Charlotte Perkins Gilman, born Charlotte Anna Perkins in Hartford, Connecticut on July 3, 1860 spent many years trying to form a relationship with her father, who had left her and her family shortly after her birth. Gilman only received an occasional letter from him with a list of books she should read. After being deserted, her mother returned to her hometown in Providence, Rhode Island where she financially supported Gilman and her sibling. Although she did financially support them, distraught about her divorce, she did not show them any physical love in hopes of preparing them for future broken relationships (Baym 1668-1669). It is easy to see why in her autobiography, titled The Living of Charlotte Perkins Gilman, she wrote that her childhood
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It is believed that her non-existent relationship with her father and her mother’s lack of nurturing was what fueled her depression-driven writing from early on. It was not until after her doctor prescribed “rest cure” and ordered her not to touch pen or ink that Gilman was inspired to write “The Yellow Wallpaper” (Baym 1669). Many people believed this poem was written by Gilman, while suffering some bout of madness. By just reading it one felt he was going mad, but Gilman stated that the work was “not intended to drive people crazy, but to save people from being driven crazy, and it worked” (“Why I Wrote ‘The Yellow Wallpaper’”). In the short story, a woman is taken to a house she thinks she is vacationing in, but it is slowly revealed to be a sort of mental hospital. The woman starts off being sane, but after being given medications and ordered to rest and to not work, she actually goes insane from just staring at the “yellow wall paper” all day. Because she thought “rest cure” was another way for women to be oppressed by men, in this case, the doctor and husband ordering the woman to not work until she is well, she exposed it in this story. “Rest cure” was thought to cure depression, but Gilman’s story revealed it to be more of a poison than a cure. This gave women the voice to refuse the so-called treatment and Gilman was viewed as a heroic feminist, even though she …show more content…
The line, “Do you believe the sorrow of the world/Does not concern you in your little homes?” was directed at women who were happy to continue their passive, domestic lives and who showed a lack of initiative that many women had at this time (Gilman 7-8). These lines were meant as an insult to these initiative-lacking women. Gilman is asking, “Is that all you worry about? What is going on in your own home?” She wanted women to not be so submissive to men and apply themselves more in the workforce and the world in general. This is shown in the line, “Unite to raise the standard of the world” (Gilman 22). Gilman wanted social reform for women. She intended for her work to influence women to want to take a stand against their domestic lives and the men who had put them in this
It is believed that her non-existent relationship with her father and her mother’s lack of nurturing was what fueled her depression-driven writing from early on. It was not until after her doctor prescribed “rest cure” and ordered her not to touch pen or ink that Gilman was inspired to write “The Yellow Wallpaper” (Baym 1669). Many people believed this poem was written by Gilman, while suffering some bout of madness. By just reading it one felt he was going mad, but Gilman stated that the work was “not intended to drive people crazy, but to save people from being driven crazy, and it worked” (“Why I Wrote ‘The Yellow Wallpaper’”). In the short story, a woman is taken to a house she thinks she is vacationing in, but it is slowly revealed to be a sort of mental hospital. The woman starts off being sane, but after being given medications and ordered to rest and to not work, she actually goes insane from just staring at the “yellow wall paper” all day. Because she thought “rest cure” was another way for women to be oppressed by men, in this case, the doctor and husband ordering the woman to not work until she is well, she exposed it in this story. “Rest cure” was thought to cure depression, but Gilman’s story revealed it to be more of a poison than a cure. This gave women the voice to refuse the so-called treatment and Gilman was viewed as a heroic feminist, even though she …show more content…
The line, “Do you believe the sorrow of the world/Does not concern you in your little homes?” was directed at women who were happy to continue their passive, domestic lives and who showed a lack of initiative that many women had at this time (Gilman 7-8). These lines were meant as an insult to these initiative-lacking women. Gilman is asking, “Is that all you worry about? What is going on in your own home?” She wanted women to not be so submissive to men and apply themselves more in the workforce and the world in general. This is shown in the line, “Unite to raise the standard of the world” (Gilman 22). Gilman wanted social reform for women. She intended for her work to influence women to want to take a stand against their domestic lives and the men who had put them in this