Essential Question
- What were the common roles and expectations of a 19th century woman in America?
- What caused women to begin demanding equality in society?
The 19th Century Woman
Nineteenth-century Domestic Spheres
Nineteenth-century Domestic Spheres
|
Primary Documents
|
Women's Rights and the Suffrage Movement
|
|
Popular Representations of Women in the 1880s-1910s
|
|
- Based on your new understandings of women in the 19th century, what surprised you most?
- What information resonated with you and will remain in your long term memory?
- What questions do you still have about women in the 19th century? What do we still need to explore?
Essential Question:
- How did early psychologists view women and mental illness?
- How did early treatments impact women physically and mentally?
For many years I suffered from a severe and continuous nervous breakdown tending to melancholia-and beyond. During about the third year of this trouble I went, in devout faith and some faint stir of hope, to a noted specialist in nervous diseases, the best known in the country. This wise man put me to bed and applied the rest cure, to which a still good physique responded so promptly that he concluded that there was nothing much the matter with me, and sent me home with solemn advice to 'live as domestic a life as possible,' to 'have but two hours' intelligent life a day,' and 'never to touch pen, brush or pencil again as long as I lived.' This was in 1887…
—Charlotte Perkins Gilman, "Why I Wrote the Yellow Wall-paper," 1913
Click HERE to read the whole essay.
—Charlotte Perkins Gilman, "Why I Wrote the Yellow Wall-paper," 1913
Click HERE to read the whole essay.
|
|
Hysteria: What is it?
|
|
Hysteria Treatment: The Rest Cure
Silas Weir Mitchell, M.D. - The most prominent U.S physician in the treatment of neurasthenia (late 1800s). Developer of the rest cure. Characteristics of treatment:
|
"Mitchell believed the point of the rest cure was physical and moral. It boosted the patient’s weight and increased blood supply. It also removed the patient from a potentially toxic social atmosphere at home. However, the implicit point was the neurologist breaking his (almost always female) patient’s will. Some outspoken and independent women received the rest cure. These included writers Virginia Woolf and Charlotte Perkins Gilman. They reacted fiercely against the treatment and doctors practising it, and wrote about the experience. Later feminist scholars argued the rest cure reinforced an archaic and oppressive notion that women should submit unquestioningly to male authority because it was good for their health." Click HERE for source
|
Hysteria discussion questions:
- What is hysteria and the rest cure?
- Why did doctors believe women suffered from this disease?
- Do you agree that the rest cure reinforced the "oppressive notion that women should submit unquestioningly to male authority because it was good for their health?" Why or why not?
- What surprised you the most about hysteria? Why?
If you can't define these words to a friend and provide an example, do yourself a favor and look them up. Use these words in your every day analysis of our texts.
- Feminism
- Misogyny
- Patriarch (n) / Patriarchy (n) / Patriarchal (adj)
- Phallic
- Hysteria
- Oppression
- Subjugation
- Infantilize
- Subordination
setting
Essential Question: To what extent does the setting reveal larger themes within the short story?
Focus on pages 1-5
Focus on pages 1-5
Activity 1: The House
Highlight words and phrases to describe the home. Compare and contrast the connotation of the adjectives, verbs, and adverbs.
- How would you describe the setting of summer home?
- What is the underlying tone within the descriptions of the setting?
- What message is being portrayed about the house?
Activity 2: The Room
setting_passage_-_page__3-5_tyw.docx | |
File Size: | 107 kb |
File Type: | docx |
- Where has the narrator been put for her time of confinement?
- To what extent is the narrator being infantilized?
- How does the narrator feel about her room? Is the tone of these sections similar or different to her descriptions of the house itself? Explain.
- Should we trust the narrator? Could the room have been used for something other than what she thinks? Explain.
Activity 3: Solitary Confinement
|
|
Culminating question:
To what extent does the setting reveal larger themes within the short story? In what way could the setting be symbolic?
To what extent does the setting reveal larger themes within the short story? In what way could the setting be symbolic?
Characterization
Essential Questions:
|
Some terms for character analysis:
Narrative voice Point of view Protagonist Antagonist |
Character Study: John
Create a detailed character profile for John. List examples and provide direct quotations + analysis. What does the quotation reveal about his character and why? Give each character his/her own page. We will eventually look at how the character changes at the end, so space will be needed to make a comparison.
