Rewriting The Yellow Wallpaper -- The Yellow Wallpaper Essays

Rewriting The Yellow Wallpaper Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Charlotte Perkins Gilman rank as two of the most large(p) champions of womens rights who were active during the nineteenth century. Both professed a deep and personal faith and both were wise enough and secure enough to develop their own ideas and kinship with their creator. In 1895 Stanton published The Womans Bible, her personal assault on organized religions strangle-hold on the women of the world. Gilman published her short story The Yellow Wallpaper in 1892. She wrote the story, she said, to save commonwealth from being driven crazy (Golden 52). The heroine of The Yellow Wallpaper finds her only escape from the oppression of a condescending spouse is a headlong descent into madness. Stanton and Gilman met at least once, about 1896 according to Gilmans autobiography. Of the many people I met during these years I was particularly impressed by Elizabeth Cady Stanton. To have been with her . . . seemed to establish connec tion with a splendid period of real heroism (Gilman 216). Perhaps if the philosophies of these two great women were to come together, at the perfect moment, they would possess the potential to save the heroine of The Yellow Wallpaper. The next scenario might prove feasible. ---------- An Obstacle Charlotte Perkins Gilman l I was climbing up a mountain-path With many things to do, Important business of my own, And other peoples too, When I ran against a loss That quite cut off my view. ---------- The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman amended, with apologies, by Margaret A. Stanton ---------- The heroine of The Yellow Wallpaper... ... Elizabeth Cady Stanton/ Susan B. Anthony Correspondence, Writings, Speeches. Schocken Books, NY 1981. Gilman, Charlotte Perkins, The Living of Charlotte Perkins Gilman. University of Wisconsin Press, Madison 1990. Gilman, Charlotte Perkins, The Yellow Wallpaper The Heath Anthology of American Literature, Second Edition. Gen. Ed. Pa ul Lauter. D. C. Heath and Co., Lexington, MA 1994. Golden, Catherine, ed. The Captive Imagination A standard on The Yellow Wallpaper . The Feminist Press at The city University of NY 1992. Stanton, Elizabeth Cady. The Womans Bible. NY European Pub. Co. 1895-98. Northeastern U. P., Boston 1993. Note 1 The poem An Obstacle by Charlotte Perkins Gilman is used as an epigraph by Catherine Golden, ed. The Captive Imagination A Casebook on The Yellow Wallpaper (The Feminist Press NY City UP, 1992) vii.