Charlotte Gilman And Gertrude Stein Comparative Essay

Charlotte Gilman and Gertrude Stein: A Critique on Women’s Oppression with Different Antagonistic Focuses

Authors Charlotte Gilman and Gertrude Stein both wrote stories that included feminist undertones and tackled the issue of women’s social status and autonomy. Despite having distinct writing styles, realism for Gilman, and modernism for Stein, Gilman’s “The Yellow Wallpaper” and Stein’s “The Gentle Lena” both broach the topic of the consequences of lack of agency and autonomy. While there are many overlaps between the main characters of the two stories, such as social status and expectations as women and wives, the antagonists differ. Ultimately, while both stories can be interpreted through a feminist lens that addresses agency and autonomy

Charlotte Gilman’s “The Yellow Wall-paper,” tells the story of a well-off, married woman experiencing a “nervous depression” (193) that is likely postpartum depression. To treat her illness her husband, a physician, whisks her away to the countryside where she is prescribed to rest and do absolutely no stimulating work or activity, a parallel to Gilman’s own experience of rest cure (Berke et al. 193). While the unnamed narrator who tells the story in first person, does not agree with this form of treatment, she resigns to following the prescription or at least pretending to follow the order. The narrator is confined to what is supposedly a former nursery to “rest” and “get air” (Gilman 194). Here, the narrator has an immediate reaction to the horrible yellow wallpaper (Gilman 195). Nonetheless, her husband insists that she not change the wallpaper lest doing so gives way to other “fancies” (Gilman 195). Repeatedly any concerns conveyed by the narrator are dismissed by her husband and

From the beginning of “The Yellow Wallpaper,” the narrator displays cognizance of her lack of agency. In regards to her prescribed treatment of “rest” the narrator laments “Personally, I believe that congenial work, with excitement and change, would do me good. But what is one to do?” (Gilman), showing that she feels out of control of her situation. Not only has her physician prescribed her to rest, but her physician is also her husband, further cementing her social role as a woman in society. Likewise, in “A Gentle Lena” the main character Lena is not in control of her actions. Repeatedly she is told she must do something so she does, even in instances that she did not like. For example, Lena is content in her single life and the job she has, but nonetheless gets married to a man she does not dislike but does not think much of because her Aunt told her she must (Stein). In the end, she does not like the Kreders' lifestyle of being dirty and frugal (Stein) but continues to stay and live in the same manner. Though she has lacked agency since the beginning of the story, once she is a married woman, she faces new expectations to get along with her husband and his family. This parallels the expectations of a wife also shown in “The Yellow Wallpaper.” In the end, neither woman is able to find the agency and autonomy needed to live successful and fulfilled