Charlotte Perkins Gilman - With Additional Context

Charlotte Perkins Gilman

Full Blog - With Additional Context

Charlotte Perkins Gilman was one of the very first feminist authors in literature. She wrote both fiction and non-fiction literature, in the form of prose and poetry, making them authentically representative of the era she was writing in. Gilman’s work specifically targets the hardships and injustice of women in the nineteenth century and the turn of the twentieth century. These concepts can be highly identified in her most famous short story, The Yellow Wallpaper (1892), which is thought to have great relevance to Gilman’s personal experiences in her own marriage, with her mental health being suppressed and ridiculed by her first husband (Gilman and Golden, 2004). In this novel, Gilman depicts the concept of patriarchal marriage, in which the impertinent superiority of the husband, drove the narrator to madness through neglect and imprisonment. This depiction of imprisonment, though far more explicit in this novel, can be likened to that inferred by Gilman in her poem below, To The Young Wife – imprisoned against their knowledge in their own homes. This is once again presented in the powerful imagery used in The Yellow Wallpaper to portray achieving release and freedom from the walls that restrain her mentally and physically (Kessler, 1995). 

Anon. (2019)

Many of her works depict the struggles that came with women’s suffrage and the general inferiority of women in society at this time (Poetry Foundation, 2019). In this way, Gilman educates the reader by enabling insight into concepts that are still prevalent in society today, but on a much lesser level. Gilman’s writing allows us to be somewhat transported back to the era she depicts, where society was far more accustomed to the oppression of women and the defined superiority of men.

Much of Gilman’s motivation to write was not only fuelled by her passion for self-expression through literature, but also to inspire women to live fuller and more rewarding lives. She often includes ‘Utopia’ in her literature, creating a world that is better for women. This is seen in her novel, What Diantha Did, in how the protagonist, Diantha, proves to her fiancé that she was able to become successful without him. This is prevalent as he had told her she would not be extended the same career freedom as him. The aim of this novel was to highlight the concept of ‘man’s acceptance of his wife as a complete human being’ (Kessler, 1995). Here, Gilman eludes that allowing a wife to grow and develop beyond the constraints of domestic duties will be beneficial for the overall success of society. 

Something which is often surpassed in the praise of Gilman was her wisdom in identifying that more of society, (particularly men), would be far more willing to acknowledge and listen to a story, than they would a non-fictional piece of literature. In this way, she was able to present the significant societal issues of the time to the public, whilst disguised as a fictional novel for them to interpret and reflect upon (Kessler, 2019). 

Portrait of Charlotte Perkins Gilman, circa 1896. (Photograph: Anon. Fotosearch/Getty Images).

A fine example of her feminist writing is displayed in her poem, The Young Wife, questioning whether the women of the domestic world whom she addresses, can truly be content and satisfied with their life of cleaning, cooking and obeying their husbands. She questions whether they should seek more purpose from life than to merely be a cog that turns in the wider society of inferior women and pushes them to ponder the difference they could make to their lives if only they had the courage to attempt it. The poem highlights the social context of its time, with these domestic expectations for women – however, Gilman is opposing this by asking if they had hoped for more and aspired towards a more meaningful purpose in their younger years. It elicits the idea that as young girls, they wish to be prevalent in the world, but as they grow society instils in them the plain expectations of a woman to adhere to the social hierarchy of male superiority. This acts as a force over them, pushing them towards an inferior and meaningless destiny as a life-long housewife. 

Gilman also presents the idea of men manipulating women to believe the role they are made to do is of much higher purpose and importance than they give it credit for. This is seen in Gilman’s poem below, To The Young Wife, in which she refers to women as ‘Queen of a cook-stove throne’ (Poetry Foundation, 2019). This emphasises that the oppression of women was far deeper than a mere societal rule that women were below men in status – as women had truly internalised this belief by the time of Gilman’s writing and were only beginning to gain hope for change. In many literary works of this time, women were presented as intelligent if they accepted societies rules and abided by them. A quotation that depicts this idea of women of women being clever enough to know their place in society and accept it, rather than oppose and fight against it is taken from The Great Gatsby, ‘I hope she’ll be a fool – that’s the best thing a girl can be in this world, a beautiful little fool’ (Fitzgerald, 1995). These words, presented by Daisy Buchanan, with reference to her wish for her daughter, highlight this idea that intelligent women were not appreciated in the nineteenth and early twentieth century. In order to remain superior, it was imperative for men to maintain the oppression of women, though the Suffragist movement sought to change this. 

To the Young Wife 

By Charlotte Anna Perkins Gilman 

Are you content, you pretty three-years’ wife? 

Are you content and satisfied to live 

On what your loving husband loves to give, 

And give to him your life? 

Are you content with work, — to toil alone, 

To clean things dirty and to soil things clean; 

To be a kitchen-maid, be called a queen, — 

Queen of a cook-stove throne? 

Are you content to reign in that small space -- 

A wooden palace and a yard-fenced land -- 

With other queens abundant on each hand, 

Each fastened in her place? 