Character Study: Narrator
Create a detailed character profile for our narrator. List examples and provide direct quotations + analysis. What does the quotation reveal about her character and why?
Create a detailed character profile for John. List examples and provide direct quotations + analysis. What does the quotation reveal about his character and why? Give each character his/her own page. We will eventually look at how the character changes at the end, so space will be needed to make a comparison.
- Biography: What do we know? What do we not know? (age, gender, name, profession, appearance, personality)
- At the beginning: What does the character think, do, say, and feel?
- At the end: What does the character think, do, say, and feel?
- For each character, describe how the character has changed and why you think he/she has changed. Be detailed.
Character Study: Narrator
Create a detailed character profile for our narrator. List examples and provide direct quotations + analysis. What does the quotation reveal about her character and why?
- Biography: What do we know? What do we not know? (age, gender, name, profession, appearance, personality, familial status)
- At the beginning: What does the character think, do, say, and feel?
- At the end: What does the character think, do, say, and feel?
- For each character, describe how the character has changed and why you think he/she has changed. Be detailed.
Essential Question:
Context: What were the societal expectations of a man/husband in the 19th century?
What did it mean to be married? In the 1840s, as today, it meant that a man and a woman had become husband and wife. However, what it meant to be a husband or a wife then was strikingly different than today. In legal understanding today (and probably in the experience of many), a wife and her husband are two individuals who have contracted to live together, as a result of which they jointly acquire legal and social privileges and some duties and responsibilities...To use the language of the model Uniform Marriage and Divorce Act, to be married is legally nothing more than an agreement to enter into "a personal relationship between a man and a woman arising out of a civil contract." 5 One always remains an individual. Just married. Or not. SOURCE
Men were expected to live a public life, whether it was working in a factory or socializing with like-minded men in public places, like clubs, meetings, or bars. On the other hand, women were usually expected to live their lives largely homebound, taking care of the cooking, cleaning, and child rearing. SOURCE
The dominance of the family ideal is only one aspect of life in the 19th century. The constant emphasis on family, domesticity, and children could be confining, so men and women developed interests outside of the home. The 19th century was a great age of organizations only for men, and fraternal groups thrived. Taverns and barrooms provided a space for men to make political deals, secure jobs, and be entertained. Men formed literary and scientific societies, labor organisations, reform groups, Bible study groups, and sports leagues. SOURCE
Marriage was a far more crucial decision for a woman than for a man because the woman often had her own identity legally incorporated into that of her husband. Husbands were increasingly described as providers, and wives (and minor children) were identified as dependents...upon marriage a woman lost any right to control property that was hers prior to her union... They could not make contracts, transfer property, or bring a lawsuit. Their legal persona was totally overshadowed by that of their husbands. SOURCE
Textual Discussion and Analysis
- To what extent are John and the narrator trapped in their gender roles?
Use the diary entry on pages 7-9 for the following activity.
Context: What were the societal expectations of a man/husband in the 19th century?
What did it mean to be married? In the 1840s, as today, it meant that a man and a woman had become husband and wife. However, what it meant to be a husband or a wife then was strikingly different than today. In legal understanding today (and probably in the experience of many), a wife and her husband are two individuals who have contracted to live together, as a result of which they jointly acquire legal and social privileges and some duties and responsibilities...To use the language of the model Uniform Marriage and Divorce Act, to be married is legally nothing more than an agreement to enter into "a personal relationship between a man and a woman arising out of a civil contract." 5 One always remains an individual. Just married. Or not. SOURCE
Men were expected to live a public life, whether it was working in a factory or socializing with like-minded men in public places, like clubs, meetings, or bars. On the other hand, women were usually expected to live their lives largely homebound, taking care of the cooking, cleaning, and child rearing. SOURCE
The dominance of the family ideal is only one aspect of life in the 19th century. The constant emphasis on family, domesticity, and children could be confining, so men and women developed interests outside of the home. The 19th century was a great age of organizations only for men, and fraternal groups thrived. Taverns and barrooms provided a space for men to make political deals, secure jobs, and be entertained. Men formed literary and scientific societies, labor organisations, reform groups, Bible study groups, and sports leagues. SOURCE
Marriage was a far more crucial decision for a woman than for a man because the woman often had her own identity legally incorporated into that of her husband. Husbands were increasingly described as providers, and wives (and minor children) were identified as dependents...upon marriage a woman lost any right to control property that was hers prior to her union... They could not make contracts, transfer property, or bring a lawsuit. Their legal persona was totally overshadowed by that of their husbands. SOURCE
Textual Discussion and Analysis
- Read through the diary entry on pages 7-9. Write out all of the quotations that show John performing the duties of a good or bad husband.
