatives such as Harriet Beecher Stowe. This influence also became a key factor in her future endeavors. “Under the tutelage of these women, Gilman also pursued independence and equality.” (Stone)

However, not all of Charlotte’s relationships were harmonious. Charlotte’s mother clearly had emotional trauma upon her father’s abandonment. In Gilman’s autobiography, she describes her mother’s lack of affection, “’deny the child all expression of affection as far as possible, so that she should not be used to it or long for it.’” (qtd. in Miskolcze). Her mother also had strange philosophies on education and relationships.

Gilman was prevented by her mother from reading fiction or developing strong friendships. Her father's literary counsel constituted, perhaps, a halfhearted defiance of her mother's stern orders. (Stone)

It appears that perhaps both Gilman’s mother and father may have been a victim of depression, as Gilman would later experience in life. However, their role in her life may have been a key factor in her finding her own way in the world, ”At age sixteen Perkins painted advertising cards and was teaching art, and, at nineteen, she entered the Rhode Island School of Design to study art.” (Miskolcze).

On May 1884 Charlotte married Walter Stetson. “Friction began between the pair almost immediately over the inequality of the roles of husband and wife…” (Kester-Shelton). To exacerbate problems, upon the birth of her only child, Katherine, Charlotte suffered grave amounts of depression. Charlotte, consulted Dr. Weir Mitchell, a popular psychiatrist at the time. His prescription, “Live as domestic a life as possible….and never touch pen,