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[]≈ Charlotte Anna Perkins Gilman '''

The Theorist’s life and social context  Charlotte Perkins Gilman''' Charlotte Perkins Gilman

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_vFmX_AelEuE/R0I5drDeY7I/AAAAAAAAAFs/i3qTW3c3Ogw/S220/CharlottePerkinsGilman--c1900.jpg

Historical context and development of her key theory

This short story describes the attitude in the 19th century towards women's health both physical and mental. Charlotte Perkins Gilman was involved in Women’s movement, diverse social movement, largely based in the United States, seeking equal rights and opportunities for women in their economic activities, their personal lives, and politics. It is recognized as the “second wave” of the larger feminist movement. While the first-wave feminism of the 19th and early 20th centuries focused on women’s legal rights, such as the right to vote. The story is a collection of journal entries written by a Gilman, whose physician husband believes as a form of treatment, the woman is forbidden  from working, and is encouraged to eat well and get plenty of exercise and air so she can recuperate from what he calls "temporary nervous depression- a slight hysterical tendency", a diagnosis common to women in that period http://www.charlotteperkinsgilman.com/2008/05/about-charlotte-perkins-gilman-1860.html as cited on (Page 648 Gilman 1894) "If a physician of high standing, and one's own husband,assures friends and relatives that there is really nothing, the matter with one, but temporary nervous depression - a slight hysterical tendency - what is one to do?". In her book “Yellow Wallpaper” she describes the more one stays in their room, the more the wallpaper appears to mutate especially in the moonlight. she also speaks of how intriguing the pattern and the design become to her as she starts seeing a figure the wallpaper, a woman creeping on all the four sides. She tries to free the woman trapped in the wallpaper by stripping the wallpaper off.

Main themes, claims, and/or hypotheses associated with her most important or well-known theory

Gilman in this book protests the medical and professional oppression against women at that time. While under impression that husbands and doctors were acting with their best interest in mind, women were depicted as mentally weak and fragile. Women's rights advocates believed that outbreak of women being diagnosed as mentally ill was the manifestation of their setbacks regarding the roles they could play in a male-dominated society. Women were also discouraged from writing as it would create an identity and become a form of defiance for them. Gilman realised that writing became one form of existence for women as they had very few rights then. Gilman used her writing to explore the role of women in America at the time. She explored issues such as lack of a life outside the home and the oppressive forces of man-dominated society. Her doctor husband does not allow her to participate in her own treatment or diagnosis, and we see the male voice that controls on the female and decides how she is allowed to perceive and speak about the world around her.

Subsequent impact and contemporary relevance of her work

The Yellow Wallpaper illuminates the challenges of being a woman of ambition in the late 19th century. While all women were seen vulnerable, those who expressed political ambition (suffrage reformers), or who took on male roles and challenged female dress codes (New Women), or who sought higher education or creative lives – or even read too much fiction – could be accused of flouting female conventions and placing themselves at risk of mental illness. as cited in Women and Economics by Gilman,“The ideal woman was not only assigned a social role that locked her into her home, but she was also expected to like it, to be cheerful and gay, smiling and good-humored.” Mitchell, largely through his treatment of Gilman and her later description of this, gained a notorious reputation, and he may well have misdiagnosed her or believed that her intellectual pursuits were too introspective. Gilman explained that the idea for the story originated in her own experience as a patient: "the real purpose of the story was to reach Dr. S. Weir Mitchell, and convince him of the error of his ways. “She had suffered years of depression and consulted a well-known specialist physician who prescribed a "rest cure" which required her to "live as domestic a life as possible". She was forbidden to touch pen, pencil, or brush, and was allowed only two hours of mental stimulation a day.

]]Charlotte Anna Perkins Gilman

''' https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charlotte_Perkins_Gilman https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Yellow_Wallpaper