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A Study of Charlotte Perkins Gilman's 'The Yellow Wallpaper'

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A Study of Charlotte Perkins Gilman's 'The Yellow Wallpaper' University of Tennessee, Knoxville Trace: Tennessee Research and Creative Exchange Doctoral Dissertations Graduate School 8-1990 The aP triarchy and Women: A Study of Charlotte Perkins Gilman's 'The elY low Wallpaper'" Margaret Victoria Delashmit University of Tennessee - Knoxville Recommended Citation Delashmit, Margaret Victoria, "The aP triarchy and Women: A Study of Charlotte Perkins Gilman's 'The eY llow Wallpaper'". " PhD diss., University of Tennessee, 1990. https://trace.tennessee.edu/utk_graddiss/2662 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the Graduate School at Trace: Tennessee Research and Creative Exchange. It has been accepted for inclusion in Doctoral Dissertations by an authorized administrator of Trace: Tennessee Research and Creative Exchange. For more information, please contact [email protected]. To the Graduate Council: I am submitting herewith a dissertation written by Margaret Victoria Delashmit entitled "The aP triarchy and Women: A Study of Charlotte Perkins Gilman's 'The eY llow Wallpaper'"." I have examined the final electronic copy of this dissertation for form and content and recommend that it be accepted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy, with a major in English. William H. Shurr, Major Professor We have read this dissertation and recommend its acceptance: Allison Ensor, Mary Papke, Susan Becker Accepted for the Council: Dixie L. Thompson Vice Provost and Dean of the Graduate School (Original signatures are on file with official student records.) To the Gradu ate Council: I am submitti ng herewit h a dissertation wri tten by Mar garet Victoria Del ashmit entitl ed "The Patriarchy an d Women: A Study of Charl ot te Perkins Gilm an's 'The Yellow Wallpaper."' I have examined the final copy of this di ssertation for form and content and recommend that it be accepted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doct o r of Philosophy, with a major in English. � -11. A1 .. --------------- �� -------- William H. Shurr, Major Profess or We have re ad thi s diss ertation and recomme nd its acceptance: --�--�------- �-�g�---- -��1L�-=-�-- Accepted for the Council: Vice Prov ost and Dean of The Graduate School THE PATRIARCHY AND WOMEN : A STUDY OF CH ARLOTTE PERKINS GILMAN'S " THE YELLOW WALLPAPER" A Dissertation Pre sented fo r the Do ctor of Ph ilosophy Degree The University of Te nnessee , Knoxville Margaret Victoria Delashmit Augus t 19 9 0 Copyright © .M.a.r.g.a.r�..1!_:t_j,_g_tgrisL.D�l5U�hmi..t. 1990 All rights re served I dedicate this dissertation to m y children , Sharon, Ray , and Michele. iii A CKN OW LE DG MENT S I am indebte d to my director , William Shurr , an d to my committee members, Mary Papke , Allison Ensor, and Susa n Becker, for thei r patience in reading thi s disser tation when it was not yet clear in my o wn mind what exactl y I wi shed to do with the abundance of material I had accumulated. Their guidance inspired me tow ard a sense of direction that ultimately shaped this study. iv ABS T RACT Charlotte Perk ins Gilman reached within her own gothic world for the inspirat ion for "The Ye llow Wal lpa­ per, " and in doing so, she created a gothic he roi ne to who m women of he r own and succeeding generat ions could rel ate. This study examines the eleme nts in Gilman's life that helped h er to create thi s st ory; b ut un like many other studies, it treats "T he Yellow Wallpaper" as a work of art ap art from its author as much as possibl e. This study interprets th e story as an example of the fe male gothi c and examines Gil man's philosophy of lit- erature and her skill in employing the narrative voice to depict her heroine as a grotesque within th e context of nineteenth- century Victo rian mo res and medical prac­ tices. It al so analyzes he r unique treatment of the female dopplega nger by comparing and contrasting her use of th is device with that of Do stoe vsk y' s in 1h�-D�YQ1�. A differe nt type of doubl ing, that of the beloved Other, is al so discussed in an effort to un derstand the sexual relationship between Gil man's narrator and her physician­ husband John. The early history of the story then precedes an annotated bibliography of Gilman criticism in chronolog ical order b eginning with Ca rl De gler' s 1956 arti cle and including disse rtations and published criti cism through 1989. v TABLE OF CONTENTS CHAP TER PAGE INTRODUCTION 1 I. GILMAN 'S PERSONALITY : TRUTH AND FI CTION 9 II. WH AT KIND OF LITERATURE IS TH IS ? 