PowerPoint Presentation

Christina HendricksArts OneJanuary 2017Gilman, The Yellow Wall-Paper, and related readings

Charlotte Perkins (Stetson) Gilman

Image from Wikimedia Commons, public domain1895

c. 1900Image from Wikimedia Commons, public domain

Gilmans aunts

Harriet Beecher StoweImage from Wikimedia Commons, public domain

Isabella Beecher HookerImage from Wikimedia Commons, public domain

Catherine BeecherImage from Wikimedia Commons, public domain

Gilman in earlier years

1883, age 24Image from Wikimedia Commons, public domainCharles Walter StetsonScreenshot from ebook, Wild Unrest (Horowitz, 2010) Image removed before posting publicly online due to copyright restrictions

In Duty Bound (1881, 1883)In duty bound, a life hemmed in,--Whichever way the spirit turns to look;No chance of breaking out, except by sin,--Not even room to shirk----Simply to live, and work.

An obligation preimposed, unsought,--Yet binding with the force of natural law;The pressure of antagonistic thought;--Aching within, each hour,--A sense of wasting power.

A house with roof so darkly low--The heavy rafters shut the sunlight out;One cannot stand erect without a blow;--Until the soul inside--Cries for a grave--more wide.

A consciousness that if this thing endure,--The common joys of life will dull the pain;The high ideals of the grand and pure--Die, as of course they must--Of long disuse and rust.

That is the worst. It takes supernal strength--To hold the attitude that brings the pain;And there are few indeed but stoop at length--To something less than best,--To find, in stooping, rest.

Stanzas after line added 1883 after getting engaged to Walter Stetson5

Gilman: mental health

1883, age 24Image from Wikimedia Commons, public domainSeveral episodes of mental & emotional difficulties throughout life

Particularly bad after daughter born 1885

Treated by S. Weir Mitchell 1887

S. Weir Mitchell & Neurasthenia

Neurasthenia

George Miller Beard (1839-1883)Screen shot of American Nervousness from archive.org

nerve exhaustion

deficiency or lack of nerve force

cause: modern civilization

-- American Nervousness vi

Image from Wikimedia Commons, public domain

Neurasthenia: CausesSteam powerTravelling long distances by trainPeriodical pressClocks, punctualityIncrease in amount of businessrapid development and acceptance of new ideas (American Nervousness 113)the mental activity of women (Ibid. vi)

Neurasthenia: Treatments

Drugs (including sedatives)

Rest (e.g., Mitchell)

ElectrotherapyDr. Bucklands Scotch Oats Essence, Flickr photo shared by Boston Public Library, licensed CC BY 2.0

Gilman took Dr. Bucklands Essence of Oats, which was mixture of alcohol and morphine, acc. to Wild Unrest (Horowitz), chapter 510

ElectrotherapyElectropathic Belts ad (c. 1890), Wellcome Images, licensed CC BY 4.0General Faradization (1873), Wellcome Images, licensed CC BY 4.0

Silas Weir Mitchell

S. Weir Mitchell examining Civil War Vet, Wellcome Images, licensed CC BY 4.0

S. Weir Mitchell in 1909, Wikimedia Commons, public domain

Silas Weir Mitchell

S. Weir Mitchell in 1909, Wikimedia Commons, public domainWear and Tear article (1871)

Wear: exhaustion from normal use

Tear: exhaustion from overuseMore likely from indoor mental work than physical work

Treatment of tear for men: camp cure

At first, for women: rest cure (later also gave camp cure)

Mitchells rest cure

Seclusion from family6-8 weeks restMassage, electrotherapyFeedingConvalescenceLouis Lang, The Invalid (1870), Wikimedia Commons, public domain

Gilman on MitchellWhy I Wrote The Yellow Wall-Paper (1913)

This wise man put me to bed and applied the rest cure, [then] sent me home with solemn advice to live as domestic a life as far as possible, to have but two hours intellectual life a day, and never to touch pen, brush, or pencil again as long as I lived.

