Comments on things mean a lot: “The Yellow Wallpaper” by Charlotte Perkins Gilman...

Can you believe that in high school, I performed p...

2010-08-29T01:36:26.706+01:00

Can you believe that in high school, I performed parts of this as a dramatic monologue? I was horrible!!! And I think I didn't really understand the whole concept as I only read the the excerpt for the monologue part. I should go back and reread this!

pickygirl: Thank you for nudging me to write about...

2010-08-25T23:01:35.818+01:00

pickygirl: Thank you for nudging me to write about it! The fact that you're still so passionate about the story after studying it so intensely does say a lot about its quality. I read a bit about Mitchell on Wikipedia, and eek - for all my love of the Victorians I'm extremely grateful not to be one. And yes, a spoilers-allowed discussion of this would be wonderful!

Jason: It actually DOES make perfect sense once written down, worry not. I love what you said about how a girl it's allowed to have some "spunk" as long as it doesn't go too far. And as much as things have improved, that mindset is still scarily contemporary.

Jill: It would, but I'm sure you'd love it!

Casey: Do add it! It's wonderful and a perfect follow-up to the Laski.

Shelley: You really do. It's almost like madness was the only appropriate response :\

Staci: She really was. I need to read Herland one of these days.

Stephanie: I can imagine!

Elise: You're welcome! I'd love to hear your thoughts.

Other Stephanie: I think both you and your daughter would get a lot out of it.

Litlove: That's such a good point - she sounds calm, collected and perfectly rational to the very end, which makes for a wonderful contrast with the diagnosis she supposedly accepts.

Trisha: It really is. I loved that image - it says SO much.

Naida, I don't think I will either!

Kathleen: Sadly, probably countless women :\

Claire: I can't wait to hear what you think of The Victorian Chaise-Longue! And of this when you get to it :)

Amy, you absolutely do!

Teddy Rose, I think you'll enjoy it a lot!

Lua: Yes! It really is. The writing is wonderfully compact and effective.

Mel U: You're most welcome! I loved reading your thoughts on this.

Jodie: It really is :\ And you can count me in for #teamtimemachine

Sakura: Wide Sargasso Sea and Affinity are indeed wonderful! And since you loved those, I've no doubt you'll love this too.

Aarti: Yes, exactly! Thank you for encouraging me to read it earlier this year :)

Anna: I suspect this is one of those stories that get more and more rewarding when you revisit them. Enjoy your re-read!

I read this in college, but at the time, I don'...

2010-08-25T14:36:42.406+01:00

I read this in college, but at the time, I don't think I was fully able to grasp all that it meant. I'll have to dig out my copy and re-read it. As always, great review!

Loved this story! Didn't expect to be drawn i...

2010-08-24T23:18:02.140+01:00

Loved this story! Didn't expect to be drawn in so quickly or so deeply to a short story, but Gilman definitely got me on board very quickly!

Verity, I think you'd definitely enjoy The Awa...

2010-08-24T21:00:07.864+01:00

Verity, I think you'd definitely enjoy The Awakening a lot!

Melody: Yes, isn't it? :\

Zee: Thank you for your link! And I think your students are actually quite fortunate :P I'd have loved to discuss this in a class.

Jen: Maybe you read it but have forgotten the title?

Claire: I've read and loved Wide Sargasso Sea, so I'm only one book away from completeness ;) I do need to get my hands on Maria - it's Mary Wollstonecraft, after all!

Sandy: Hooray - I'm glad to hear you got them both! Enjoy :D

Clare: I can imagine the fun!

Emily Jane: It is, isn't it?

JoAnn: You both need to read Affinity! So sad, but so so good.

Kathy: Yes, exactly. Kind of horrifying to think about :\

Jenny: Ha, it *should* be a hint :P At least the DVDs are light and I can easily take them :P And I can't imagine what I'd do with the rest of my day either!

Meghan: Do! I think it'd stay with you this time around.

Amanda: I'd love to hear what you think!

Zibilee: Aarti's review really was wonderful, and it was one of the things that encouraged me to read it at last!

even pretty girls need to read said: Sounds like a perfectly good reason to start a friendship to me! And argh, I'd hate to see the plot summarised like that too :\ when re-reading the draft of my post I had to add that "supposed", because otherwise it just sounded so wrong.

Elisabeth: I hope you'll find it as interesting as I did!

Emidy: You can read it online, and it'll take you 15 minutes at the most!

I haven't read this yet, so I guess my life is...

