Charlotte Perkins Gilman - LV 4 Assignment
Charlotte Perkins Gilman
Poetry Assignment
Poetry Assignment
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, 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 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 (Kessler, 1995). 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 – in which Gilman expresses her belief that women were imprisoned unconsciously in their own homes.
Anon. (2019)
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 made clear that she would not be extended the same 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.
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?
A wooden palace and a yard-fenced land --
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)
This view is also expressed in To The Young Wife, arguing that escaping the home to better oneself does not result in loss of love, but improvement as a person. With freedom to learn, women would better the lives of their children, having aspired and achieved - she could inspire her children to do the same. In this way, Gilman's theory was proved by powerful women like Millicent Fawcett, who led fight for British women over the age of thirty to obtain the vote in 1918. Following this in 1928, the Equal Franchise Act (1928) was passed, allowing women over the age of twenty-one to vote. This was the first major step towards gender equality (UK Parliament, 2019).
Portrait of Charlotte Perkins Gilman, circa 1896. (Photograph: Anon. Fotosearch/Getty Images).
The Young Wife is focussed on questioning whether the domestic women whom she addresses, are truly satisfied with their life and asks them to seek more purpose from life than to be merely a cog turning in the wider society of inferior women. Her work pushes them to ponder the difference they could make to their lives if only they had the courage to attempt it. The social context of the time is reflected with the domestic expectations for women – however, Gilman opposes this by asking if they had hoped and aspired for a more meaningful purpose in their younger years. It elicits the idea that as children, they wished to be prevalent in the world, but society instilled in them the expectation to adhere to the social hierarchy of male superiority. This power consistently pushes them towards an inferior and meaningless destiny as a life-long housewife.
This corresponds with the idea of men manipulating women to believe their housewife role is of more importance than assigned credit for. Gilman presents this in To The Young Wife, referring to women as ‘Queen of a cook-stove throne’ (Poetry Foundation, 2019). This emphasises how women had truly internalised the belief that they were inferior to men by the time of Gilman’s writing and were only beginning to gain hope for change. In many literary works of this era, women were presented as intelligent if they accepted societies rules and abided by them. A quotation that depicts women being clever enough to know their place and accept it, rather than oppose 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). Here, dynamic character Daisy Buchanan highlights that intelligent women were not appreciated in the nineteenth and early twentieth century. Emphasis is placed on the concept that success is found easiest for women who accept societal norms - as Daisy identified and followed.
The poem consists of ten stanzas, each containing a quatrain, with a continuous rhyme scheme throughout the poem, following ABBA, CDDC and so on. Most of the stanzas begin and end with a question, probing the reader to consider whether women were merely made to stand over a stove and clean the house that they appear bound to. However, the final stanza contrasts this pattern, shifting from questioning the reader, to forcefully telling the reader. Gilman addresses her poem To The Young Wife, implying women could be free if they took the opportunity to pursue a more rewarding life with the wider society beyond confined walls.
Gilman emphasises through her use of explicit and firm language that women must strive to leave misconception behind, restricting societies degrading view of women and stop eluding to being ‘queen’ of their home. The repetition of the noun 'queen' in various forms throughout emphasises that it is the delusion of 'paltry queenship', reinforced by men that keeps women bound to the home. Gilman ridicules this idea that women could take pride in this 'reign', when their responsibilities remain constrained to domestic duties and not dissimilar from the work of a maid. This likening is made particularly poignant by the final line, in which Gilman depicts domestic life as 'slavish service hour by hour'. Gilman approaches the poem with a voice of realism, attempting to empower entrapped women of her time and make them realise they could escape their dull existence and find their truest potential.
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: Anon. 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
Comments
Post a Comment