1916
Charlotte Perkins Gilman
Mrs. Beazley's Deeds
B
The last short story in this collection is one of the better ones, as a female lawyer helps a woman and her three kids escape jerky Mr. Beazley. Of course there's a twist, as always, with the lawyer's profession not being immediately revealed. I like that Gilman made things darker than usual, the male chauvinist pig more piggish, although still plausible. It makes Mrs. Beazley's triumph that much better.
This collection definitely averages out to B-. Like I said, Gilman generally stays on the pretty-good level.
Showing posts with label Gilman. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Gilman. Show all posts
Wednesday, March 28, 2012
Joan's Defender
1916
Charlotte Perkins Gilman
Joan's Defender
B-
Young Joan is saved from her bullying brother and neglectful parents for a couple years, during which she stays with her awesome uncle and his awesome family. He cuts her too long hair, teaches her jiu-jitsu, and generally lets her reach her potential. She returns home and kicks her brother's butt. I don't get why she couldn't have stayed at the ranch, but whatever. A reasonably happy ending, even if her nuclear family still sucks. (It's like if Harry Potter went to Hogwarts for a couple years and then had to stay with the Dursleys for the rest of his adolescence.)
Charlotte Perkins Gilman
Joan's Defender
B-
Young Joan is saved from her bullying brother and neglectful parents for a couple years, during which she stays with her awesome uncle and his awesome family. He cuts her too long hair, teaches her jiu-jitsu, and generally lets her reach her potential. She returns home and kicks her brother's butt. I don't get why she couldn't have stayed at the ranch, but whatever. A reasonably happy ending, even if her nuclear family still sucks. (It's like if Harry Potter went to Hogwarts for a couple years and then had to stay with the Dursleys for the rest of his adolescence.)
Monday, March 26, 2012
Dr. Clair's Place
1915
Charlotte Perkins Gilman
Dr. Clair's Place
B-
A depressed woman is saved from suicidal thoughts by visiting the title location, a benign sanitorium, where visitors perform positive, interesting tasks in a wholesome location somewhere in the Southern California hills. The irony that Gilman would herself commit suicide twenty years later, after being diagnosed with breast cancer, is heart-breaking. As Yellow Wallpaper shows, she knew that "rest cures" didn't always cure. And there are some lives that may be too unbearable to continue. Knitting and jigsaw puzzles are not enough. But as a suggestion of reform for sanitoriums, it's still an insightful work.
By the way, there are now more posts for the 1910s than for any other decade. This took awhile because most of the ones for the sixteenth century are from the 1590s. There are still more posts for the nineteenth century than the twentieth, but we're well on our way.
Charlotte Perkins Gilman
Dr. Clair's Place
B-
A depressed woman is saved from suicidal thoughts by visiting the title location, a benign sanitorium, where visitors perform positive, interesting tasks in a wholesome location somewhere in the Southern California hills. The irony that Gilman would herself commit suicide twenty years later, after being diagnosed with breast cancer, is heart-breaking. As Yellow Wallpaper shows, she knew that "rest cures" didn't always cure. And there are some lives that may be too unbearable to continue. Knitting and jigsaw puzzles are not enough. But as a suggestion of reform for sanitoriums, it's still an insightful work.
By the way, there are now more posts for the 1910s than for any other decade. This took awhile because most of the ones for the sixteenth century are from the 1590s. There are still more posts for the nineteenth century than the twentieth, but we're well on our way.
Spoken To
1915
Charlotte Perkins Gilman
Spoken To
B-
On the one hand, I applaud Lucille "Luke" Wright's bravado in going out in public alone, even as late as ten o'clock, despite warnings that she may be "spoken to." On the other, it brings up all sorts of memories of times that men have yelled out rude things to me, and not "Hey, Baby!" but really crude, sometimes menacing things. Once I didn't reply to a homeless man, so he called me a whore. Sometimes I'll ignore it, sometimes I'll even yell things back, but there is always that fear, even after a lifetime as a pedestrian, that someday one of those men is going to attack me violently, that that group of young jerks yelling things out of a car as they pass are going to come back. The worst that happens to Luke is in Paris she gets whispered to by the same cad who propositioned her aunt twenty years ago, and she puts him in his place with a smile. She doesn't even get pinched like Claudine.
