An introduction to “The Yellow Wallpaper”

But….through time:

What Women Want: To be

loved, to be listened to, to be

desired, to be respected, to be

needed, to be trusted, and

sometimes, just to be held.

What Men Want: Tickets for

the World Series.

~ Dave Barry

Remind me…

what is realism?

Review Video Lesson

"Every kind of creature is

developed by the exercise of its functions. If denied the

exercise of its functions, it can not develop in

the fullest degree."

—Charlotte Perkins Stetson (Gilman)

A Woman's Qualities

•The accepted reasoning was that the career for women

was marriage.

•To get ready for courtship and marriage a girl was

groomed like a racehorse.

•In addition to being able to sing, play an instrument and

speak a little French or Italian . . .

•The qualities a young Victorian gentlewoman needed,

were to be innocent, virtuous, biddable, dutiful and be

ignorant of intellectual opinion.

Whether married or single all women were expected to be. . .

•weak and helpless,

•a fragile delicate flower incapable of making

decisions beyond selecting the menu and ensuring

her many children were taught moral values.

•ensure that the home was a place of comfort for her

husband and family from the stresses of industrial

society.

In an age that valued will, control, and hard work, women who

suffered from hysteria were described as weak, undisciplined,

impressionable, flighty, self-indulgent, narcissistic, and childish.

Many 19th century doctors felt that women were emotionally

unstable by their very nature. The female nervous system was

more sensitive than a man’s, they claimed. Some doctors believed

that women had thinner blood than men, which contributed to their

nervousness. Other causes of hysteria were thought to be

menstrual pain, uterine tumors, vaginal infections, and sterility. A

woman’s anatomy, it seems, was enough to predispose her to

hysteria. Even the word hysteria comes from the Greek word for

the uterus.

A woman was to . . .

•bear a large family and maintain a smooth

family atmosphere where a man need not

bother himself about domestic matters.

•He assumed his house would run smoothly so

he could get on with making money.

Social Differences Between Classes of Women

The Rich:

A wealthy wife was supposed to spend

her time reading, sewing, receiving

guests, going visiting, letter writing,

seeing to the servants and dressing for

the part as her husband's social

representative.

The Rich:

A wealthy woman's day

was governed by etiquette

rules that encumbered her

with up to six wardrobe

changes a day and the

needs varied over three

seasons a year. A lady

changed through a wide

range of clothing as

occasion dictated.

The Rich:

There was morning and mourning dress,

walking dress, town dress, visiting dress,

receiving visitors dress, traveling dress, shooting

dress, golf dress, seaside dress, races dress,

concert dress, opera dress, dinner and ball

dress.

BASIC SOCIAL RULES FOR LADIES

ALWAYS

•Graciously accept gentlemanly offers of assistance

•Wear gloves on the street, at church & other formal occasions, except

when eating or drinking

NEVER

•Refer to another adult by his or her first name in public

•Grab your hoops or lift your skirts higher than is absolutely necessary to

go up stairs

•Lift your skirts up onto a chair or stool, etc.

•Sit with your legs crossed (except at the ankles if necessary for comfort

or habit)

•Lift your skirts up onto the seat of your chair when sitting down (Wait

for, or if necessary, ask for assistance when sitting down at a table or on a

small light chair)

But wait . . . .

BASIC There are still rules for . . .

•Ballroom Dancing

•The Dining Room

•Conversation

•Funerals

•Christenings

•Neighborhood Customs

•Introductions

•Formal Correspondence

•Clubs and Club Etiquette

•Traveling Etiquette

•The Clothes of a Lady

•Telephoning, Smoking, and Out-In-Company manners . . . .

Guys treated the ladies like precious little flowers . . .

BASIC SOCIAL RULES FOR GENTLEMEN

•Stand up when a lady enters a room

•Stand up when a lady stands

•Offer a lady your seat if no others are available

•Assist a lady with her chair when she sits down or stands, especially

when at a table or when the chairs are small and light

•Retrieve dropped items for a lady

•Open doors for a lady

•Help a lady with her coat, cloak, shawl, etc.

•Offer to bring a lady refreshments if they are available

•Offer your arm to escort a lady (with whom you are acquainted) into or

out of a building or a room at all social events, and whenever walking

on uneven ground

•Remove your hat when entering a building

•Lift your hat to a lady when she greets you in public (Merely touching the

brim or a slight "tip" of the hat was very rude)

“The Yellow Wallpaper”by Charlotte Perkins Gilman

No excellent soul is exempt

from a mixture of madness.

