The Yellow Wallpaper
Anna Autrey
Nancy Risch
ENG 232
13 June 2013
The Not-so-Mellow Men in Yellow A contemporary reader’s interpretations of “The Yellow Wall-Paper” will be founded in the reader’s set of current beliefs, knowledge and understanding of the era of the story, and a fundamental knowledge of the author. Any history or prior-knowledge a reader has of the author’s personal life will help them clearly identify any biases or overtly stressed generalizations of that author’s characters. When reading the work of a “social reformer” and “mentally disorganized” author, such as Charlotte Perkins Gilman, an unknowing or uneducated reader will, most always, miss the intended plots, symbols, and under-currents of the work being read (“Charlotte” n.p.). In “The Yellow Wall-Paper” a contemporary reader will immediately identify that Gilman portrays her male characters with an element of unmistakable bias, however, fairly so. By being able to see what her reality was then, versus current day reality, a patron of this work should acknowledge that the biased nature of her depiction of males was not only justified, but invaluable to the worthiness of the literary work today. Armed with the acceptance of Gilman’s biased male characters in “The Yellow Wall-Paper”, it is vitally important for contemporary readers to understand why she is biased against men, what influence her feminist attitude had on this story, and how the biased depiction of her male characters helped earn this short story its reputation and accolades. To understand the feminist and biased nature of Gilman toward the male characters in “The Yellow Wall-Paper”, one must know her history and experiences. Born in the nineteenth century, Gilman, then Perkins, was abandoned by her father as a very young child. With few options, her mother was thrust into an atmosphere of poverty, where fear, worry, and emotional scarcity dictated how she was able to raise her family (Gilman 664). Any child exposed to abandonment by their
Nancy Risch
ENG 232
13 June 2013
The Not-so-Mellow Men in Yellow A contemporary reader’s interpretations of “The Yellow Wall-Paper” will be founded in the reader’s set of current beliefs, knowledge and understanding of the era of the story, and a fundamental knowledge of the author. Any history or prior-knowledge a reader has of the author’s personal life will help them clearly identify any biases or overtly stressed generalizations of that author’s characters. When reading the work of a “social reformer” and “mentally disorganized” author, such as Charlotte Perkins Gilman, an unknowing or uneducated reader will, most always, miss the intended plots, symbols, and under-currents of the work being read (“Charlotte” n.p.). In “The Yellow Wall-Paper” a contemporary reader will immediately identify that Gilman portrays her male characters with an element of unmistakable bias, however, fairly so. By being able to see what her reality was then, versus current day reality, a patron of this work should acknowledge that the biased nature of her depiction of males was not only justified, but invaluable to the worthiness of the literary work today. Armed with the acceptance of Gilman’s biased male characters in “The Yellow Wall-Paper”, it is vitally important for contemporary readers to understand why she is biased against men, what influence her feminist attitude had on this story, and how the biased depiction of her male characters helped earn this short story its reputation and accolades. To understand the feminist and biased nature of Gilman toward the male characters in “The Yellow Wall-Paper”, one must know her history and experiences. Born in the nineteenth century, Gilman, then Perkins, was abandoned by her father as a very young child. With few options, her mother was thrust into an atmosphere of poverty, where fear, worry, and emotional scarcity dictated how she was able to raise her family (Gilman 664). Any child exposed to abandonment by their
Cited: “Charlotte Perkins Gilman”. 2013. The Biography Channel Website. Web. 13 June 2013. Gilman, Charlotte. “The Yellow Wall-Paper”. Anthology of American Literature, 10.2. Ed. George McMichael and James S. Leonard. Boston: Pearson Education, Inc. (2011): 663-675. Print. Haney-Peritz, Janice. “Monumental Feminism And Literature’s Ancestral House: Another Look At ‘The Yellow Wall-Paper’. “Women’s Studies 12.2 (1986): 113-128. Literary Reference Center Plus. Web. 11 June 2013. Hudock, Amy E. “The Yellow Wallpaper.” Masterplots II: Women’s Literature Series (1995): 1-3. Literary Reference Center Plus. Web. 11 June 2013. Nunez-Puente, Carolina. “The Yellow Hybrids: Gender And Genre in Gilman’s Wallpaper.” DQR Studies In Literature 49.1 (2012): 139-153. Literary Reference Center Plus. Web. June 11 2013.