Dealing with the "Man": Women’s Narratives in the Late 19^th Century

 Gender identity is social construction: bourgeois (middle-class) white women

1)      What’s their problem?

2)      Who controls them?  (symptoms of repression)

3)      What is the nature of their primary relationships?  (husband as father)

4)      Do we sympathize with them? 

5)      Do they have a choice?

6)      What do they want?  (How will they attain freedom/define equality?)

7)       Do they have an epiphany?  (moment of illumination)

8)      What’s the end result for them?  (positive or negative conclusion)

1)      Kate Chopin “The Story of An Hour”

a.       Typical bourgeois widow—Mallard at top of list—social importance—own room (symbol—her own space, beyond the public sphere where she has to be “woman/wife/mother” as society expects—where she has to be on her pedestal)

b.      What does Nature “tell” her—that everyone is born free; human society has become unnatural; woman with child—how are women socially constructed as children?  Portrayed as a fixed figure (never having thought on an abstract or intellectual level) Epiphany (moment of illumination)—FREE!; repression of body and soul; “monstrous joy”—glad her husband’s dead;

c.        “There would be no powerful will bending hers in that blind persistence with which men and women believe they have a right to impose a private will upon a fellow-creature.” (women’s problem)

d.       Ending: Louise Mallard dies; trick ending; the reader is put through the same emotions as Louise (sympathy for her); Mallard (mate for life); why does the Dr try to screen Mr. Mallard’s entry from Louise—ironic: they think she dies from happiness (sudden shock he’s alive), but in fact it’s just the opposite; pretty dark, negative view of women’s place in society; have to “die” to live

2)       Charlotte Perkins-Gilman “The Yellow Wall Paper”

a.        Protagonist (lead character): female narrator; her husband is a Doctor (bourgeois white woman)

b.       Problem: psychological/physiological problem: post-partum depression/hysteria; husband is her doctor/she become a “child” or regress into childhood (living in the nursery); trapped in room with wall paper (beyond the wall paper—women who are crawling around at night beyond the bars)

c.        Change or transformation/epiphany?  She wants to free the women locked in the wall (freedom)

d.       More sympathy for this narrator than Louise Mallard (her mental illness?)  Is she to blame for her condition?  (bird in a gilded cage problem)—how sick is she?  Has she been driven crazy?  Our current attitude toward post partum today?

e.       Moment of epiphany—when she frees woman—goes nuts—ending: negative—you have to go crazy to be yourself—how does the narrator’s attitude change regarding the figure in the Wall Paper (how does this fit in with the writing theme—write on paper)? From objective to subjective, she identifies with it, and ties her freedom to its (not just as one woman but many)

f.         Emphasis on writing—form of self-expression—self-construction (writing not mere communication but also expression, development/freedom) husband doesn’t want her to write? Control?

3)       Edith Wharton “The Dilettante”

a.        Protagonist: Mrs. Vervain (upper-class white woman) has been having a sexless affair (intimate relation) with Thursdale

b.       Problem: Thursdale wants to marry Miss Gaynor—but he’s afraid that Miss G will find out about the true nature of his relationship with Mrs. Vervain.   What is the relationship between Mrs. V and Thursdale?  Common interests as upper class folks, but not having an affair (but keep relationship low-key to avoid scandal)

c.        Male charater—what does Thursdale get out of this relation—not sex, therapy, attention, intimacy (can a man and a woman be friends?); does one get more out of the relation than the other? Thursdale calls the shots—she’s available for him—inequality to relationship—male has molded woman into what he wants

d.       Too sophisticated for their own good; upper class people can no longer express normal relations, desires, “dilettante”—Miss Gaynor (not playing sophisticate game—she’s not going to let herself be reduced to the position of Mrs. Vervain)

e.       Mrs Vervain has sacrificed?  Her own desires/self-expression/her own love—let’s guy tutor her/define her