I remember Woody Allen, of all people, talking about how women who'd been young in New York City before World War II used to go out at night unescorted. I think there was a time, of which this short story was probably at the beginning, when women were starting to exercise their freedom, even if just to go to lectures and the library, before fear of crime took some of that freedom away. I've often gone out by myself at night, including in London, but I've never been as blithe about it as Luke. So I think this is as dated in its very progressivism as Herland.
Charlotte Perkins Gilman
Spoken To
B-
On the one hand, I applaud Lucille "Luke" Wright's bravado in going out in public alone, even as late as ten o'clock, despite warnings that she may be "spoken to." On the other, it brings up all sorts of memories of times that men have yelled out rude things to me, and not "Hey, Baby!" but really crude, sometimes menacing things. Once I didn't reply to a homeless man, so he called me a whore. Sometimes I'll ignore it, sometimes I'll even yell things back, but there is always that fear, even after a lifetime as a pedestrian, that someday one of those men is going to attack me violently, that that group of young jerks yelling things out of a car as they pass are going to come back. The worst that happens to Luke is in Paris she gets whispered to by the same cad who propositioned her aunt twenty years ago, and she puts him in his place with a smile. She doesn't even get pinched like Claudine.
I remember Woody Allen, of all people, talking about how women who'd been young in New York City before World War II used to go out at night unescorted. I think there was a time, of which this short story was probably at the beginning, when women were starting to exercise their freedom, even if just to go to lectures and the library, before fear of crime took some of that freedom away. I've often gone out by myself at night, including in London, but I've never been as blithe about it as Luke. So I think this is as dated in its very progressivism as Herland.
Herland
1915
Charlotte Perkins Gilman
Herland
B-
Three modern men of various types, not unlike the suitors in A Mischievous Rudiment, discover a land populated solely by women. Narrator Van is quietly realistic, while Jeff is chivalrous and Terry is macho. Van is a sociologist, so he's particularly interested in how this society works. Jeff puts women on pedestals, so he adapts fairly well, once he realizes that the women don't need his protection. But Terry agrees with Wyndham that women need to be mastered. The three men find brides among the Herlanders, but Terry's marriage is very unhappy, culminating in attempted marital rape.
For 2000 years, the women have been reproducing through parthenogenesis. They're aware of sexual intercourse because of the animals they breed (Gilman is amusing about cats), but it's not part of their own lives. When Elladora, Celis, and Alima get married, the whole nation is excited about the possibility of Fatherhood. But sex is only seen as for reproduction, in a land where Motherhood is central. This leads to difficulties even for the more understanding Van. (Jeff and Celis soon decide to have a child.)
It's interesting to see what Gilman imagines a country without men would be like: peaceful, crime-free, clean, well-fed, well-educated, and generally well-run. There are also of course none of the limiting gender stereotypes, for men or women, that plagued her time. However, how utopian is this utopia? Besides the lack of sex (including lesbianism), it's a world where only women who are good enough, as defined by society, can have a child, with a few rare women ("Over Mothers") being allowed more than one. Yet motherhood, in the sense of childbirth, is seen as the great act of a woman's life. On the other hand, most women don't raise their children themselves, because that would be like, as Gilman says, practicing dentistry on your family when you don't have the training.
As utopias go, sure, I'd rather live here than in More's, although not as much as Oz. At least I'd be able to have an interesting job and lots of friends, without having to confess my "sins" to my husband, as in More's land. In Oz, I'd have to live where Ozma told me to, but I'd otherwise have some measure of freedom, and be surrounded by magic. Ironically, magic aside, I think Oz is the most plausible utopia, or dystopia, I've examined so far. Herland, in its isolation, with "savages" as the nearest neighbors, most resembles Erewhon.
