The Weaker Sex?! : A Feminist Approach to Literature in the Late 19th - Early 20th Century

In the late 19^th and early 20^th century women’s liberation had only just begun; many writers were influenced by the developing movement, touching on the lack of women’s rights through use of subtext in their literature. Women at this particular time were considered to be owned by their fathers and husbands, existing in a separate ‘sphere’ of time and generally treated as lesser beings. Both Charlotte Gilman’s The Yellow Wallpaper and Katherine Mansfield’s The Daughters of the Late Colonel are works of feminist literature which deal with the oppression of women during the first wave of the women's movement.

In The Yellow Wallpaper for example, the narrator is “forbidden” from writing by her husband and brother – who are both physicians - but does so anyway, “I did write for a while in spite of them; but it does exhaust me a good deal--having to be so sly about it, or else meet with heavy opposition.” The effect of this taboo being broken creates tension throughout the story, and the reader constantly expects the nameless narrator to be caught and punished by her oppressive husband. Through clever use of first person narrative, a glimpse is given into the narrator’s own thoughts and feelings on her husband of whom she becomes frightened; “The fact is I am getting a little afraid of John”. The narrative, however, is unreliable due to the narrator’s descent into madness and the lack of an objective viewpoint.

In contrast, the narrative style in The Daughters of the Late Colonel is written in the third person and does not follow a chronological order, bringing to mind the uselessness of time for the female characters in the story. There is use of stream of consciousness which seems to appear only as the main characters start to think for themselves – “What did it mean? What was it she was always wanting? What did it all lead to? Now? Now?” – yet quickly reverts back to its previous state, as do the minds of the women.

The main characters in this story are the daughters themselves; Constantia, the older sister, and Josephine, the younger but equally naive sister. Both are intrinsically linked to the female mind-set at the time. The late Colonel plays a major part in the story, acting as the central antagonist; the sisters still carry on as if he were alive, though missing his military structure. They worry that he may discipline them for their improper behaviour; they can not shake the hold their father had over them despite his passing: “The giggle mounted, mounted; she clenched her hands; she fought it down; she frowned fiercely at the dark and said "Remember" terribly sternly.” They relied heavily on his dominant male role in the household to function on a day-to-day basis.

In opposition to this, the main character in The Yellow Wallpaper, the narrator, seems to want the presence of her husband, John, to be removed entirely. She feels as though it is he who is limiting her from making a full recovery from her “nervous depression”, given that he has prescribed the “rest cure” which she disagrees with completely (“Personally, I believe that congenial work, with excitement and change, would do me good”). Eventually, after doing as her husband says, her mental health deteriorates. It is through these contradictory opinions we come to recognise the representation of male dominance and how they were controlling what women did and thought at the time.

The setting of The Yellow Wallpaper is a mansion which is described as “a haunted house” with “something queer about it”; the ancestral hall is very isolated, much like the narrator herself. Most of the story takes place within one confined room at the top of the building. There is nothing for the narrator to do in this room aside from write in her diary. When she is unable to do this, her attention is focussed on the wallpaper, which is in itself symbolic of her own subjugation.  The narrator describes the wallpaper hyperbolically as being “hideous”, “infuriating” and “torturing”, but when considered as the feelings of women in this time period towards their suppression, is actually much more of an understatement.

Likewise, the setting of The Daughters of the Late Colonel is inside their family home, where they had lived with their father and their “servants” before the Colonel’s passing. The reader is barely offered a glimpse at the outside world, much like the sisters, who seemingly spend very little time outside of their house. The colonel lends an eerie feel to the setting, a haunting presence whose tyrannical rule oppresses the sisters’ freedom and dictates what it is they’re supposed to do through the memories his daughters hold of him. For instance, when they enter his bedroom, the sisters are reminded of the coldness of death - “Constantia timidly put out her hand; she almost expected a snowflake to fall”, and imagine that he is “ready to spring” from the chest of drawers.

