Yellow Wallpaper By Charlotte Gilman Essay Example For Students

Yellow Wallpaper By Charlotte Gilman Essay For the women in the twentieth century today, who have more freedom than beforeand have not experienced the depressive life that Gilman lived from 1860 to1935, it is difficult to understand Gilmans situation and understand thesignificance of The Yellow Wallpaper. Gilmans original purpose ofwriting the story was to gain personal satisfaction if Dr. S. Weir Mitchellmight change his treatment after reading the story. However, as Ann L. Janesuggests, The Yellow Wallpaper is the best crafted of her fiction: agenuine literary piecethe most directly, obviously, self-consciouslyautobiographical of all her stories (Introduction xvi). And more importantly,Gilman says in her article in The Forerunner, It was not intended to drivepeople crazy, but to save people from being driven crazy, and it worked (20). We will write a custom essay on Yellow Wallpaper By Charlotte Gilman specifically for you for only $16.38 $13.9/page Order now Therefore, The Yellow Wallpaper is a revelation of Charlotte PerkinsGilmans own emotions. When the story first came out in 1892 the criticsconsidered The Yellow Wallpaper as a portrayal of female insanity ratherthan a story that reveals an aspect of society. In The Transcript, a physicianfrom Boston wrote, Such a story ought not to be writtenit was enough todrive anyone mad to read it (Gilman 19). This statement implies that anywoman that would write something to show opposition to the dominant socialvalues must have been insane. In Gilmans time setting The ideal woman wasnot only assigned a social role that locked her into her home, but she was alsoexpected to like it, to be cheerful and gay, smiling and good humored (Lane,To Herland 109). Those women who rejected this role and pursued intellectualenlightenment and freedom would be scoffed, alienated, and even punished. Thisis exactly what Gilman experienced when she tried to express her desire forindependence. Gilman expressed her emotional and psychological feelings ofrejection from society for thinking freely in The Yellow Wallpaper, whichis a reaction to the fact that it was against the grain of society for women topursue intellectual freedom or a career in the late 1800s. Her taking Dr. S. Weir Mitchells rest cure was the result of the pressures of theseprevalent social values. Charlotte Gilman was born on July 3, 1860, in Hartford,Connecticut in a family boasting a list of revolutionary thinkers, writers. Andintermarriages among them were, as Carol Berkin put it, in discreteconfirmation of their pride in association (18). One fact that catches ourattention is that, either from the inbreeding, or from the high intellectualcapacity of the family, there was a long sting of disorders ranging frommanic-depressive illness to nervous breakdowns including suicide and shortterm hospitalizations (Lane, To Herland 110). Harriet Beecher Stowe, Gilmansaunt, also complained about this illness. When writing to a friend, Beechersaid, My mind is exhausted and seems to be sinking into deadness (Lane, TOHerland 111). She felt this way for years and did not recover from so manybreakdowns until finding real release in her writing of Uncle TomsCabin (Lane, To Herland 111). And Catherine Be echer, another famous writer andlecturer at that time, was also sent to the same sanitarium for nervousdisorders. As Gilman came from a family of such well known feminists andrevolutionaries, it is without a doubt that she grew up with the idea that shehad the right to be treated as anyone, whether man or woman. Not only did thisstrong background affect her viewpoint about things, it also affected herrelations with her husband and what role she would play in that relationship. .u81b9f799d5e32a899965002930e42408 , .u81b9f799d5e32a899965002930e42408 .postImageUrl , .u81b9f799d5e32a899965002930e42408 .centered-text-area { min-height: 80px; position: relative; } .u81b9f799d5e32a899965002930e42408 , .u81b9f799d5e32a899965002930e42408:hover , .u81b9f799d5e32a899965002930e42408:visited , .u81b9f799d5e32a899965002930e42408:active { border:0!important; } .u81b9f799d5e32a899965002930e42408 .clearfix:after { content: ""; display: table; clear: both; } .u81b9f799d5e32a899965002930e42408 { display: block; transition: background-color 250ms; webkit-transition: background-color 250ms; width: 100%; opacity: 1; transition: opacity 250ms; webkit-transition: opacity 250ms; background-color: #95A5A6; } .u81b9f799d5e32a899965002930e42408:active , .u81b9f799d5e32a899965002930e42408:hover { opacity: 1; transition: opacity 250ms; webkit-transition: opacity 250ms; background-color: #2C3E50; } .u81b9f799d5e32a899965002930e42408 .centered-text-area { width: 100%; position: relative ; } .u81b9f799d5e32a899965002930e42408 .ctaText { border-bottom: 0 solid #fff; color: #2980B9; font-size: 16px; font-weight: bold; margin: 0; padding: 0; text-decoration: underline; } .u81b9f799d5e32a899965002930e42408 .postTitle { color: #FFFFFF; font-size: 16px; font-weight: 600; margin: 0; padding: 0; width: 100%; } .u81b9f799d5e32a899965002930e42408 .ctaButton { background-color: #7F8C8D!important; color: #2980B9; border: none; border-radius: 3px; box-shadow: none; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold; line-height: 26px; moz-border-radius: 3px; text-align: center; text-decoration: none; text-shadow: none; width: 80px; min-height: 80px; background: url(https://artscolumbia.org/wp-content/plugins/intelly-related-posts/assets/images/simple-arrow.png)no-repeat; position: absolute; right: 0; top: 0; } .u81b9f799d5e32a899965002930e42408:hover .ctaButton { background-color: #34495E!important; } .u81b9f799d5e32a899965002930e42408 .centered-text { display: table; height: 80px; padding-left : 18px; top: 0; } .u81b9f799d5e32a899965002930e42408 .u81b9f799d5e32a899965002930e42408-content { display: table-cell; margin: 0; padding: 0; padding-right: 108px; position: relative; vertical-align: middle; width: 100%; } .u81b9f799d5e32a899965002930e42408:after { content: ""; display: block; clear: both; } READ: Drug Abuse in America EssayFrom the beginning of her marriage, she struggled with the idea of conforming tothe domestic model for women. Upon repeated proposals from Stetson, her husband,Gilman tried to lay bare her torments and reservations about gettingmarried (Lane, To Herland 85). She claimed that her thoughts, her acts, herwhole life would be centered on husband and children. To do the work she neededto do, she must be free (Lane, To Herland 85). Gilman was so scared of thisidea because she loved her work and she loved freedom, though she also loved herhusband very much. After a long period of uncertainty and vacillation shemarried Charles Stetson at 24 (Lane, Introdu ction x). Less than a year later,however, feelings of nervous exhaustion immediately descended uponGilman, and she became a mental wreck (Ceplair 17). In that period oftime, she wrote many articles on women caught between families and careersand the need for women to have

