History - Chapters 18 & 19, Charlotte Perkins Gilman

History

Read Chapters 18 & 19, Charlotte Perkins Gilman, "Why I Wrote the Yellow Wallpaper" and The Yellow Wallpaper.  

• What does Gilman's story, The Yellow Wallpaper, reveal about gender relations in Victorian society?
• According to Gilman, from where do men derive their authority over women and how is that authority enforced and perpetuated?
• How is the main character kept confined in her room, and what does this suggest about the nature of the oppression of women during this historical period?
• How does the main character resist and what is the cost of that resistance?
• What does Gilman's physical description of the wallpaper represent?
• By not naming the main character until the final scene, what do you think Gilman is suggesting about identity and complicity? And why does the author have the husband "faint" in the final scene?