This is a very dated novella but I think it'll be interesting to look back on when I get up to my "radical feminist" books of the 1970s. And it's not a bad little story, without the dull patches of Erewhon, although none of the hm moments of that novel.
Charlotte Perkins Gilman
Herland
B-
Three modern men of various types, not unlike the suitors in A Mischievous Rudiment, discover a land populated solely by women. Narrator Van is quietly realistic, while Jeff is chivalrous and Terry is macho. Van is a sociologist, so he's particularly interested in how this society works. Jeff puts women on pedestals, so he adapts fairly well, once he realizes that the women don't need his protection. But Terry agrees with Wyndham that women need to be mastered. The three men find brides among the Herlanders, but Terry's marriage is very unhappy, culminating in attempted marital rape.
For 2000 years, the women have been reproducing through parthenogenesis. They're aware of sexual intercourse because of the animals they breed (Gilman is amusing about cats), but it's not part of their own lives. When Elladora, Celis, and Alima get married, the whole nation is excited about the possibility of Fatherhood. But sex is only seen as for reproduction, in a land where Motherhood is central. This leads to difficulties even for the more understanding Van. (Jeff and Celis soon decide to have a child.)
It's interesting to see what Gilman imagines a country without men would be like: peaceful, crime-free, clean, well-fed, well-educated, and generally well-run. There are also of course none of the limiting gender stereotypes, for men or women, that plagued her time. However, how utopian is this utopia? Besides the lack of sex (including lesbianism), it's a world where only women who are good enough, as defined by society, can have a child, with a few rare women ("Over Mothers") being allowed more than one. Yet motherhood, in the sense of childbirth, is seen as the great act of a woman's life. On the other hand, most women don't raise their children themselves, because that would be like, as Gilman says, practicing dentistry on your family when you don't have the training.
As utopias go, sure, I'd rather live here than in More's, although not as much as Oz. At least I'd be able to have an interesting job and lots of friends, without having to confess my "sins" to my husband, as in More's land. In Oz, I'd have to live where Ozma told me to, but I'd otherwise have some measure of freedom, and be surrounded by magic. Ironically, magic aside, I think Oz is the most plausible utopia, or dystopia, I've examined so far. Herland, in its isolation, with "savages" as the nearest neighbors, most resembles Erewhon.
This is a very dated novella but I think it'll be interesting to look back on when I get up to my "radical feminist" books of the 1970s. And it's not a bad little story, without the dull patches of Erewhon, although none of the hm moments of that novel.
Sunday, March 25, 2012
If I Were a Man
1914
Charlotte Perkins Gilman
If I Were a Man
B-
The title is a bit misleading. It sounds like it's going to be in first person, like When I Was a Witch. And Mollie doesn't exactly become a man. Her consciousness is submerged in that of her husband's, so she's reacting with double vision to his typical day. An outright body switch story might've worked better, but Gilman does bring up some interesting points, including that women's hats are still as ridiculous as they were in the previous decade, and allows Mollie some empathy for men.
Charlotte Perkins Gilman
If I Were a Man
B-
The title is a bit misleading. It sounds like it's going to be in first person, like When I Was a Witch. And Mollie doesn't exactly become a man. Her consciousness is submerged in that of her husband's, so she's reacting with double vision to his typical day. An outright body switch story might've worked better, but Gilman does bring up some interesting points, including that women's hats are still as ridiculous as they were in the previous decade, and allows Mollie some empathy for men.
Her Beauty
1913
Charlotte Perkins Gilman
Her Beauty
C+
Rushed, under-developed story of a plain-Jane fashion designer whose first and only love chooses a prettier, shallower bride. The twist ending is that he's now a widower, so they can finally be together.
Charlotte Perkins Gilman
Her Beauty
C+
Rushed, under-developed story of a plain-Jane fashion designer whose first and only love chooses a prettier, shallower bride. The twist ending is that he's now a widower, so they can finally be together.
