Jenn Zaun

Professor Lago
ENG 1500-15
Essay 4 Draft 2

Throughout Charlotte Perkins Gilmans life, she experienced many events that would
have driven her to feel like the woman trapped behind the yellow wallpaper. Not only was her
father not present in her life, but her mother was not all that she needed her to be. After being
raised by all females, Gilman had clashing views with her husband and it would soon drive her
into a depression showing that her experiences early in her life led to depression.
The troubles would start for Gilman when she was six-years old. At this time, her father
left home and the only contact Gilman has with her father was through letters. But, these letters
were never enough for Gilman to live with. At fifteen, she wrote him letters that expressed her
desire for more letters, longer letters, letters with money, letters with advice (Carey). But, her
requests were never met, the subject of his letters were always briefly, reciprocated (Carey).
Based off her fathers lack of action towards her, Gilman says the word father in the sense of
love, care, one to go to in trouble, means nothing to me (Carey). Clearly, her statement is
proving how her father was never there for her. For Gilman to say that the word father means
nothing to her is a very harsh statement, so it is obvious that there is some anger behind her
comment.
But, despite the lack of a father figure in Gilmans life, she still had her mother there to
raise her. However her mother, Mary Westcott, was also effected by the absence of her husband
and her childrens father. Mary Westcott struggled with the emotional and financial demands of
raising two children alone and starved her children emotionally (Feminist Writers) and her
experiences greatly influenced the way she raised her children. Because her own experience
taught her of the dangers of a soft constitution pose to a woman, Mary withheld affection and
emotional displays from Charlotte and wanted the girl under her strict control (Beekman) and
these withholdings could have potentially greatly effected Gilman. Although Westcott was now
raising Gilman and her sister, she was not alone in doing so. Throughout her childhood, Gilman
was constantly around strong-minded females and she also had a family history of rebellious
feminists. Her fathers aunt, who helped Westcott with her daughters, was Harriet Beecher Stowe
who wrote Uncle Toms Cabin a novel on slavery. Her other aunts were Catherine and Isabella,
Catherine was the founder of the Hartford Female Seminary (an educational institution for
females) and Isabella was a dedicated suffragist (Chopin). Therefore, because of her lack of
father figure and prominent female figures, Gilman never experienced a traditional household
where men and women had different responsibilities.
Later on in Gilmans life, she married an artist, Charles Walter Stetson, but their marriage
would soon fail which leads back to her home life. Friction began between the pair and
immediately over the inequality of the roles of husband and wife (Feminist Writers). Now,
the problems in her marriage could possibly lead back to the lack of a father figure in her home.
Since there was not man in her house, all Gilman saw was her mother and other female figures in
her life taking over both parental roles. This would cause Gilman to not know what is a mans
job in the house compared to what a womans job is in the house. Gilman was surrounded by
active feminists, like her aunt Catherine who started an educational institution for women. And,
during the time of Gilmans marriage, women getting an education would have caused
controversy since women were not supposed to be in control of the household. It was set that
women had certain roles and men had certain roles so with Gilman not being exposed to these
different roles, she would not have known what her job would have been and probably felt as
though she should be more independent in the relationship. Because of her not hating an idea of
how a man and woman should work together in a home, she probably felt like she was being
controlled by her husband since, in her experience, mother did everything in Gilmans home on
her own. But, if her father had been present in her home life, Gilman would have been raised in a
household that had a father figure and mother figure, which would have given her an idea of how
responsibilities in a relationship would have been divided. According to the article Fathers
Absence and Its Effects on Daughters, not having a father in a childs life is harmful for the
child. Females without father figures often become desperate for male attention losing a
father will alter their perception of men, and they may have trouble forming relationships with
men (Mancini) and this was proved in Gilmans first marriage.
During their marriage, Gilman gave birth to a daughter, Katherine, but shortly after the
birth Gilman consulted with neurologist S. Mitchell and he put her through a treatment that
essentially made her condition worse. After Katherines birth, Gilman began suffering from
severe depression and Dr. Mitchell had her go under rest cure, as he did with many of his
patients. Under rest cure, the patient goes through relaxation and seclusion that helps bring the
patient back into a childlike state. Gilman was told to lie life as far as possible have but two
hours intellectual life a day and never touch pen, brush, or pencil again as long as (she) lived
(Gilman). But, instead of helping her with her case of depression, Mitchells rest cure only made
it worse. I went home and obeyed those directions for some three months, and came so near the
border line of utter mental ruin that I could see over (Gilman). So, since the rest cure is thought
to bring the patient back into a childlike state and upon doing so this only made Gilmans
depression worse, it is safe to assume that Gilmans problems travel back to her childhood.
When returning to her childlike state, she was also returning the feelings she had then, like the
abandonment of her father.
The Yellow Wallpaper is now turning into a story about Gilmans life. In her short
story, Gilman writes in the first person, almost like it is her own diary. The narrator in The
Yellow Wallpaper is suffering from nervous depression, just like Gilman is. She is also having
complications in her marriage where her husband, John, seems very controlling since whenever
he comes around the narrator she hides her journal. Also similar to Gilmans real like is how the
narrator goes under the care of Dr. Mitchell and becomes worse while undergoing rest cure. The
narrator was instructed not to write or think at all just like Gilman and they both disobeyed the
doctors orders and wrote to escape their own thoughts. Although when Gilman is discussing
why she wrote The Yellow Wallpaper she confessed that she never had hallucinations or
objections to (her) mural decorations (Gilman) but that does not mean that she is not feeling the
same way the narrator in her story was feeling. In the story, the narrator becomes obsessed with
the wallpaper that is surrounding her in her bedroom and begins to feel as though there is a
woman trapped behind the wallpaper who is trying to break free. By the end of the story, the
narrator is completely insane and believes that she is the woman trapped behind this wallpaper.
Even though Gilman is saying that she did not actually believe there was a woman trapped
behind the wallpaper in her real thoughts, that does not mean that Gilman did not believe that she
was also trapped. Not only could she have been feeling trapped by a controlling husband, but she
also could have been feeling trapped by her own thoughts while in rest cure. The other reason
why she wrote The Yellow Wallpaper was to show Dr. Mitchell the error of his ways
(Feminist Writers).
Conclusively, the different factors of Charlotte Perkins Gilman could have caused her to
feel depressed and led her to live a life similar to the woman in The Yellow Wallpaper. Her
father abandoning her during her childhood would be the root of a lot of Gilmans problems that
her rest cure would bring back to her. From the beginning, the strong female figures in her life
would give her an unrealistic idea of how a normal household should function which would later
cause problems in her future marriage with Charles Stetson. Also, when undergoing rest cure to
put her back into a childlike state to help with her nervous depression, she became more
depressed, supporting the claim that Gilman faced a lot of troubled in her childhood.