John Dillinger - Public Enemy No. 1

John Dillinger - Public Enemy No. 1 During the eleven months spanning from September 1933 through July 1934, John Herbert Dillinger and his gang robbed numerous Midwest banks, killed ten people and wounded at least seven others, and staged three jailbreaks. The Start of the Spree After serving a little more than eight years in prison, Dillinger was paroled on May 10, 1933, for his part in a 1924 robbery of a grocery store. Dillinger came out of prison as a very bitter man who had become a hardened criminal. His bitterness stemmed from the fact that he was given concurrent sentences of 2 to 14 years and 10 to 20 years while the man who committed the robbery with him served only two years. Dillinger immediately returned to a life of crime by robbing a Bluffton, Ohio bank. On September 22, 1933, Dillinger was arrested and jailed in Lima, Ohio as he was awaiting trial on the bank robbery charge. Four days after his arrest, several of Dillinger’s former fellow inmates escaped from prison shooting two guards in the process. On October 12, 1933, three of the escapees along with a fourth man went to the Lima county jail posing as prison agents who were there to pick up Dillinger on a parole violation and return him to prison. This ruse didn’t work, and the escapees ended up shooting the sheriff, who lived at the facility with his wife. They locked the sheriff’s wife and a deputy in a cell to free Dillinger from incarceration.   Dillinger and the four men who had freed him – Russell Clark, Harry Copeland, Charles Makley, and Harry Pierpont immediately went on a spree robbing a number of banks. In addition, they also looted two Indiana police arsenals where they took various firearms, ammunition and some bulletproof vests.   Ã‚   On December 14, 1933, a member of Dillinger’s gang killed a Chicago police detective. On January 15, 1934, Dillinger killed a police officer during a bank robbery in East Chicago, Indiana. The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) began posting photos of Dillinger and the members of his gang in the hope that the public would recognize them and turn them into local police departments.   The Manhunt Escalates Dillinger and his gang left the Chicago area and went to Florida for a short break before heading to Tucson, Arizona. On January 23, 1934, firemen, who responded to a blaze a Tucson hotel, recognized two hotel guests as being members of Dillinger’s gang from the photos that had been published by the FBI. Dillinger and three of his gang members were arrested, and police confiscated a cache of weapons that included three Thompson submachine guns, as well as five bulletproof vests, and more than $25,000 in cash. Dillinger was transported to the Crown Point, Indiana county jail which local authorities claimed was â€Å"escape proof† a claim which Dillinger proved wrong on March 3, 1934. Dillinger used a wooden gun that he had whittled in his cell and used it force the guards to open his. Then Dillinger locked up the guards and stole the Sheriff’s car, which he drove to and abandoned in Chicago, Illinois. This act allowed the FBI to finally join the Dillinger manhunt since driving a stolen car across state lines constitutes a federal offense. In Chicago, Dillinger picked up his girlfriend, Evelyn Frechette and they then drove to St. Paul, Minnesota where they met up with several of his gang members and Lester Gillis, who was known as â€Å"Baby Face Nelson.†Ã‚   Public Enemy No. 1 On March 30, 1934, the FBI learned that Dillinger may be in the St. Paul area and agents began speaking with managers of rentals and motels in the area and learned that there was a suspicious â€Å"husband and wife†   with the last name of Hellman at the Lincoln Court Apartments. The following day, an FBI agent knocked on the Hellman’s door, and Frechette answered but immediately closed the door. While waiting for reinforcements to arrive a member of Dillinger’s gang, Homer Van Meter, walked towards the apartment and upon being questioned shots were fired, and Van Meter was able to escape. Then Dillinger opened the door and opened fire with a ​machine gun allowing him and Frechette to escape, but Dillinger was injured in the process.​ A wounded Dillinger returned to his father’s home in Mooresville, Indiana with Frechette. Shortly after they arrived, Frechette returned to Chicago where she was promptly arrested by the FBI and was charged with harboring a fugitive. Dillinger would remain in Mooresville until his wound healed.After holding up a Warsaw, Indiana police station where Dillinger and Van Meter stole guns and bulletproof vests, Dillinger and his gang went to a summer resort called the Little Bohemia Lodge in northern Wisconsin. Due to the influx of gangsters, someone at the lodge phoned the FBI, who immediately set out for the lodge. On a cold April night, the agents arrived at the resort with their car lights turned off, but dogs immediately began barking. Machine gunfire broke out from the lodge, and a gun battle ensued.   Once the gunfire stopped, the agents learned that Dillinger and five others had been able to escape once again.    By the summer of 1934, FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover  named John Dillinger as America’s very first â€Å"Public Enemy No. 1.†