Friday, March 23, 2012
Mrs. Elder's Idea
1912
Charlotte Perkins Gilman
Mrs. Elder's Idea
B-
Like "old" Mrs. Crosley, not-yet-elderly Mrs. Elder is a middle-aged woman with grown children and nothing to do. Her idea is more radical, since it involves not only a career as a personal shopper, but a partial separation from her husband. He'll live in the country and she'll live in the city, visiting each other a season out of the year, rather than both living unhappily in the suburbs. He, of course, resists the idea but gives in, of course, finding that "two half homes and half a happy wife" to be "really more satisfying than one whole home, and a whole unhappy wife." She and their children, who've moved in with her to pursue their careers, thrive.
Only one hundred years of this blog to go!
Charlotte Perkins Gilman
Mrs. Elder's Idea
B-
Like "old" Mrs. Crosley, not-yet-elderly Mrs. Elder is a middle-aged woman with grown children and nothing to do. Her idea is more radical, since it involves not only a career as a personal shopper, but a partial separation from her husband. He'll live in the country and she'll live in the city, visiting each other a season out of the year, rather than both living unhappily in the suburbs. He, of course, resists the idea but gives in, of course, finding that "two half homes and half a happy wife" to be "really more satisfying than one whole home, and a whole unhappy wife." She and their children, who've moved in with her to pursue their careers, thrive.
Only one hundred years of this blog to go!
A Mischievous Rudiment
1912
Charlotte Perkins Gilman
A Mischievous Rudiment
B-
The reason why I keep giving Gilman B-s is that she hits a level of better than average but generally not amazing, and stays there. Some of the time I think the stories would be better if they weren't so short. This is an example of one that could've been expanded at least into a novella. The ironically named heiress Miss Bland has many suitors but narrows it down to three. One of them, Wyndham, is the title character, since his belief that women like to be mastered is becoming outdated, despite recent fiction. Miss Bland's answer to "Do you like Kipling?" would probably be "I don't like to be Kipled." She's attracted to Wyndham's strength but not his machismo. The other suitors are a yes-man and an intelligent nice guy. If D. H. Lawrence were writing this story, she'd of course end up with Wyndham.
A century later, there are still real and fictional men who believe "A woman-- a real woman-- needs to be mastered! She likes it. She loves the man who can make her love him-- against her will!" But I think that, thanks to Gilman and her successors, women like Miss Bland and men like Mr. Weston dismiss the idea more easily.
Charlotte Perkins Gilman
A Mischievous Rudiment
B-
The reason why I keep giving Gilman B-s is that she hits a level of better than average but generally not amazing, and stays there. Some of the time I think the stories would be better if they weren't so short. This is an example of one that could've been expanded at least into a novella. The ironically named heiress Miss Bland has many suitors but narrows it down to three. One of them, Wyndham, is the title character, since his belief that women like to be mastered is becoming outdated, despite recent fiction. Miss Bland's answer to "Do you like Kipling?" would probably be "I don't like to be Kipled." She's attracted to Wyndham's strength but not his machismo. The other suitors are a yes-man and an intelligent nice guy. If D. H. Lawrence were writing this story, she'd of course end up with Wyndham.
A century later, there are still real and fictional men who believe "A woman-- a real woman-- needs to be mastered! She likes it. She loves the man who can make her love him-- against her will!" But I think that, thanks to Gilman and her successors, women like Miss Bland and men like Mr. Weston dismiss the idea more easily.
Thursday, March 22, 2012
Making a Change
1911
Charlotte Perkins Gilman
Making a Change
B
Better than average short story for Gilman, since this time there are two women who improve their lives, and the mother-in-law saves the daughter-in-law from suicide. Also, it's an early sympathetic look at daycare. As usual, the husband is disapproving at first, but is won over when he sees how everyone's life, including his own, is improved. And, yes, there are details about how much things cost.
Charlotte Perkins Gilman
Making a Change
B
Better than average short story for Gilman, since this time there are two women who improve their lives, and the mother-in-law saves the daughter-in-law from suicide. Also, it's an early sympathetic look at daycare. As usual, the husband is disapproving at first, but is won over when he sees how everyone's life, including his own, is improved. And, yes, there are details about how much things cost.
