Dylan Hakala

February 22, 2017

Annotated Bibliography

Harris, J. Signifying Pain: Constructing and Healing the Self through Writing. Albany: State
University of New York Press, 2003. pp, 37-57
The author of The Yellow Wallpaper wrote in an article that her inspiration for the short

story was from her own experience with severe and continuous mental breakdowns. After three

years of suffering through mental breakdowns she went to a neurologist whos remedy for the

illness was much like the one in the story. The neurologist told her to stay in isolation, get a lot of

bed rest, to live as domestic of a life as possible and to never touch a writing utensil. After three

months of following his orders Gilman felt that she was on the brink of insanity and started to

write again against her doctors orders. Her doctor was found to be (much like many of the

doctors back then) very objectifying of women and thinking of them as inferior and docile

creatures. The Yellow Wallpaper is a direct response to the idea of the rest cure that many

doctors used to cure women with depression and mental breakdowns back in the 1800s.

Gilman saw the rest cure as a practice that made women revert to an infantile state of mind and

helped advocate male patriarchy and authority. Gilman wrote the short story to help women learn

from her experience and try to advocate for women to be free thinkers in a society ruled by men.

The source is reliable because it is all on an article that was written by Charlotte Perkins

Gilman herself so all information is coming from a primary source. The research is not biased

because it is an account of a persons experience and not opinionated research. The facts are well

documented because they are all from one source. The author is a psychology researcher with a

masters degree from Harvard. The writing was somewhat scholarly but still easy enough to read

and able to understand clearly.

 This source fits into my research because it shows her own life experience with the

subject of mental health and her own fight against oppression of women. This source was very

helpful in my research because it offers a new angle of the text as an actual experience of

oppression and problems that occur because of that oppression. Her experience with this

oppression gives her the ability to create a story while also bringing attention to womens rights.

Kerr, Calum A. Literary Contexts In Short Stories: Charlotte Perkins Gilmans The Yellow
Wallpaper. Great Neck Publishing, 2006.
Critics reviews of The Yellow Wallpaper picked up slight hints of the feminist themes

and the treatment of women portrayed in the short story but were ultimately lost in the idea of the

story empowering women. The story wasnt seen by most to be a story showcasing the

oppression of women because the mainstream idea of feminism that we have today was a lot

different in the 1800s. The story was classified as a psychological horror and wasnt seen as a

story with feminist ideas until the rise of widespread feminism in the mid 1900s. The story is

now linked to the idea of the New Woman movement that occurred in the 1800s in art and

literature that spread feminism. The late 1800s was a time of strict control of moral ideas and the

idea that women should be doing only domestic work in the house and for the family. Even

reading, especially fiction, was not allowed for most women due to the idea of it creating

immoral thoughts and impure ideas.

This is a good source of information because of the authors research and knowledge of

the subject. The research is not bias, it does not include any opinions on the subject or themes,

only states facts and history of the story. The facts in this article are well documented in a clear

and easy to understand diction with citations for all its facts.
 This source fits into my research well because talks about the history of the time period it

was written and how it fit in society at the time. It also talks about its impact on feminism and

the use of feminist ideas in the story. It was easy to understand and read helping me better

interpret the information to be able to use in my critical analysis.

Rudd, J. & Gough. Introduction. Charlotte Perkins Gilman: Optimist Reformer. Iowa City:

University of Iowa Press, 1999, pp. ix-xx.

Charlotte Perkins Gilman was a writer with many strong social, economic, and religious

reform themes back in the 1800s and was named an optimist reformer by many writers for her

strong belief in reform efforts. Now, she is most famous for her short stories and essays but also

as A mother of feminism and her leading role in other social reform movements back in the

late 1800s. She published many essays and articles about reform and is also theme in almost all

her short stories. She believed that many things in society could change very rapidly due to

reform movements and was a very forceful voice in reform movements. Her essays on reform

were written very well and made from passion of reform, they pointed out major social problems

which she demanded needed attention. Her writing has left a major impact on the feminist

movement and has created an amazing legacy for generations of feminist.