Are you content to rear your children so? 

Untaught yourself, untrained, perplexed, distressed, 

Are you so sure your way is always best? 

That you can always know? 

Have you forgotten how you used to long 

In days of ardent girlhood, to be great, 

To help the groaning world, to serve the state, 

To be so wise — so strong? 

And are you quite convinced this is the way, 

The only way a woman’s duty lies -- 

Knowing all women so have shut their eyes? 

Seeing the world to-day? 

Having no dream of life in fuller store? 

Of growing to be more than that you are? 

Doing the things you know do better far, 

Yet doing others - more? 

Losing no love, but finding as you grew 

That as you entered upon nobler life 

You so became a richer, sweeter wife, 

A wiser mother too? 

What holds you? Ah, my dear, it is your throne, 

Your paltry queenship in that narrow place, 

Your antique labours, your restricted space, 

Your working all alone! 

Be not deceived! ‘Tis not your wifely bond 

That holds you, nor the mother’s royal power, 

But selfish, slavish service hour by hour -- 

A life with no beyond! 

(Poetry Foundation, 2019)

The poem consists of ten stanzas, each containing four lines, with the rhyme scheme being continuous throughout the poem, following the rhythm of ABBA, CDDC and so on. Each stanza begins with a question, consistently asking and probing the reader whether women were merely made to stand over a stove and clean the house that they appear bound to. Gilman addresses her poem To The Young Wife, with the aim of implying they can be free if they wish to gain the opportunity to pursue a more rewarding life, engaged with the wider society beyond their confined walls. 

Gilman emphasises through her use of explicit and firm language that women must strive to leave their misconception behind, that told them they are restricted to societies degrading view of women and to stop eluding that they are the ‘queen’ of their home. She asks these women to question, “To be a kitchen-maid, be called a queen, — Queen of a cook-stove throne?” (stanza 2, line 3-4), in which she depicts that these women believe they are the royalty of their home, their little kingdom, when in fact they are merely no more than a maid that cleans the house of her husband and children. Gilman appears to ridicule this idea that women could take pride in feeling they reign over their home, when their responsibilities remain constrained to domestic duties and not dissimilar from the work of a maid. She approaches the poem with a voice of realism, trying to extract the entrapped women of her time to realise they are fooling themselves to try and believe they could be seen as anything meaningful, but that if they escape that dull existence, they can find their truest potential. 

The poem concludes with a statement implying that escaping the home to better oneself does not result in loss of love, but the improvement of oneself as a person. And through this improvement, she will better the lives of her children, able to educate them further as people in more than dull domestic duties. In showing her children that she has aspired to be more and has achieved what she thought she couldn’t, she would be able to inspire her children to also aspire to achieve more. In this way, Gilman appears to be expressing the idea of more than simply breaking the chain of the very basic and constricted societal expectations of women for one woman, but also for the women to follow, for their daughters and granddaughters who will have more opportunities available to them than ever thought possible. The nineteenth and twentieth century was a hugely influential time for women, having had the official formation of The National Union of Women’s Suffrage Societies (NUWSS) in 1897, which was later led by Millicent Fawcett and the gain of the right to vote for British women over the age of 30 was passed in 1918. However, it was not until 1928 that the Equal Franchise Act (1928) was passed, that women over the age of twenty-one were able to vote. This meant that women had finally obtained the same voting rights as men – a first major step towards gender equality (UK Parliament, 2019). 

Portrait of Annie Kenney and Christabel Pankhurst, circa 1910. (Photograph: Anon.)

Bibliography: 

Novels: 

Fitzgerald, F. S. (1995). The Great Gatsby. New York, Scribner Paperback Fiction. 

Gilman, C. and Golden, C. (2004). Charlotte Perkins Gilman's The Yellow Wall-paper. New York: Routledge.

Kessler, C. (1995). Charlotte Perkins Gilman: Her Progress Toward Utopia With Selected Writings. Liverpool: Liverpool University Press, pp.24, 38, 39, 49, 57.

Websites: 

Poetry Foundation. (2019). Charlotte Anna Perkins Gilman. [online] Available at: https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/charlotte-anna-perkins-gilman

UK Parliament. (2019). Women get the vote. [online] Available at: https://www.parliament.uk/about/living-heritage/transformingsociety/electionsvoting/womenvote/overview/thevote/

Images: 

Portrait of Annie Kenney and Christabel Pankhurst, circa 1910. (Photograph: Anon.)

Online at: https://www.unsilencingthelibrary.com/story-of-this-library/was-this-really-a-womens-library/compton-verney-and-women/lady-marie-and-the-suffragettes/

Portrait of Charlotte Perkins Gilman, circa 1896. (Photograph: Fotosearch/Getty Images).

Online at : https://www.gettyimages.co.uk/detail/news-photo/portrait-of-charlotte-perkins-gilman-circa-1896-news-photo/96800347?adppopup=true