Turned
1911
Charlotte Perkins Gilman
Turned
B-
The "wife" and the "other woman" team up when the latter, a naive 18-year-old Swedish housemaid, becomes pregnant by the husband. I find it a bit implausible that he's away on business for months at a time, but it does give the wife a chance to mull things over. Points for Mrs. Marroner having a Ph.D.
The story reminds me a bit of Lummox by Fannie Hurst, where the title character was a pregnant Scandinavian maid. I used to own it but I think I got rid of it years ago because it was too depressing. This has a more upbeat, though still dramatic, ending.
Charlotte Perkins Gilman
Turned
B-
The "wife" and the "other woman" team up when the latter, a naive 18-year-old Swedish housemaid, becomes pregnant by the husband. I find it a bit implausible that he's away on business for months at a time, but it does give the wife a chance to mull things over. Points for Mrs. Marroner having a Ph.D.
The story reminds me a bit of Lummox by Fannie Hurst, where the title character was a pregnant Scandinavian maid. I used to own it but I think I got rid of it years ago because it was too depressing. This has a more upbeat, though still dramatic, ending.
Old Mrs. Crosley
1911
Charlotte Perkins Gilman
Old Mrs. Crosley
B-
The title character is in her early 50s, as Gilman was at the time. Mrs. Crosley's children are grown and she doesn't know what to do with her time. Despite the initial objections of her children and husband, she starts an employment agency, which is of course a success. (Small businesses are always much more successful in Gilman's world than in real life.) This is less of a how-to-start-your-own-business story and more about the initial restlessness.
Charlotte Perkins Gilman
Old Mrs. Crosley
B-
The title character is in her early 50s, as Gilman was at the time. Mrs. Crosley's children are grown and she doesn't know what to do with her time. Despite the initial objections of her children and husband, she starts an employment agency, which is of course a success. (Small businesses are always much more successful in Gilman's world than in real life.) This is less of a how-to-start-your-own-business story and more about the initial restlessness.
Tuesday, March 20, 2012
Making a Living
1910
Charlotte Perkins Gilman
Making a Living
B-
This time it's a how-to for a man, a poet who starts Hill Mill Meal, with the help of inherited land and some hard-working Italians. His father thinks he should make as much money as he can, like his younger brother, but he just wants to make enough of a living to support a wife. The story is as much about the quality of life and true success as it is about how to get consumers hooked on eating chestnuts. And it includes an electric car.
Charlotte Perkins Gilman
Making a Living
B-
This time it's a how-to for a man, a poet who starts Hill Mill Meal, with the help of inherited land and some hard-working Italians. His father thinks he should make as much money as he can, like his younger brother, but he just wants to make enough of a living to support a wife. The story is as much about the quality of life and true success as it is about how to get consumers hooked on eating chestnuts. And it includes an electric car.
The Boys and the Butter
1910
Charlotte Perkins Gilman
The Boys and the Butter
B-
A change of pace for Gilman, a story having nothing to do with feminism and set vaguely in the past. (Mid 1800s?) A great-aunt promises to reward two little boys with $50 each, which "at the time was like five hundred today," if they'll give up butter for a year. Yes, Julia Child would shudder, and I know I couldn't make the sacrifice. The aptly named Holdfast brothers meet the challenge, only to find out that Aunt Jane has made donations of $50 each in their names to the Missionary Society. The boys are disillusioned and their parents angry on their behalf. Luckily, the visiting missionary refuses the tainted donation, humiliates Aunt Jane, without using her name but everyone in town knows about the bet, and returns the money to its "rightful owners."
