Charlotte Perkins Gilman was born to Mary Fitch and Frederick Beecher Perkins on July 3, 1860. In her lifetime Gilman developed herself into an advocate for women's rights, an outstanding poet, a writer and a brilliant woman who was inducted into the National Women’s Hall of Fame. Gilman’s lifestyle and heretical concepts not only made her exceptional to most women during her time, but also saw her as a role model for the future feminist generations. Gilman molded herself into being known as the greatest female Gothic author of the 20th century because of her family upbringing, life experiences and the time period in which she lived. One of the many aspects that shaped Gilman into a famous Gothic author were her relatives in her family …show more content…
Frederick Beecher moved out and abandoned his family, leaving them in a poor state. In a biography titled, “Charlotte Perkins Gilman”, Gray Scharnhorst states, “Due to their mother’s inability to solely support the family, they regularly depended on Frederick Perkins aunts such as Harriet Beecher Stowe and Isabella Beecher Hooker, author and suffragist respectively” (Scharnhorst). The Beecher family was well known for its radical members, who were renowned authors and suffragists. On the other hand, the Fitch family was much more of a conservative family. Therefore, from Gilman’s paternal side, she learned to be proud of her womanhood, have courage and no fear in the midst of achieving greatly in society. Mary Beekman, the writer of the article “Charlotte Perkins Gilman (1860-1935): Her life and work as a social scientist and feminist” states, “Gilman’s mother brought a more independent-minded traditional feminine heritage” (Beekman). Gilman’s mother was tough on her children as she forbid them from reading fictions or making strong relationships in order protect them from being hurt just as she had been. In …show more content…
According to author Cynthia J. Davis in Charlotte Perkins Gilman: A Biography, “Some of her [Gilman’s] popular stories, one being The Yellow Wallpaper published in 1899, is one of the many where she revealed one of her personal struggles” (Davis 79). In 1884, Gilman took Walter Stetson as her husband to fulfill her traditionally expected role of marriage. She managed to have her only daughter, Katharine Beecher Stetson, in fear that being married would kill her dreams of being a career woman. Motherhood took a lot of her time and further subsumed her ambitions of having a career. Gilman’s husband sent her to the doctor, S. Weir Mitchell, so she could undergo his rest cure treatment for her depression. However, the author Ann J.Lane in To Herland and Beyond: The Life and Work of Charlotte Perkins Gilman points out, “It [Motherhood] caused Gilman to fall into a great depression that S. Weir Mitchell’s rest cure could not treat…” (Lane 23). With this experience, she managed to illustrate the empty marriage she had with her first husband, Charles Walter Stetson, as well as how a woman’s lack of autonomy in society is harmful to their physical, emotional, and mental well being in one of her famous short stories The Yellow Wallpaper. Consequently, she opted for a marriage separation in 1888, legally