The Yellow wallpaper

Charlotte Perkins Gilman

Charlotte Perkins Gilman  (1860-1935)

She was a utopian feminist, writer, lecturer and humanist.

In her writing she often dealt with topics of women and their lives around the turn of the century

Focusing on the oppresive forces of patriarchal society that kept women in their homes.

After her first child was born she suffered a severe

postpartum depression.

"There is no female mind. The brain is not an organ of sex. Might as well speak of a female liver."

When Charlotte Perkins Gilman was suffering from her postpartum depression, she took extensive notes about her symptoms. However, when she sent a letter describing her symptoms to the famous Victorian nerve specialist S. Weir Mitchell, he claimed it "only proved self-conceit" and prescribed a rest cure, which prohibited women from reading and writing. 

Gilman explains in her autobiography that she,

"came perilously near to losing my mind. The mental agony grew so unbearable that I would sit blankly moving my head from side to side--to get out from under the pain."

Gilman later abandoned Mitchell's rest cure, and became a successful writer and lecturer. Gilman was healed, at least partially, by becoming an active participant in the reading and writing of her own "disease."

Let's explore some of the terms...

Utopia - "a place that does not exist". An imagined place where things will be better.

Feminist - someone who supports

equal rights for women.

Patriarchy -a system of society or government in which men hold the power and women are largely excluded from it.

Postpartum depression - mood disorder that is triggered by childbirth. Treatment today usually consists of both counseling and medication. 

The Yellow wallpaper  

A short story, regarded as an important early work of feminist literature, that shows the attitudes towards women´s mental and physical health of its time.

Themes that we will explore

Work vs. idleness

Mental health

Male control

Insanity/depression

How can we intepret the narrator's

situation in different ways?

Mental disorders in fiction

Don Quijote -

Delusion,

Paranoia

The Picture of Dorian Gray - Narcissism

The Bell Jar - Depression

The perks of being a wallflower

- Anxiety, PTSD

Reading strategies

To predict

What is going to happen next?

To clarify

Use clues in the text and your own knowledge to fill in gaps and draw conclusions.

Reading strategies

To identify

Find the author´s purpose, the main ideas

and the themes of the text.

To visualize

Create a mental image of the setting, the characters and the events in the text.

Reading strategies

For instance

Events in the text takes place before women

had the right to vote in the United states.

The author was a "first-wave" feminist and especially interested in the way a woman was subjugated to a man in marriage.

Does that matter while we read the text?

What does the word hysterical mean?

Hysteria as a diagnosis

The latin word for the womb is "hyster"

In the beginning of the 19th century

hysteria was used a medical diagnosis

to "explain" anything that was "wrong" with women.

So "hysteria" literally means a condition of the womb.

Things women in literature have died from...

• Cold hands
• Beautiful face
• Missing slippers
• Wrist fevers
• Night brain
• Going outside at night in Italy
• Shawl insufficiency
• Too many pillows
• Garden troubles
• Someone said “No” very loudly while they were in the room
• Letter-reading fits
• Drawing-room anguish
• Not enough pillows
• Haven’t seen the sea in a long time
• Too many novels

• Pony exhaustion
• Strolling congestion
• Sherry served too cold
• Ship infidelity
• Spent more than a month in London after growing up in Yorkshire
• Clergyman’s dropsy
• Flirting headaches
• River unhappiness
• General bummers
• Knitting needles too heavy
• Mmmf
• Beautiful chestnut hair
• Spinal degeneration as a result of pride
• Parents too happy
• The Unpleasantness

Vocabulary

fancies = griller, hjärnspöken

whim = infall

bulbous = utstående

impertinence = oförskämdhet

ravages = härjningar

perserverance = uthållighet

plaster = gips

verily = i sanning

Vocabulary

Reading together

Research shows that reading texts together is the best way to work with literature in school.

The benefits are:

We do it in class

We are all at the same place in the text

We can discuss the text together

Peaceful reading

You might feel sleepy and

 if you need to stretch or yawn

it is okay.

Your job is to still listen actively

and to participate in the discussions.

Let's read together!

We will analyze the yellow wallpaper using the ABC method (alone, band, class).

Read about the topics on own for 5-10 minutes. (You can take notes if you want to).

Talk about the topics in your “band” for 10-15 minutes and write down your thoughts on the paper we gave you.

We will then analyze the short story together using your notes and thoughts.