Helen L. Horowitz, Wild Unrest (2010): Exaggeration?Gilman c. 1915, Flickr photo shared by Schleisinger Library (Harvard), no known copyright restrictions

Gilman, later life

Gilman & daughter, ca. 1897, Flickr photo shared by Schleisinger Library (Harvard), no known copyright restrictions1888: separated from Walter Stetson, moved to California w/daughter Katherine (divorced 1894)Becomes prominent writer & public intellectual1894: sends daughter to live with father & new wife 1900: marries cousin George Gilman1909-1916: The Forerunner1935: deathI have preferred chloroform to cancer

The Yellow Wall-paper (1892)

The Female Gothic

Cliveden Mansion, Philadelphia, Wikimedia Commons, public domain-- Carol M. Davison, Haunted House/Haunted Heroine: Female Gothic Closets in The Yellow Wallpaper (2004)Woman taken to castle or manor home by man

House represents womens ambivalence towards social institutions (fear of entrapment/desire for protection)

Dark underside of domestic ideals

Repressed & dangerous aspects of self threaten to surface

Creeping Women

She Walketh Veiled and Sleeping Womens Journal (1889)

She walkedth veiled and sleeping,For she knoweth not her power;She obeyeth but the pleadingOf her heart, and the high leadingOf her soul, unto this hour.Slow advancing, halting, creeping,Comes the Woman to the hour!She walketh veiled and sleeping,For she knoweth not her power.

An Obstacle (selections)I was climbing up a mountain-pathWith many things to do,Important business of my own,And other people's too,When I ran against a PrejudiceThat quite cut off the view.My work was such as could not wait,My path quite clearly showed,My strength and time were limited,I carried quite a load;And there that hulking PrejudiceSat all across the road.So I spoke to him politely,For he was huge and high,And begged that he would move a bitAnd let me travel by.He smiled, but as for moving! --He didn't even try.Then I flew into a passion,and I danced and howled and swore.I pelted and belabored himTill I was stiff and sore;He got as mad as I did --But he sat there as before..So I sat before him helpless,In an ecstasy of woe --The mountain mists were rising fast,The sun was sinking slow --When a sudden inspiration came,As sudden winds do blow.I took my hat, I took my stick,My load I settled fair,I approached that awful incubusWith an absent-minded air --And I walked directly through him,As if he wasn't there!

Our Androcentric Culture, or The Man-Made World(1911)

Three spheres of life (5)

HUMANFEMALE-- motherhood --MALE-- fatherhood -- Natural male tendencies:

DesireCombatSelf-expressionNatural female tendencies:

Caring, nurturing

We have different spheres but those are only fatherhood and motherhood; all else is human (5)

Does also say there are natural sexed tendencies (2,6) but then later also suggests that these are actually in all of us (4)22

Androcentric Culture

MALEFEMALEDesireCombatSelf-expressionCaring, nurturing

Human (the norm)-- reserved for men

Female (sexed)

We focus so much on male and female and hardly think of our humanity at all (2)

Because men have become superior and taken over culture, the family, industry, etc., what was male has become the human norm and women are the different, the sex (3)

That one sex should have monopolized all human activities, called them mans work, and managed them as such, is what is meant by the phrase Androcentric Culture (5). -- Men have taken over what should actually be for all humans; we have called these things the sphere of men but they are the sphere of both

Masculine tendencies are fine but when given too much power then we have problems (6)23

Androcentric Culture

MALE / HUMANFEMALEDesireCombatSelf-expression

Caring, nurturing

Culture, industry, art, politics, intellectual workHome, family, domesticity

The woman is not only relegated to certain sphere but now owned by the male, along with her children, and kept restricted to his rule24

Periods of Human HistoryFrom Lester Ward, Pure Sociology (1903) Now, and recorded human history

Effects of Androcentric Culture

Male sexual selection

Male-dominant proprietary family

Focus of family becomes him rather than childrenThe Lbmann family, early 1900s, Flickr photo by Liz Lawley licensed CC BY-SA 2.0

Effects of Androcentric CultureArt, literature, industry & work

A Human Culture the effort of this book is by no means to attribute a wholly evil influence to men, and a wholly good one to women; it is not even claimed that a purely feminine culture would have advanced the world more successfully. It does claim that the influence of the two together is better than that of either one alone (Chpt. VI, p. 30; not assigned)

A Human Culture

Neither male nor female, but accessible equally to all as humansDemocracy (ch. 10)Society based on service, peace, aiming at good for all (ch. 10)People doing work they enjoy (ch. 13)Women doing sexual selection; motherhood as base of family (ch. 14)BUT:

of the two women are more vitally human than the men (63).

Is this the picture?

MALEFEMALEDesireCombatSelf-expressionCaring, nurturing

Male (sexed)Human (the norm)

We focus so much on male and female and hardly think of our humanity at all (2)

Because men have become superior and taken over culture, the family, industry, etc., what was male has become the human norm and women are the different, the sex (3)

That one sex should have monopolized all human activities, called them mans work, and managed them as such, is what is meant by the phrase Androcentric Culture (5). -- Men have taken over what should actually be for all humans; we have called these things the sphere of men but they are the sphere of both

Masculine tendencies are fine but when given too much power then we have problems (6)30