Charlotte Perkins Gilman
The Boys and the Butter
B-
A change of pace for Gilman, a story having nothing to do with feminism and set vaguely in the past. (Mid 1800s?) A great-aunt promises to reward two little boys with $50 each, which "at the time was like five hundred today," if they'll give up butter for a year. Yes, Julia Child would shudder, and I know I couldn't make the sacrifice. The aptly named Holdfast brothers meet the challenge, only to find out that Aunt Jane has made donations of $50 each in their names to the Missionary Society. The boys are disillusioned and their parents angry on their behalf. Luckily, the visiting missionary refuses the tainted donation, humiliates Aunt Jane, without using her name but everyone in town knows about the bet, and returns the money to its "rightful owners."
Martha's Mother
1910
Charlotte Perkins Gilman
Martha's Mother
B-
Martha's mom comes to town to run a boarding-house for Martha and other hard-working single gals. Again, we're given a how-to, but most of us won't have country connections who can send us cheap produce. Still, the talk about how much things cost and other details are fun. The story ends with Martha's mother sending away Martha's sexually harassing boss. (Presumably, Martha doesn't lose her job.)
Charlotte Perkins Gilman
Martha's Mother
B-
Martha's mom comes to town to run a boarding-house for Martha and other hard-working single gals. Again, we're given a how-to, but most of us won't have country connections who can send us cheap produce. Still, the talk about how much things cost and other details are fun. The story ends with Martha's mother sending away Martha's sexually harassing boss. (Presumably, Martha doesn't lose her job.)
When I Was a Witch
1910
Charlotte Perkins Gilman
When I Was a Witch
B-
A New York woman tells of how she's granted the power to make some of her wishes come true, wishes to reform society, like stopping animal abuse and curbing the dishonest sensational press. When she wishes "white" magic, wanting women to be freed to mother the world, she loses her power. All of her other wishes are undone, which is why nowadays you still might see a dog wearing clothes and a bracelet, although not necessarily a pocket-handkerchief.
Charlotte Perkins Gilman
When I Was a Witch
B-
A New York woman tells of how she's granted the power to make some of her wishes come true, wishes to reform society, like stopping animal abuse and curbing the dishonest sensational press. When she wishes "white" magic, wanting women to be freed to mother the world, she loses her power. All of her other wishes are undone, which is why nowadays you still might see a dog wearing clothes and a bracelet, although not necessarily a pocket-handkerchief.
Her Housekeeper
1910
Charlotte Perkins Gilman
Her Housekeeper
B-
The title character courts a widowed young actress, but this house is being kept (both owned and operated) by a real-estate man. She has no desire to marry again, and lists the reasons why. He has a rebuttal to all of them and wins her over, partly by winning over her small son. (I like the detail of "making country" with clay and bits of looking-glass.) Points for the discreet reference to orgasm in the last line: " 'I never had any idea,' she ventured after a while, 'that it could be-- like this.' " (OK, they may just be kissing, but there is a skipped line after they talk about kissing.) In any case, they're the first believably happy couple in this Gilman collection.
Charlotte Perkins Gilman
Her Housekeeper
B-
The title character courts a widowed young actress, but this house is being kept (both owned and operated) by a real-estate man. She has no desire to marry again, and lists the reasons why. He has a rebuttal to all of them and wins her over, partly by winning over her small son. (I like the detail of "making country" with clay and bits of looking-glass.) Points for the discreet reference to orgasm in the last line: " 'I never had any idea,' she ventured after a while, 'that it could be-- like this.' " (OK, they may just be kissing, but there is a skipped line after they talk about kissing.) In any case, they're the first believably happy couple in this Gilman collection.
Friday, March 16, 2012
Three Thanksgivings
1909
Charlotte Perkins Gilman
Three Thanksgivings
B-
This is the first story in the collection where Gilman offers a how-to for economic independence. Not that that many women are lucky enough to be the daughters of popular senators and/or the wives of popular ministers, with a big old house in good condition, but Gilman does offer a plausible method for Mrs. Morrison, a 50-year-old widow, to clear her mortgage and thus dismiss an unwanted suitor and avoid living with her grown-up children. No twist ending here, just an inevitable and satisfying conclusion.