The darkness and coldness referenced throughout the story support the representation of subjugation further, connoting a similar feeling to that of a prison cell “… the room seemed quieter than ever, and the bigger flakes of cold air fell...”. It is clear the sisters are like prisoners without a warden, constantly expecting to be told their behaviour is inappropriate.

Time is also an important symbolic element within the story, which creates division between the male and female characters. Constantia and Josephine seem unconcerned with the concept of time; both sisters live in their own ‘domestic sphere’, ordered with repetitive routine, further explored with the line “’I seem to remember last time [Cyril] came there was some little trouble about the time’”. The daughters discuss what should happen to the colonel’s watch after he dies, deciding that it should be inherited by their nephew, Cyril, surmising that “a gold watch meant so much to a young man”; In their eyes, only men have right of entry to this facility which chronologically structures their day.

Perhaps with a twist of irony, the story itself is structured into twelve short chapters; one for each number on a clock face. A further look into this idea of Constantia and Josephine’s misconception of time is that all chapters are not written equally; some are far shorter than others, which mirrors their own views on how time works – it is of little concern and hardly worth their bother - “Con was still gazing at the clock. She couldn’t make up her mind if it was fast or slow. It was one or the other, she felt almost certain of that”.

The Yellow Wallpaper is almost completely ironic, from the very beginning where the narrator says “John laughs at me, of course, but one expects that in a man”, the reader is aware that the narrator is mocking her husband; the irony is, of course, that although she feels this way she is also debilitated by John, which is what ultimately leads to her mental breakdown. The story’s irony is multi-layered and ties in particularly well with the symbolism used throughout, further backing the idea of oppression. The room the narrator is in, for example, includes an element of dramatic irony, whereupon the narrator thinks the room used to be a nursery; it is clear from the reader’s point of view that it was likely used as a place to keep the mentally ill. The narrator tells us that the “revolting” yellow wallpaper has been stripped off in places, mostly around the bed, which is nailed to the floor and the windows are barred, further exploring the idea of being trapped.

The windows to the room are a representation of the potential of womankind, and how they were restricted by men during the late 19th and early 20th century. The narrator tells us she can " … see the garden, those mysterious deep-shaded arbour, the riotous old-fashioned flowers, and bushes and gnarly trees." The "garden" is a symbol of society, and the use of "mysterious" shows that the possibilities that women have are undiscovered to them. The windows are the narrator’s view of oppression, and how she wishes for freedom, from the room and from her husband.

While there is a touch of irony, in The Daughters of the Late Colonel, the main focus of the text is an overt use of satire; the idea of two women unable to look after themselves without a man around is laughable. Josephine and Constantia are portrayed as being childlike, they are in fact far younger mentally than their years. A revealing hyperbolic passage is one in which the sisters are discussing whether or not to fire their maid, Kate:

“’You see, Con,’ explained Josephine, ‘everything is so changed now.’ Constantia looked up quickly. ‘I mean,’ went on Josephine, ‘we're not dependent on Kate as we were.’ And she blushed faintly. ‘There's not father to cook for.’
‘That is perfectly true,’ agreed Constantia. ‘Father certainly doesn't want any cooking now whatever else–‘
Josephine broke in sharply, ‘You're not sleepy, are you, Con?’
‘Sleepy, Jug?’ Constantia was wide-eyed.
‘Well, concentrate more,’ said Josephine sharply, and she returned to the subject. ‘What it comes to is, if we did’–and this she barely breathed, glancing at the door–‘give Kate notice’–she raised her voice again–‘we could manage our own food.’
‘Why not?’ cried Constantia. She couldn't help smiling. The idea was so exciting ...’”

It is through dialogue in this story that we learn most about the characters; their naivety, their dreams and their dependency on other people. It is quite a candid account of their thought processes. In contrast, the dialogue in The Yellow Wallpaper is always filtered through the narrator’s own mind, meaning the reader only ever gets the opinions of the narrator, rather than the facts of what is really happening. “’You know the place is doing you good,’ [John] said, ‘and really, dear, I don't care to renovate the house just for a three months' rental.’” It is impossible to know if these are the exact words used by John, or if the narrator is paraphrasing the conversation to serve her own purposes.

