2130_american lit module _charlotte perkins gilman "yellow wallpaper"
TRANSCRIPT
Charlotte Perkins Gilman
The Norton Anthology of American Literature, 8th Edition | Copyright © 2012 W.W. Norton & Company
Charlotte Perkins Gilman
The Norton Anthology of American Literature, 8th Edition | Copyright © 2012 W.W. Norton & Company
• Born in Hartford, Connecticut, in 1860
• Abandoned by her father at birth and raised
by her emotionally distant single mother
• Married at age 23, she worried that her duties
as wife and mother would interfere with her
writing career
• Gave birth at age 24; experiences
postpartum depression and is prescribed the
“rest cure” that leads her to write “The Yellow
Wall-paper”
Gilman’s Early Life
The Norton Anthology of American Literature, 8th Edition | Copyright © 2012 W.W. Norton & Company
• Early writings—such as a poem in defense of
prostitutes—display a desire to support
women’s causes
• Nonfiction works include Women and
Economics (1898), The Man-Made World
(1911), and His Religion and Hers (1923)
• Utopian feminist novels include Moving the
Mountain (1911) and Herland (1915)
Gilman’s Feminist Activism
The Norton Anthology of American Literature, 8th Edition | Copyright © 2012 W.W. Norton & Company
Gilman’s Feminist Activism
The Norton Anthology of American Literature, 8th Edition | Copyright © 2012 W.W. Norton & Company
“A colonial mansion, a hereditary estate, I
would say a haunted house, and reach the
height of romantic felicity—but that would be
asking too much of fate!
Still I will proudly declare that there is
something queer about it.
Else, why should it be let so cheaply? And
why have stood so long untenanted?
John laughs at me, of course, but one
expects that in marriage.”
“The Yellow Wall-paper”
The Norton Anthology of American Literature, 8th Edition | Copyright © 2012 W.W. Norton & Company
“The Yellow Wall-paper”
The Norton Anthology of American Literature, 8th Edition | Copyright © 2012 W.W. Norton & Company
“The Yellow Wall-paper”
The Norton Anthology of American Literature, 8th Edition | Copyright © 2012 W.W. Norton & Company
“The Yellow Wall-paper”
The Norton Anthology of American Literature, 8th Edition | Copyright © 2012 W.W. Norton & Company
“But I forgot I could not reach far without
anything to stand on!
This bed will not move!
I tried to lift and push it until I was lame, and
then I got so angry I bit off a little piece at one
corner—but it hurt my teeth.
Then I peeled off all the paper I could reach
standing on the floor. It sticks horribly and the
pattern just enjoys it! All those strangled heads and
bulbous eyes and waddling fungus growths just
shriek with derision!”
“The Yellow Wall-paper”
The Norton Anthology of American Literature, 8th Edition | Copyright © 2012 W.W. Norton & Company
She walketh veiled and sleeping,
For she knoweth not her power;
She obeyeth but the pleading
Of her heart, and the high leading
Of her soul, unto this hour.
Slow advancing, halting, creeping,
Comes the Woman to the hour!–
She walketh veiled and sleeping,
For she knoweth not her power.
“She Walketh Veiled and Sleeping”
The Norton Anthology of American Literature, 8th Edition | Copyright © 2012 W.W. Norton & Company
• In a sestina, the same six words appear at
the end of each line, but in a different order
every stanza
• Why did Gilman choose these six particular
words?
– homes
– peace
– life
– love
– care
– world
“To the Indifferent Women”
The Norton Anthology of American Literature, 8th Edition | Copyright © 2012 W.W. Norton & Company
• Marion Marroner: “In her reserved, superior,
Boston-bred life, she had never dreamed that
it would be possible for her to feel so many
things at once, and with such trampling
intensity.”
• Gerta Peterson: “a tall, rosy-cheeked baby;
rich womanhood without, helpless infancy
within.”
“Turned”
The Norton Anthology of American Literature, 8th Edition | Copyright © 2012 W.W. Norton & Company
“Through the wide doorway there came in to
him two women. One like a tall Madonna, bearing
a baby in her arms.
Marion, calm, steady, definitely impersonal,
nothing but a clean pallor to hint of inner stress.
Gerta, holding the child as a bulwark, with a
new intelligence in her face, and her blue, adoring
eyes fixed on her friend—not upon him.
He looked from one to the other dumbly.
And the woman who had been his wife asked
quietly: ‘What have you to say to us?’ ”
“Turned”
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Charlotte Perkins Gilman