by Charlotte Perkins Gilman The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman

What Men Want: Tickets to the World Series.” ~ Dave Barry “What Women Want: To be loved, to be listened to, to be desired, to be respected, to be needed, and sometimes, just to be held. What Men Want: Tickets to the World Series.” ~ Dave Barry Dave Barry is a Pulitzer Prize winning American author and columnist, who wrote a nationally syndicated humor column for the Miami Herald from 1983 to 2005

“Every kind of creature is developed by the exercise of its functions “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 Gilman

Woman’s Qualities during Gilman’s time To groom oneself for courtship To make a career of marriage To sing, play an instrument, and speak some French or Italian To be innocent, virtuous, biddable, dutiful, and void of intellectual opinion

All women were expected to be Weak and helpless A fragile delicate flower incapable of making decisions beyond selecting the menu and ensuring her children were taught moral values Able to ensure her home was a place of comfort for her husband and family from the stresses of industrial life

Many 19th century doctors felt women were emotionally unstable by their very nature and that female nervous system was more sensitive than a man’s. Some doctors believed 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 expected to Bear a large family and maintain a smooth family atmosphere where a man need not bother himself about domestic matters. Let her husband assume his house would run smoothly so he could get on with making money.

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.

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.

Social rules for women (ladies) ALWAYS Graciously accept gentlemanly offers of assistance Wear gloves on the street, at church & other formal occasions, except when eating or drinking

Social rules for women (ladies) 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)

The rules applied for *Ballroom Dancing *The Dining Room Conversation *Formal Correspondence *Clubs and Club Etiquette *Traveling Etiquette *The Clothes of a Lady *Telephoning, Smoking, and *Funerals *Christenings *Neighborhood Customs *Introductions Out-In-Company manners

Social rules for men (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 Retrieve dropped items for a lady Open doors for a lady Help a lady with her coat, cloak, shawl, etc. Offer your arm to escort a lady 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)

“It [“The Yellow Wallpaper”] was not intended to drive people crazy, but to save people from being driven crazy, and it worked.” ~ Charlotte Perkins Gilman

Why did Gilman write 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:

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 to touch pen, or pencil again" as long as I lived. This was in 1887. 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, 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.

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.

But the best result is this 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.” ~ Charlotte Perkins Gilman

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?