It was the social norm for women to stay in the home and do as they were told before the women’s movement began; they were often treated as though they had no thoughts of their own. Yet the female authors of The Yellow Wallpaper and The Daughters of the Late Colonel tackled this stereotype head on. Both told stories of women who were trapped in different ways, and ultimately of the progress male society needed to make to accept women as equals. Though both stories are completely different, they follow the same theme of oppression of women in the late 19^th and early 20^th century.

Personal Interpretation

Upon comparison of both Charlotte Gilman’s The Yellow Wallpaper and Katherine Mansfield’s The Daughters of the Late Colonel it became obvious that both are interesting and important pieces of feminist writing, although at first glance they appeared unconnected. It seemed that the two stories dealt with different kinds of mental health issues; in one, the reader is introduced to two childlike women who are grieving for their late father, and in the other is a woman who is suffering from post-natal depression. The profundity of emotion portrayed in both stories is inspiring; the reader really gets a feel for the helplessness of the daughters who have recently lost their father, and likewise is drawn into the depth of despair the narrator feels as she descends into madness.

The style of writing in both stories is completely different; while The Daughters of the Late Colonel feels more light and airy due to its comedic nature, there is a sense of misery in The Yellow Wallpaper – perhaps that of a mother kept from her new-born baby. The narrator describes her situation in passing, “… I cannot be with him, it makes me so nervous”, though anybody who is a parent will realise the emotional bonds between parent and child are far deeper than mere “nervousness” at their absence.

In The Daughters of the Late Colonel, we see the situation from a different view – how the offspring reacts to the missing parent. The two women, although fully grown, appear to be very childlike in nature. They give the impression as though they were repressed in some ways and prohibited to grow up. Their reaction to their father’s death is not unlike that of a child: “‘But what else could we have done?’ asked Constantia wonderingly. ‘We couldn't have kept him unburied. At any rate, not in a flat that size.’”

Both stories draw a parallel in that they explore the emotions behind parent/child relationships, though it is only hinted at in The Yellow Wallpaper. Although it is merely speculation, it could be argued that the narrator being kept away from her baby is a defining feature into her mental breakdown. The “rest cure” for post-natal depression (or “a slight hysterical tendency” as John refers to it) is an ironic form of treatment given that it actually amplifies the narrator’s symptoms, as it is reported to have done for many women back when it was a common method of treatment.

To argue that emotions in both stories run high would be a wise decision; lines such as “’Why shouldn't we be weak for once in our lives, Jug? It's quite excusable. Let's be weak–be weak, Jug. It's much nicer to be weak than to be strong’” in The Daughters of the Late Colonel and “But I am here, and no person touches this paper but me—not ALIVE!” in The Yellow Wallpaper explicitly imply the different characters’ emotional problems.

In conclusion, the two stories are comparable from several different angles. There are parallels in the text that allow the reader to accept the story from different viewpoints and to reach different conclusions; it is entirely a choice where the reader takes their own view. The strongest argument is of course the feminist angle, especially given the time period in which they were written.

BIBLIOGRAPHY
Mansfield, Katherine, and Lorna Sage (2007). "The Daughters of the Late Colonel". The Garden Party and Other Stories. London: Penguin.

Oates, Joyce Carol (1992). "The Yellow Wallpaper." The Oxford book of American short stories. Oxford, England: Oxford University Press.

FURTHER READING
Kuersten, Ashlyn K. (2003). "Separate Spheres Doctrine". Women and the law: leaders, cases, and documents. Santa Barbara, Calif.: ABC-CLIO.

May, Ann Mari (2008). "Gender, biology, and the incontrovertible logic of choice". The 'woman question' and higher education: perspectives on gender and knowledge production in America. Cheltenham, UK; Northampton, MA: Edward Elgar Publishing.