Societal and Historical Connections

Gilman is Jane from the Yellow Wallpaper

"First appearing in the New England Magazine in January 1892, "The Yellow Wall-paper," according to many literary critics, is a narrative study of Gilman's own depression and "nervousness." Gilman, like the narrator of her story, sought medical help from the famous neurologist S. Weir Mitchell. Mitchell prescribed his famous "rest cure," which restricted women from anything that labored and taxed their minds (e.g., thinking, reading, writing) and bodies. More than just a psychological study of postpartum depression, Gilman's "The Yellow Wall-paper" offers a compelling study of Gilman's own feminism and of roles for women in the 1890s and 1910s." (edsitement.gov.) The author of The Yellow Wallpaper express her feelings towards society by writing this story to capture how women were treated in the nineteenth century. Jane represents the author, Gilman, and John represents every man in the 1800s. " Charlotte Perkins Gilman's story "The Yellow Wall-paper" was written during a time of great change. In the early- to mid-nineteenth century, "domestic ideology" positioned American middle class women as the spiritual and moral leaders of their home. Such "separate spheres" ideals suggested that a woman's place was in the private domain of the home, where she should carry out her prescribed roles of wife and mother. Men, on the other hand, would rule the public domain through work, politics, and economics. By the middle of the century, this way of thinking began to change as the seeds of early women's rights were planted. By the end of the 1800s, feminists were gaining momentum in favor of change. The concept of "The New Woman," for example, began to circulate in the 1890s-1910s as women pushed for broader roles outside their home-roles that could draw on women's intelligence and non-domestic skills and talents."  (edsitement.gov). In the story of the Yellow Wallpaper, Jane grows very dependent on the yellow wallpaper as her insanity grows deeper. For instance, in the story she states how her husband works nights and barely spends time with his wife. Jane grows attached to the wallpaper by her stating, " It is so pleasant to be out in this great room and creep around as i please! I don't want to go outside. For outside you have to creep around on the ground, and everything is green instead of yellow. But here i can creep smoothly on the floor, and my shoulder just fits in that long smooch around the wall, so i cannot lose my way." (Page 11) The narrator creeps around her room when she is alone and moves along the yellow wallpaper. She is feeling very deranged as she starts to feel as though she is trapped in the wallpaper and by society. Jane supposedly killed her husband at the end of the story and continued to creep along the wall. For she states, " I have got out at last!" (Page11). Meaning that Jane thinks that she has finally rebelled against society and has escaped the yellow wallpaper that represents women's insanity towards men. Gilman expresses her feelings towards society's view on women by writing this story to show how she feels towards the way she was treated in her lifetime. In "The Tell Tale Heart" by Edgar Allen Poe, author also expresses his feelings in a similar manor. For example the main character states, " You should have seen how wisely I proceeded --with what caution --with what foresight --with what dissimulation I went to work! I was never kinder to the old man than during the whole week before I killed him. And every night, about midnight, I turned the latch of his door and opened it --oh so gently! And then, when I had made an opening sufficient for my head, I put in a dark lantern, all closed, closed, that no light shone out, and then I thrust in my head. Oh, you would have laughed to see how cunningly I thrust it in! I moved it slowly --very, very slowly, so that I might not disturb the old man's sleep. It took me an hour to place my whole head within the opening so far that I could see him as he lay upon his bed. Ha! would a madman have been so wise as this, And then, when my head was well in the room, I undid the lantern cautiously-oh, so cautiously --cautiously (for the hinges creaked) --I undid it just so much that a single thin ray fell upon the vulture eye." ( Page 1). The main character also creeps in the story just like the character Jane, and also kills his victim, the old man, in the story so he can be sent free from his disturbance of the evil eye. Jane also rids her room from the yellow wallpaper so she can be let free from the bars that ground her into being an average housewife. Both authors describe in their own words of how life has treated them and by how others stood in the way of their sanity. For both Gilman and Poe they have experienced harsh treatment from others in society. Gilman was trapped in her marriage and Poe was trapped from being forbidden to love others and therefor expressed his emotions in the "Tell Tale Heart" through his mental disturbance in life.      

Definition of Category- Historical connections and Societal connections is the use of relating society and other literature work such as novels to connect one piece of literature to another.  

http://edsitement.neh.gov/lesson-plan/charlotte-perkins-gilmans-yellow-wall-papermdashwriting-women this link provides background information on the society connections involved in the Yellow Wallpaper.

http://xroads.virginia.edu/~hyper/poe/telltale.html this link contains the story of the tell tale heart by Edgar Allen Poe.