Charlotte Perkins Gilman

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Charlotte Perkins Gilman

• Biography

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Works Cited

• Gilman, Charlotte Perkins. Why I Wrote The
  Yellow Wallpaper. Short Story Criticism. Ed.
  Janet Witalec. Vol. 62. Detroit Gale, 2003.
  51-53. Literature Resource Center. Gale.
  Lake-Sumter Com. Coll. Lib., Clermont, FL. 11 May
  2008 lthttpgo.galenetgroup.comgt.

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Early Childhood

• Gilman grew up in poverty with an absent father
  and a distant mother who felt powerless to
  protect her own children from the hardships of
  life.
• Gilman recalls in her personal writings that she
  yearned for her mothers touch but never got
  physical and emotional comfort. She felt starved
  from motherly affection.

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Young Adulthood

• This austere upbringing had a pivotal impact on
  Gilman she learned to rely on herself and
  demanded perfection from everything she did. She
  was disciplined in her workouts, her writing, and
  her studies.
• As a young woman, she met artist Charles Walter
  Stetson to whom she was physically attracted.
• At first, Gilman appeared happy as his wife and
  willingly gave up her independence to dedicate
  herself fully to the marriage.

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• Eventually, depression set in. She became
  increasingly unhappy by the lack of intellectual
  stimulation and equality in her marriage. After
  the birth of her daughter, Katherine, she fell
  into a major depression.
• Under the care of Dr. Weir, she was encouraged to
  follow the rest cure the enforced she terminate
  all physical and intellectual activities. The
  rest cure only exacerbated her depression.

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• Gilman writes, This wise man Dr. Weir put me
  to bed and applied the rest cure and told her to
  live as domestic a life as far as possible to
  have but two hours intellectual life a day,
  and never touch pen, brush or pencil again as
  long as I lived (par. 3).
• Gilman wrote The Yellow Wallpaper as an
  indictment of how dangerous the rest cure was.

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Middle-Aged Live

• Breaking free from Dr. Weirs care, Gilman moved
  to Pasadena with her daughter, leaving her
  husband. For many years she led an independent
  life as a thinker and writer. She eventually
  married her distant cousin George Gilman who
  provided the equal companion she desperately
  yearned for as a child and young woman

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• Today, Charlotte Perkins Gilman is still
  recognized as one of the foremost intellectuals
  in the United States womens rights movement
  during the late 19th and early 20th centuries
  (par. 1).