Charlotte Perkins Gilman is known as a famous American poet, short story writer, novelist, lecturer, non-fiction writer, and had strong social views. Charlotte suffered from depression, anxiety, and had strong views on women’s rights. She was best known for her short story “The Yellow Wallpaper,” in which she projected some of her own life experiences through the narrator in the story.
“Charlotte Anna Perkins was born on July 3, 1860 in the New England town of Hartford, Connecticut. She was the daughter of Mary Fitch Westcott and librarian and writer Fredrick Beecher Perkins” (Merriman 1). Charlotte did not have an easy life growing up. Her father left her family when she was young, and they were left in poverty to fend for themselves. In spite of the adversity she faced and the lack of her early education of which she described as, "four years among seven different institutions, ending when I was fifteen," Charlotte managed to attend the Rhode Island School of Design from 1878 through 1883. Soon after she went on to do some teaching, and also designed greeting cards. In 1884 she married her husband, a fellow artist, Charles Walter Stentson with whom she had her daughter Katharine Beecher Stetson in 1885 (2). Motherhood consumed her time, subsuming her ambition. This caused Gilman to sink into a depression that was at first treated by a popular form of rehabilitation in a sanitorium in Philadelphia. While there she was treated by Dr Silas Weir Mitchell. As Kaprinski states, “he urged her to ‘live as domestic a life as possible,’ and explained nothing much was wrong with her, yet she was forbidden to touch a pen, pencil or brush ever again, and only allowed two hours of stimulation a day” (1). When this and other methods proved futile, Charlotte began to understand her roles of wife and mother as the root causes of her depression. She soon separated from Charles and eventually divorced him after moving to California. As her daughter Katherine grew older, she came to resent her mother for what she saw as her abandonment. Also, Charlotte was critical of herself for this decision as well, as part of her wanted to fulfill the motherly role successfully, to give Katharine all the love she had never received from her own mother. However, her aspirations as a writer and lecturer superseded any goal of traditional womanhood. Gilman soon found a new husband who was a man supportive of her career goals and willing to accept them, the two were married in 1900. In 1934, Charles Houghton Gilman died and Charlotte was living with a diagnosis of breast cancer. So, in 1935, Gilman ended her life covered her face with a rag soaked in chloroform on August 17, 1935 (Beekman 5)
“The Yellow Wallpaper” is an exaggerated version of her experience upon the rest cure and its effects on the narrator in the story. The story is told in what seems like a series of journal entries. Writing was something that Gilman’s doctor told her to stay away from in her time completing the rest cure. In the story, the narrator’s husband, who also doubles as her physician, recommends her for the rest cure. He serves as his wife's physician, therefore treating her like a powerless patient. This also reflects some of Gilman’s personal experience in her strong views on women’s rights. The story hints that part of the woman's problem is that she recently gave birth to a child, insinuating she may be suffering from what would, in modern times, be called postpartum psychosis. This also relates directly to Gilman’s own life experience. As the story progresses the woman grows more and more obsessed with the yellow wallpaper in the bedroom where she is stuck in bed. With the summer close to an end, the narrator finally asks for permission to leave the room. John does not agree to give her the freedom to walk outside, so the narrator voices that she may be losing her mind. Being urged to not speak another word of it, she eventually consumes her entire night with watching the wallpaper, while sleeping during the day. Eventually the woman descends into complete insanity, thinking she is a woman who has escaped from inside the wallpaper. On the last day of summer, she locks herself in her room in order to strip the remains of the wallpaper. When John arrives home, the woman urges him to fetch a key himself and does not unlock the door for him. Once he forces the door open, however, he finds her creeping around the room, circling the walls and touching the wallpaper. Her husband faints, and she exclaims, "I’ve got out at last," while continuing to circle the room, but stepping over his inert body each time. This is a big symbol of one of messages portrayed by Gilman in this story. After Gilman completed this story, she sent a copy to Mitchell, but never received acknowledgment. “Gilman's purpose in writing "The Yellow Wallpaper" was "not intended to drive people crazy, but to save people from being driven crazy, and it worked." Her intentions to convince Mitchell of his errors prevailed since many years later Gilman learned that Mitchell had changed his treatment methods” (Merriman 4)
In conclusion, Charlotte Perkins Gilman experienced many different obstacles in her life as a woman. All of these which were hard to overcome, but they were all part of who she was. Without these life experiences, Gilman wouldn’t have produced the quality and type of writing that she was famous for.