Kelly
Koenig
American
Literature
March
3, 2017
Realism and What is it? Literary
Realism attempts to represent familiar things as they are. Realist authors
choose to depict every day and banal activities and experiences, instead of
using a romanticized or similarly stylized presentation.
Other
Realist Authors include Honore de Balzac 1799-1850
He has a keen observation of detail
and unfiltered representation of society. Balzac is one of the founders of
realism in European Literature. His writing influenced many famous writers-Emile
Zola, Charles Dickens, Gustave Flaubert, Jack Kerouac, Akira Kurosawa, Henry
James and philosopher Friedrich Engels.
Edith
Wharton was another realist author-1862-1937
Edith Wharton was a Pulitzer
Prize-winning American novelist, short story writer and designer. Wharton
combined her insider’s view of America’s privileged classes with a brilliant,
neutral wit to write humorous, incisive novels and short stories of social and
psychological insight.
A little background I have found on
Charlotte was that her father wasn’t around much after she and her sister were
born leaving the raising of the children up to relatives and their mother.
Frederick Beecher Perkins was a relative of well-known and influential Beecher
family, Harriet Beecher Stowe of Uncle
Tom’s Cabin. Charlotte was known as a Reformist and Socialist who fought
against the injustices of women’s lives in many ways. She wrote Women and Economics-1898, Concerning Children-1900, The Home: It’s work and Influence-1903, Human Work-1904, The Man-made world or Our Androcentric Culture-1911, Herland and
founded, wrote for and edited The
Forerunner, a journal published from 1909-1917
Charlotte defended Elizabeth Cady
Stanton’s Women’s Bible which was
against the Patriarchal viewpoint of the Church’s influence suppressing women.
Kessler,
Farley Carol—Professor of English American Studies in Pennsylvania
Knight,
D Denise—Faculty in English Department at Cortland, Teaching fulltime. She
published 15 books, over 51 articles, essays and encyclopedia entries in
addition to nearly 50 book reviews and delivered over 40 talks at academic
conferences.
Upon doing research on Charlotte Anna Perkins Gilman I believe her story
The Yellow Wallpaper is her semi
autobiography when she was battling postpartum depression after the birth of
her daughter, Katharine. In the late 1890’s, women did not have as many rights
as we do today. The doctors handled “women sicknesses” in cruel and unusual
ways. To classify Charlotte as “hysteric” is grossly underestimating what she
was feeling. On p 486, “John is a physician, and perhaps— (I would not say it
to a living soul, of course, but this is dead paper and a great relief to my
mind)—perhaps that is one reason I do not get well faster. You see he does not
believe I am sick!” Charlotte doesn’t seem to agree with the Doctors’ advice
and even says so. Her opinion isn’t even considered and by taking away what she
loves most (her writing and household chores) is very cruel.
Charlotte has a vivid imagination
and there are lots of different theories on this story. One I heard was that
she had multiple personality syndrome. I personally don’t believe that but it
truly is one imaginative story with that wallpaper. John doesn’t seem to give
Charlotte’s thoughts a care, he seems to know what’s best for her. In fact, I
believe she is getting worse with the way she is being treated as a patient and
not a wife. At least a loving husband would not certainly treat his loving wife
that way, or would he? He belittles her at every turn, calls her names and seem
to think she’s being silly and whimsical. On p 496, Charlotte was determined to
get something accomplished. She secured a rope and locked the door and threw
the key down into the front path. “I don’t want to go out, and I don’t want to
have anybody come in, till John comes. I want to astonish him.” She peeled off the
wallpaper and made her hasty escape. Her husband fainted when he finally retrieved
the key and saw his wife creeping around the room. I take this to mean she was
a stronger person than he was because she escaped.