Charlotte Perkins Gilman
Three Thanksgivings
B-
This is the first story in the collection where Gilman offers a how-to for economic independence. Not that that many women are lucky enough to be the daughters of popular senators and/or the wives of popular ministers, with a big old house in good condition, but Gilman does offer a plausible method for Mrs. Morrison, a 50-year-old widow, to clear her mortgage and thus dismiss an unwanted suitor and avoid living with her grown-up children. No twist ending here, just an inevitable and satisfying conclusion.
Friday, March 2, 2012
The Yellow Wallpaper
1892
Charlotte Perkins Gilman
The Yellow Wallpaper
B+
Probably Gilman's most famous work, this holds up really well, whether as a horror story of growing insanity or as an indictment of a repressive marriage. Not that the two are entirely separable, since the way that the narrator's doctor/husband treats her, with condescension and flat-out bad advice (avoid interesting people and activities), is horrible, perhaps all the more horrible because it's meant kindly. Unless he's Gaslighting her? It's hard to tell, of course, how much is real. Does he actually faint in the end, as she goes creeping around the room, her identity merged with the imprisoned woman behind the wallpaper? However you take it, Gilman has finally mastered endings. And this is a much more vivid story than the previous two, so by the end, you also will hate the wallpaper. I know I said I dislike being inside Anna Karenina's head as she goes insane, but I think the insanity is more plausible here, and the heroine more sympathetic. Gilman knew firsthand the horrors of being forbidden to write, and that would probably be one of my own personal hells.
Charlotte Perkins Gilman
The Yellow Wallpaper
B+
Probably Gilman's most famous work, this holds up really well, whether as a horror story of growing insanity or as an indictment of a repressive marriage. Not that the two are entirely separable, since the way that the narrator's doctor/husband treats her, with condescension and flat-out bad advice (avoid interesting people and activities), is horrible, perhaps all the more horrible because it's meant kindly. Unless he's Gaslighting her? It's hard to tell, of course, how much is real. Does he actually faint in the end, as she goes creeping around the room, her identity merged with the imprisoned woman behind the wallpaper? However you take it, Gilman has finally mastered endings. And this is a much more vivid story than the previous two, so by the end, you also will hate the wallpaper. I know I said I dislike being inside Anna Karenina's head as she goes insane, but I think the insanity is more plausible here, and the heroine more sympathetic. Gilman knew firsthand the horrors of being forbidden to write, and that would probably be one of my own personal hells.
My Poor Aunt
1891
Charlotte Perkins Gilman
My Poor Aunt
B-
A young woman realizes that she doesn't have to marry to be happy, and in fact her divorced publisher aunt is much happier than her old-before-her-time mother or her society aunt. After Belle defies them and the sarcastic boarder, her aunt shows up and hires her as assistant editor. (Belle has been sending "little things" off to various newspapers, including unknowingly her aunt's.) Then the annoying boarder turns out to be on Belle's side and asks, "Aunt Kate, may I go, too?" And he does. I could've done without that, even if he was just playing devil's advocate. So far Gilman has not figured out how to do a twist ending. Still, I like Belle better than the artist in the previous story, and the way "happiness" is handled has a nice irony. Also, is this the first sympathetic portrayal of a divorcee in my collection? (At this point, Gilman was separated but not yet divorced from her first husband.)
Charlotte Perkins Gilman
My Poor Aunt
B-
A young woman realizes that she doesn't have to marry to be happy, and in fact her divorced publisher aunt is much happier than her old-before-her-time mother or her society aunt. After Belle defies them and the sarcastic boarder, her aunt shows up and hires her as assistant editor. (Belle has been sending "little things" off to various newspapers, including unknowingly her aunt's.) Then the annoying boarder turns out to be on Belle's side and asks, "Aunt Kate, may I go, too?" And he does. I could've done without that, even if he was just playing devil's advocate. So far Gilman has not figured out how to do a twist ending. Still, I like Belle better than the artist in the previous story, and the way "happiness" is handled has a nice irony. Also, is this the first sympathetic portrayal of a divorcee in my collection? (At this point, Gilman was separated but not yet divorced from her first husband.)
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