50 III. "THE YELL OW WALLPAPER" AND THE FE MALE GOTH IC : THE MYSTERY AN D THE GROT ESQ UE 75 IV . "THE YE LLOW WALLPAPER ' AND THE FEMALE GOTH IC : VICTORIAN SO CI ETAL AND MED ICAL VIEWS 106 V. "THE YELLOW WALLPAPER" AND THE GOTHIC: THE DOUB LE AS EVIL SELF 143 VI. "THE YE LLOW WALLPAPER " AND THE GOTHIC: THE DOUBLE AS LOVER/DESTROYER 189 CONCLUSION 21 9 HISTORICAL SUMMARY AND AN NOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY OF GILMAN CRITICISM, 1956-1989 22 8 BIBLI OG RAPHY 304 VITA 327 vi INTRODUCTION I was fir st introdu ced to "The Yellow W al lpaper" through a televised produ ction of th e story on the ed uca ­ tion al channe l. I was in a ho s pital wearing a he art monitor at the time , and while the production was not a particula rly good one, the story lodged in my mind and nagge d at me until I fin ally located a copy and read it. After read ing the story , I realiz ed that in some respects the n a r rat o r ' s 1 if e para 11e 1 e d my o w n and t h o s e o f m any o f my fr iends who , like myse lf, grew up during the fif­ ties and sixties. Many of th e same pat ri archal attitude s toward women that reduced Gil man's na rrator to madness were inculcated in my generation of men and w omen as w ell, and the tensions created by those attitudes finallY induced sy mptoms sug gestive of heart failure in my own body. Unlike Gil man's na rrator , ho wever, I returne d t o my work with the realiz at ion that my h e art was healthy but my ne rvous system was exhausted from internal strug­ gl es resulting from effo rts to balance my de sire to attain personal goal s at the un iv ers ity with my guilt at at tem pting to attain those goals. Altho ugh I thought I was a liberated wo man, deep wi thin m y subcons cious I "knew" that I re ally belonged back ho me keeping house fo r my husba nd, and I doubted my abi lity to perform well in the male world of books an d idea s. Li ke Gilman's narra- t or, I wan ted to be a strong, independent woman w ith wo rk of m y own, but my previ ous experienc es--not un li ke th e nar rator's--had reduced my sel f- conf ide nce and ex pec­ tations. In many respects my story is not un i que ; we are legion. In anothe r age we might be diagnosed as hy sterics. Since " The Yellow Wallpape r" is a fiction a lized account of an actua l autobiographical experience , Chapter I, entitl ed "Gilman's Personal ity : Fa ct and Fiction," is devoted to incidents from Gilman's ear ly life that expl ain her later behavio r. The reader will notice par­ all els between Gilm an's life and that of her narrator, between her husband Walter and her narrator's husband John, an d between Gilman' s experiences with Dr. s. Weir Mitchell' s pre scriptions and her narrator's experi ences with Dr. John' s pre scriptions . As the study progresses, the woman reader, e specially, will al so notice that the paral lel s extend to inc lude the lives of a great number of other w o men w hom sh e k nows as w e 11. Keeping in mind Mary A. Hill's assert ion in her 2 biograph y of Gilm an that Gi lman's autobiogra phy som etimes contradicts her diaries (45), I have used the autobiogra­ phy as sour ce material only when Hill does not refute it or when Hill's text seems to corro bo rate Gil man's memory . Whenever possible , however , I have used Gilman's own wo r ds. In a fu rther attem pt to prese nt a bal anced pi c­ ture of G il man, I have quoted fr om Hill's intervi ew with Gil man' s daught er Katharine and from W a l t er's di aries to present their impressions of this important wo man in their lives. My use of Walter's di aries and Katharine's memories in this particular way , as well as my conclu­ sions about the reasons for Charlotte's shor tcomings as a mother , are my original contributions to this chapter. Chap ter II, entitl ed "What Kind of Literature is This?, " is a st udy of Gilman's philosophy of literature as expressed in article s she wrote for 1h§_lQr!£YDn§r and as she de monstrates in her work.
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