CHAPTER 2:

BACKGROUND OF THE LITERATURE

A. The Author of the Literature

Charlotte Anna Perkins Gilman was a women's pride who fought for women's rights back in

the 1900s. She was known for being a writer, lecturer, economist, and theorist. She was born in

Hartford, Connecticut, in the United States on the 3rd of July 1860. Her mother's name is Mary

Wescott Perkins, and her father is Fredrick Beecher Perkins. His father left the household in

poverty when charlotte was still very young which lead her and her siblings to often live with

their relatives. Even though her childhood was ruined and resulted in her attending very little

formal education she still manages to attend the Rhode Island School of Design for two years

(1878-1880). She, later on, met Charles Walter Stetson and later on got married and gave birth to

their first child Katherine Beecher Stetson, on the 25th of March in 1885. After giving birth
Charlotte suffered from postpartum depression and in addition, she struggles to fulfill her role as

a wife and a mother.

Charlotte’s condition was treated unusually with the so-called "Rest Cure" by the man who

theorized and treat her, Dr. Silas Weir Mitchell. She rejected the treatment by finally divorcing

his husband and moving back to Pasadena, California, to reunite with her daughter. She slowly

gets herself back up by running a boarding house and speaking publicly against women's equal

treatment. A few years later, she wrote and published the book "The Yellow Wallpaper" as her

point of view on the "rest cure" by Dr. Weir Mitchell's treatment. In 1900 she remarried his

cousin George Houghton Gilman who adored and supported her passions.

After getting married, Charlotte Perkins Gilman continued her fight for women's rights by

writing several feminist publications and lecturing on women's equal treatment and other

problems in society. She published short stories, novels, hundreds of poems, and thousands of

articles. His achievements in the movement led her to be notable and to be one of the most

influential in women's movements in today's generation. A few years later she found out she had
incurable breast cancer which led her to end her life by committing suicide on the 17th of August

1935.

B. The History of the Literature

In 1892 the original published of The Yellow Wallpaper, in the New England Magazine. The

book was formed in 1899, but before this was published, Gilman had a hard time publishing it. It

was because Horace Scudder, the Atlantic, refused to print her works, but eventually, they got

printed out. The early reviewers classified "The Yellow Wallpaper" as horror because of the term

Gilman used. But a few years have passed, and the commentators nowadays say that "The

Yellow Wallpaper" is focused on feminism, complex symbolism, and thematic depth. Gilman

presents the internal of a woman that had been diagnosed with hysteria and been prescribed total

rest. Not just rest, but rest for being a mother and a woman. She can be only a sick patient that

follows what the doctor says. In short, the main character is slowly driven mad by her cure and

has been cut off from intellectual pursuits.

 These days "The Yellow Wallpaper" is still popular because of its symbols and meanings.

Examples are the loss of control of your emotions and actions, the feeling of being a worthless

mother and a woman, someone watching you, you’re no longer free, and many other meanings,

Because of this, it may cause depression or can affect your mental health. It also mentioned in

the story how the male doctors or physicians may be unfair in how they treated female patients,

specifically if they are part of their family. Although we all know that this work is fiction, it was

based on the real experience of Gilman after she was diagnosed sick and was prescribed a "rest

cure" which prevent her to write, being a mother, and even being a woman. After Gilman was

cured, she went on writing again. Gilman published "The Women and Economics" in 1898. The

classic of American women's literature is no other than Herland, which she published in 1915.

C. Summary of the Literary Piece

"The Yellow Wallpaper" is all about the woman's mental health while she's recovering from

her sickness and got prescribed to rest on a rented country estate with her family. The woman's

obsession with the yellow wallpaper in her bedroom makes her more aggressive and makes her
mental illness much worse than before. The main character of "The Yellow Wallpaper" starts

with her husband discussing their move and telling her how beautiful the estate is for the summer

vacation and to help herself to make her feel even better.

Her doctor is also her husband, John. The reason why they move to the country estate is to

make her illness get treated, she said that she has nervous depression, or nervousness, that

follows the birth of their baby. John has a sister, Jennie. Jennie also lives with them to work as

their housekeeper since the main character has an illness and gets prescribed to stay in bed and

rest. So, the role of her being the housekeeper has been passed on to Jennie. Her husband thinks

that he is sure that he will not worry about her wife's sickness because he believes she will get

better soon enough with just only a rest in bed. Since he's the doctor, he used his job to control

her. He is always strict with her; he doesn't allow her to wander the house nor doesn't allow her

to do a thing that makes her happy.

The main character mentions her baby more than once, since she cannot take care of the baby

because of her illness, there is also a woman named Mary that is assigned to take care of her
baby. Since she knew that she could not take care of it and her husband knew it too. Because of

that, her role of being a mother got taken away too.

Once they move into the country state, she and her husband move into the large room that has

yellow wallpaper, which she finds disturbing, uncomfortable, and many negative feelings. She

pleaded to her husband that she want to change rooms and move downstairs, but sadly her

request got rejected. The more she stays in the room for days, the more she feels fascinated with

the yellow wallpaper. After she hosted the family on July 4th, she expresses her feelings that it

got even worse and she is completely exhausted because of the yellow wallpaper. She struggles

to do daily activities, and her mental illness got even worse. She mentioned all the effects she got

from the yellow wallpaper to her husband, but sadly her husband said that she just needs a rest

and goes to sleep. And also, her husband doesn't allow her to do what she loves, so she secretly

writes a story and keeps it hidden from her husband.

Day by day, the narrator seems to be out of mind because of the yellow wallpaper, she just

sleeps all day and stays up all midnight just to stare at it, she believes that it is alive because of

the pattern that moving and changing. She also believes that there is a woman, in the yellow
wallpaper, seemingly watching her every movement. Few weeks before their departure. John

stays overnight in the other town, and because of it, the woman was all by herself, staring at the

wallpaper without being disturbed by her husband every night. She also locks out Jennie because

she doesn't want to get disturbed and believes that she is the only one who can see the woman in

the yellow wallpaper. Morning has passed and John returns, after he knew everything because of

her sister, he immediately goes to the room and tells the narrator to let him in, but sadly the

narrator doesn't want him to enter. After a few tries at opening the door, John can now enter the

room and finds his wife crawling on the floor like a crazy woman. She said to her husband that

the woman she sees in the yellow wallpaper had finally exited and is free. A few seconds later,

John faints because of it the narrator is confused and surprised.