Charlotte Perkins Gilman

Charlotte Perkins Gilman

Charlotte Perkins Gilman
Born:	July 4, 1860
Died:	August 17, 1935
Occupation(s):	Short story and non-fiction writer, novelist, commercial artist, lecturer and social reformer.
Magnum opus:	"The Yellow Wallpaper"

Charlotte Perkins Gilman (July 3 1860 – August 17 1935) was a prominent American feminist, writer, lecturer, and social reformer during the early 1900s. She was born into the renowned Beecher family who numbered among their ranks: authoress and abolitionist, Harriet Beecher Stowe and abolitionists ministers, Lyman Beecher and Henry Ward Beecher. Although her works went largely unnoticed for decades, interest in her writing was revived by adherents of women's studies in the 1970s. Her short story "The Yellow Wallpaper," which sparked a controversy in her day, is what she is currently best remembered for. The tale, told in a Gothic mode is a fictional account of her own struggle with depression and the subsequently misguided medical advice that she received. In an era when women were beginning to challenge traditional concepts about their role in society, Gilman advocated greater awareness in many areas of a woman's life.

Biography

Early life and first marriage

Gilman was born Charlotte Anna Perkins in Hartford, Connecticut, the daughter of Mary Perkins (formerly Mary Fitch Westcott) and Frederic Beecher Perkins, a librarian and magazine editor, and nephew of Harriet Beecher Stowe, author of Uncle Tom's Cabin. Her father abandoned the family, leaving his wife and daughter with his progressive aunts, who also included Catharine Beecher, and Isabella Beecher Hooker. Her mother was forced to move often and live with various relatives in order to support the family; as a result Perkins was largely schooled at home. She was a highly imaginative child who loved the fiction of Louisa May Alcott, but her mother discouraged her writing and living in a "dream world." However, she was to be deeply influenced by her reform minded aunts who encouraged friendships with other females within their intellectual circle. Her best friend was Grace Channing, granddaughter of the eminent Unitarian thinker William Ellery Channing.

After two years at the Rhode Island School of Design, Gilman supported herself as a greeting-card artist. In 1884, Charles Walter Stetson, a fellow artist repeatedly asked for her hand in marriage and, although she had misgivings, she felt it was her duty to conform to societal expectations. Her only child, Katharine Beecher Stetson, was born that same year. Adjustment to marriage and motherhood was difficult for Perkins and she suffered from depression, which would periodically return throughout her life.

In 1885 she traveled alone to California to visit Grace Channing leaving her husband and daughter behind. She would return there after separating from her husband in 1891 where she became involved in the Nationalist Club, a reform movement that centered around Edward Bellamy's utopian novel, Looking Backward (written in 1888). Her husband came to California in attempt to reconcile with her, but in 1894, after their divorce was finalized, he ended up marrying her friend Channing. Subsequently her daughter went to live with her father and stepmother which, in that time, ignited a public scandal.

She began to earn a living through publication of her poetry and short stories, and became active on the lecture circuit, mostly promoting the ideas of socialization of the home, a recurrent theme of Perkins throughout her life and career.

The Yellow Wallpaper

In 1886, after her first serious bout with depression, Gilman's family sent her to see renowned neurologist, Silas Weir Mitchell, who advocated a "rest cure" which consisted of an admonition, "to never write or paint again." This misguided advice would become the basis for the story, "The Yellow Wallpaper," first published in 1892 in New England Magazine. The story tells of a woman, suffering from depression, who is virtually locked away in an attic room by her physician husband "in order to rest." As she lays there, unoccupied and immobile, she begins to imagine that the pattern in the wallpaper has come alive. She sees a woman's figure in the wallpaper, especially, at night, and the "trapped" women takes on the persona of her own alter ego. The woman slowly goes mad and even her well-intentioned - but patronizing - husband is unable to make a difference for her. In its time, "The Yellow Wallpaper" was considered provocative and controversial. It hasw also been favorably compared to the horror fiction of Edgar Allen Poe. Gilman's subsequent short stories are told in a similar vein and have recurring motifs of ghostly apparitions and supernatural encounters. An excerpt from the story shows how the protaganist begins to identify with the 'woman in the wallpaper':

As soon as it was moonlight and that poor thing began to crawl and shake the pattern, I got up and ran to help her. I pulled and she shook, I shook and she pulled, and before morning we had peeled off yards of that paper.