- To what extent is John a victim of his gender role?
- Choose the ONE quotation that best supports your response to question 2 and write it in the center of a piece of paper.
- Answer the questions below.
- How does this quotation confirm what you already know about John?
- How does this quotation extend your understanding of John and his role?
- How does this quotation challenge your knowledge of John and husbands in the 19th century?
Symbolism
At your station, complete the following:
Symbols:
- List characteristics of the object or concept from the text. i.e. What is it? Where is it? What is the narrator's attitude towards it?
- Answer any questions listed with the symbol.
- Identify significant quotations from the text.
- Explain the quotations. How do they develop the reader's understanding of the characters, the attitudes of society, the setting?
- What does the object symbolize?
Symbols:
The bed
How does she feel about her bed and why? |
The garden
Why is she always looking outside? |
Time: Day and Night
What does the narrator do during the day/night? How might this link to her feelings of oppression? Research "Artemis." Who is she? How is she connected to the moon? What does she represent? |
Her journal
How is the journal also a motif? |
Essential Question:
What does the wallpaper symbolize?
Describe the metaphor of the pattern.
To what extent is the pattern on the wallpaper reflective of the context?
What does the wallpaper symbolize?
Describe the metaphor of the pattern.
To what extent is the pattern on the wallpaper reflective of the context?
Task: Build off of the ideas that other students have written. Interpret their thoughts, pose questions, challenge ideas, and extend the thinking.
What is Charlotte Perkins Gilman communicating through the use of wallpaper and the pattern? |
wallpaper_and_patter_quotations_-_a3.docx | |
File Size: | 54 kb |
File Type: | docx |
Punctuation and sentence construction
Essential Question: What atmosphere is created through Gilman's use of punctuation and sentence structure?
Examine the first journal entry and the last journal entry. What changes do you notice in the use of punctuation and sentence structures? What is Gilman trying to illustrate through these structural features?
Essential Question: What atmosphere is created through Gilman's use of punctuation and sentence structure?
Examine the first journal entry and the last journal entry. What changes do you notice in the use of punctuation and sentence structures? What is Gilman trying to illustrate through these structural features?
Punctuation
What atmosphere is created through the use of punctuation in both sections? |
Sentence Structure
|
What is Gilman trying to illustrate through these structural features?
Essential Question:
To what extent is the ending ironic?
"It is the same woman, I know, for she is always creeping, and most women do not creep by daylight" (p. 12).
"I always lock the door when I creep by daylight. I can't do it at night for I know John would suspect something at once" (p. 12).
"It is so pleasant to be out in this great room and creep around as I please!" (p. 14).
"I keep on creeping just the same, but I look at him over my shoulder. 'I've got out at last...in spite of you and Jane'" (p. 15).
"Now why should that man have fainted? But he did, and right across my path by the wall, so that I had to creep over him every time! (p. 15).
To what extent is the ending ironic?
- Scan through pages 11-15 and highlight each time you see the verb "creep."
- What does it mean to creep? What is the connotation?
"It is the same woman, I know, for she is always creeping, and most women do not creep by daylight" (p. 12).
"I always lock the door when I creep by daylight. I can't do it at night for I know John would suspect something at once" (p. 12).
"It is so pleasant to be out in this great room and creep around as I please!" (p. 14).
"I keep on creeping just the same, but I look at him over my shoulder. 'I've got out at last...in spite of you and Jane'" (p. 15).
"Now why should that man have fainted? But he did, and right across my path by the wall, so that I had to creep over him every time! (p. 15).
- In the short story, what does the narrator ultimately want or desire?
- To what extent is the ending ironic? How does the verb "creep" contribute to the irony?