- Aristotle

“It [“The Yellow Wallpaper”] was not

intended to drive people crazy, but to

save people from being driven crazy,

and it worked.”

- CPG

Why I Wrote “The Yellow Wallpaper”

Many and many a reader has asked that. When the story first came out, in the New England Magazine about 1891, a Boston physician made protest in The Transcript. Such a story ought not to be written, he said; it was enough to drive anyone mad to read it.

Another physician, in Kansas I think, wrote to say that it was the best description of incipient insanity he had ever seen, and begging my pardon had I been there?

Now the story of the story is this:

Why I Wrote “The Yellow Wallpaper”

For many years I suffered from a severe and continuous nervous breakdown tending to melancholia and beyond. During about the third year of this trouble I went, in devout faith and some faint stir of hope, to a noted specialist in nervous diseases, the best known in the country. This wise man put me to bed and applied the rest cure, to which a still-good physique responded so promptly that he concluded there was nothing much the matter with me, and sent me home with solemn advice to "live as domestic life as far as possible," to "have but two hours' intellectual life a day," and "never to touch pen, or pencil again" as long as I lived. This was in 1887.

Why I Wrote “The Yellow Wallpaper”

I went home and obeyed those directions for some three months, and came so near the borderline of utter mental ruin that I could see over.

Then, using the remnants of intelligence that remained, and helped by a wise friend, I cast the noted specialist's advice to the winds and went to work again work, the normal life of every human being; work, in which is joy and growth and service, without which one is a pauper and a parasite ultimately recovering some measure of power.

Why I Wrote “The Yellow Wallpaper”

Being naturally moved to rejoicing by this narrow escape, I wrote, "The Yellow Wallpaper," with its embellishments and additions, to carry out the ideal (I never had hallucinations or objections to my mural decorations) and sent a copy to the physician who so nearly drove me mad. He never acknowledged it.

The little book is valued by alienists (psychiatrists) and as a good specimen of one kind of literature. It has, to my knowledge, saved one woman from a similar fate so terrifying her family that they let her out into normal activity and she recovered.

Why I Wrote “The Yellow Wallpaper”

But the best result is this. Many years later I was told that the great specialist had admitted to friends of his that he had altered his treatment of neurasthenia since reading "The Yellow Wallpaper." It was not intended to drive people crazy, but to save people from begin driven crazy, and it worked.

Questions:

1.Describe the basic situation that the narrator

finds herself in at the beginning of the story.

Use textual evidence for support.

2.Discuss John’s attitude and behavior towards

his wife, especially in terms of her illness. In the

course of thinking about this issue, consider the

symbolism of the “nursery.”

3. Identify some of the ways (at least 3) in which

the conflict between the narrator and her

husband are established. Use specific textual

quotes in your response.

Questions:

4. Discuss the general nature of the narrator’s

feelings toward her husband throughout the

story. Support using textual evidence.

5. What clues suggest that the woman in the

story is not an entirely “reliable” narrator?

Use textual evidence for support. Is there

any irony to this fact?

6. Discuss the symbolism of the following:

summer residence/house, greenhouses, her

journal, and the bars on the windows

upstairs.

Questions:

7. Consider the multiple functions that the

wallpaper plays in the story. Also, does

the wallpaper stay the same throughout

the story, or does it change? Explain.

8. Who is the figure in the wallpaper?

Defend your reasoning using textual

evidence.

9. What is the principle social institution

against which the narrator of the story

struggles?

Questions:

10.In what ways might the ending of the story be

seen as both a victory and a defeat for the

narrator? In what ways is her situation both

similar to and different from that of the creeping

woman in the wallpaper?

11.How does this piece show aspects of realism?

12. What is the writing style of the author? How does the writing style change as the mental state of the woman changes? Why would Gilman do this?

13. What is her tone throughout the selection?

How does it all tie together?

Write a paragraph (9-11 academic sentences)

synthesizing Gilman’s Bio. (link on Video Lesson), “Why I

Wrote ‘The Yellow Wallpaper,’” Weir Mitchell link, and the

Realism Video Lesson to comment on the essential

question: How have women’s thoughts, values, and

oppression 100+ years ago affected present gender roles?

Use textual evidence for support.

Turn in ONE assignment per group (make sure ALL group

members’ names are on document) to turnitin.com. +36 c/p