This source I believe is reliable because of the writers knowledge and passion for the

subject and the writer. While her passion for feminism can help make her a reliable source, it can

also be seen as her having a bias. Her views on feminism could potentially be counted as a bias

because the writer is an avid feminist herself, she could leave out facts or over analyze Gilmans

work. Even though she may have a bias I believe she is a credible source because of her position

as an English lecturer and Professor at the university of Iowa at the time she wrote this book.
 This book shows many examples of how she has used feminist themes during her stories

and helps to prove my thesis. Gilman was a big figure for early feminism back in the 1800s and

has written many stories and essays about feminism. This confirms my belief of feminist themes

being used in the story The Yellow Wallpaper and how she used it to spread feminist ideas.

While this introduction of the book was very generalized, the rest of the book is very detailed of

Gilmans lasting impression on feminism and reform.

Suess, Barbara A. The Writing s on the Wall: Symbolic Orders in The Yellow Wallpaper,
Women's Studies. 2003. pp, 79-97.
First reading of the short story The Yellow Wallpaper seem as just a psychological

horror story but with a look into the themes of the story, it creates a whole new idea of social

reform and feminism. The main character portrays the widespread and believed idea that women

were socially, historically, and medically weak compared to men in a patriarchal society. The

story symbolizes the society that Gilman lived in which was oppressing women was the social

norm and was expected of society. Every critic writing reviews on the story now in present day

all count it as a feminist story due to its symbolism and themes of female oppression. Many of

the feminist views in the story are from a bad relationship females had with medical fields due to

doctors seeing females as having weak minds and symptoms not taken seriously due to societal

oppression of women.

The source is reliable and current peer reviewed article by a knowledgeable

author. The research can be counted on a little bias for advocating feminist ideas with no counter

arguments or facts but just focusing on critics opinions and evaluations of the text. The facts and

comments are well documented with names and citations for the critics review of the text. The

author is Barbara A. Suess, Suess is an associate professor in the English department at William

Patterson University and specializes in Literature and Cultural Theory.

 This source fits into my research because it proves my hypothesis with agreeing

opinions of scholars and others researching the same topic. It is a very useful source because it

adds credibility to my claims from scholars who agree with my thesis. The information was very

scholarly and in some spots hard to read and understand but was still able to give the needed

information.

Van Wienen, M. American Socialist Triptych: The Literary-Political Work of Charlotte

Perkins Gilman, Upton Sinclair, and W. E. B. Du Bois. Ann Arbor: University of

Michigan Press, 2012, pp. 100-127.

Gilmans research and activism was heavily focused on women as paid and unpaid

laborers in the community. Her ideas of women in the economy was said to be very close to the

Marxist view on economy and wasnt taken seriously by many due to that affiliation. She also

focused on gender equality not only in the working sense but also in relationships. She believed

that equality in the public sphere was nothing without equality in personal relationships. Many of

the views and ideas Gilman had on social, legal, and political equality was fought with the

patriarchal views that had been around for so long. She believed in the equality of persons in a

marriage and the end of marriage if it need be, due to inequalities of that relationship. She also

fought for sex education for females and the attempts to end social conditioning for females to

enhance sexual attractiveness and thereby ultimately winning a husband.

This book seems to be a reliable source because of the writers knowledge of the subject

and its impact on social behaviors. The author seems to be very educated in this subject and

connected many of Gilmans views and ideas to other events and people fighting for social

reform. This book is unbiased because while it talks about her achievements in feminist
movements it also talks about her failures in achieving feminist rights from her movement. The

author is an English professor at Northern Illinois University and has received his Ph.D.

It fits into my research by showing that Gilman is a avid feminist that puts her feminist

ideas into the themes of her stories. The book also talks about her marriage and how her feminist

ideas changed her relationship just as it had in the short story. Marriage is a big part of the story

and reading her ideas of a relationship will help my thesis. This book is too scholarly though for

the type of information it is trying to convey, much of the information was confusing and hard to

interpret. This source has helped me narrow down my topic because it covered her views on

marriage which is a very important topic in The Yellow Wallpaper.