Writing and lecturing

She travelled extensively and after visting England and meeting with George Bernard Shaw and Sidney Webb she became a contributor to the monthly American Fabian, a literary digest published by the Fabian Society. Gilman's writings and travels would soon culminate in the publication of - in her lifetime - her magnum opus, Women and Economics.

In 1898, with the publication of Women and Economics, Gilman received international recognition. It was immediately compared to John Stuart Mill's Subjection of Women (1869). Women and Economics was widely read in both North America and Europe and was subsequently translated into seven languages. The premise of the book states that maternal and domestic roles are overemphasized for women and true freedom comes in the form of economic liberation for a woman. The inherent philosophy reflects the influence of both Marxist theory and Social Darwinism She was particularly influenced by the theories of sociologist Lester Ward, who was known as a reform Darwinist.

Gilman's second marriage — from 1900 to her husband's death in 1934 — was to her first cousin, New York lawyer George Houghton Gilman. He was supportive of her work and they enjoyed a long and satisfying partnership. Her daughter came to live with the couple in New York until the time of her own marriage. During this highly productive decade Gilman's other works, which addressed her utopian vision of a women's role in the world, included: In Concerning Children (1900) which advocates the use of professional child care, and The Home (1903) which advocated a "kitchenless home."

In 1909 Gilman founded the literary magazine, "Forerunner," which published short stories, essays and book reviews. It also serialized Gilman's novels such as Herland, a utopian novel about a lost colony comprised entirely of women.

In 1915, after a visit to Hull House she founded the Women's Peace Party along with Jane Addams.

In 1922, Gilman moved from New York to Norwich, Connecticut, where she wrote her social critique, the book His Religion and Hers.

End of Life

In 1934 after the sudden death of her husband Gilman moved back to California in order to be closer to her daughter and her family. She was subsequently diagnosed with breast cancer which was found to be inoperable. A proponent of euthanasia, she committed suicide on August 17 1935, by inhaling chloroform. Her autobiography, The Living of Charlotte Perkins Gilman was published posthumously.

Legacy

According to one biographer, Gilman was a Deist and "she foresaw that women... would someday form a religion that would focus on creating a paradise on earth.

David, I did not really care for her any of her quotes. If you want to add, go right ahead! E

Bibliography

• The Yellow Wallpaper (1890)
• In This World (1893)
• Women and Economics (1898)
• Concerning Children (1900)
• The Home, Its Work And Influence (1903)
• Human Work (1904)
• Forerunner (magazine)|Forerunner (monthly journal with prose - 1909-1916)
• The Crux (1910)
• Moving the Mountain (1911)
• The Man-Made World; or, Our Androcentric Culture (1911)
• Our Brains and What Ails Them (1912)
• Humanness (novel)|Humanness (1913)
• Benigna Machiavelli (1914)
• Social Ethics: Sociology and the Future of Society (1914)
• The Dress of Women (1915)
• Herland (novel)|Her Land (1915)
• Growth and Combat (1916)
• With Her in Our Land (1916)
• His Religion and Hers (1922)
• What Diantha Did
• The living of Charlotte Perkins Gilman: an autobiography (posthumous - 1987)

References

ISBN links support NWE through referral fees

• The New Encyclopedia Britannica "Gilman, Charlotte Anna Perkins." Vol. 5 2002.
• "Charlotte Perkins Gilman." Historic World Leaders. Gale Research, 1994. Reproduced in Biography Resource Center. Farmington Hills, Mich.: Thomson Gale. 2007.
• "Charlotte Perkins Gilman." American Decades. Gale Research, 1998. Reproduced in Biography Resource Center. Farmington Hills, Mich.: Thomson Gale. 2007.
• Charlotte Perkins Gilman:The Yellow Wallpaper and Other Stories, edited with an introduction by Robert Shulman. Oxford World's Classics, 1998.

External links

• Works by Charlotte Perkins Gilman. Project Gutenberg, Retrieved April 4, 2007.
• "Similar Cases by Charlotte Gilman", About, Retrieved April 4, 2007.
• "Charlotte Perkins Gilman", Books and Writers, Retrieved April 4, 2007.

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