2010-08-24T13:01:34.292+01:00

I haven't read this yet, so I guess my life isn't complete ;) However, I have read Wide Sargasso Sea which was wonderful. I loved Affinity which I read earlier in the year and am definitely going to read Mad, Bad and Sad soon. Really soon.

The idea of this book always scares me too much to...

2010-08-24T09:24:40.367+01:00

The idea of this book always scares me too much to read it. Hysteria is just one of the scariest catch alls, because it could effectively rob a woman of all freedom and there was no way she could dispprove it. Thinking about it makes me want to magic up a time machine with Tardis like capacity and bundle all Victorian women into it.

I agree this is a very powerful story-it appears t...

2010-08-22T23:28:45.583+01:00

I agree this is a very powerful story-it appears to be her only short story as far as I could find-thanks for linking to my review and I learned a lot from your post

I love short stories- I can’t believe I missed thi...

2010-08-22T07:26:19.967+01:00

I love short stories- I can’t believe I missed this one! Thank you for the great review.
“Personally, I disagree with their ideas.
Personally, I believe that congenial work, with excitement and change, would do me good.
But what is one to do?”

Isn’t it amazing how much we can learn and understand about a character with such few words…

Thanks for bring my attention to this short. I ju...

2010-08-22T05:42:50.486+01:00

Thanks for bring my attention to this short. I just downloaded it to my e-reader. I love to get short story recommendations and this sounds like a good won.

OK, I officially need to read this! It sounds incr...

2010-08-21T20:47:08.599+01:00

OK, I officially need to read this! It sounds incredible.

I'll be reading The Victorian Chaise-Longue so...

2010-08-21T18:27:21.824+01:00

I'll be reading The Victorian Chaise-Longue soon, yay! And thinking about The Yellow Paper next..

I wonder how many women during this time period we...

2010-08-21T17:28:06.474+01:00

I wonder how many women during this time period were labeled hysterical but were really just vibrant, creative, passionate women who were longing to have a voice.

Glad you read it and enjoyed it nymeth. I read thi...

2010-08-21T17:08:19.684+01:00

Glad you read it and enjoyed it nymeth. I read this one a while ago and never forgot it.
http://thebookworm07.blogspot.com/

I often teach this story in my courses, and studen...

2010-08-21T15:21:30.995+01:00

I often teach this story in my courses, and students tend to enjoy the different issues being presented and of course the final image is very powerful for a group used to watching films. There's something about the image that is highly disturbing...

I used to teach this story a lot to my students ta...

2010-08-21T09:20:06.617+01:00

I used to teach this story a lot to my students taking the mind/body module on the comparative paper on The Body that we had at university. It is as you say an amazing condensation of themes and images. My thought about it is how un-hysterical it is in the writing. If you look closely at the narrator's voice you can see how lucidly she charts the descent into madness. This is a book about hysteria, but it's a cool, hard, unflinching appraisal of an unjust society, as much as it's a text of illness. I must have reviewed it on my blog at some point, but probably years ago now!

A sociologist friend recommended this story to my ...

2010-08-21T02:10:25.989+01:00

A sociologist friend recommended this story to my daughter and me several years ago, and I still haven't gotten to it. You've definitely rekindled my interest.

Ooh I read Affinity not too long ago.. this one is...

2010-08-20T23:47:03.683+01:00

Ooh I read Affinity not too long ago.. this one is going on the list! Thanks for the review.

I read this one in college and I remember it led t...

2010-08-20T22:08:00.069+01:00

I read this one in college and I remember it led to a great discussion.

This was my introduction to Gilman..absolutely lov...

2010-08-20T19:15:56.069+01:00

This was my introduction to Gilman..absolutely loved it and had to write a paper about it!! I think she was a fascinating writer.

Times were hard for the women I write about, but a...

2010-08-20T17:35:13.346+01:00

Times were hard for the women I write about, but as far as Gilman's time, you wonder how an intelligent woman could have kept from going stark raving mad.

I will be reading The Victorian Chaise-Longue soon...

2010-08-20T17:14:08.328+01:00

I will be reading The Victorian Chaise-Longue soon! Maybe add this one to the tbr...

I've read enough about this that I know it wou...

2010-08-20T16:55:26.037+01:00

I've read enough about this that I know it would make me too infuriated and sad to read it!

I love this story, and am so glad you did, too! Th...

2010-08-20T16:45:30.461+01:00

I love this story, and am so glad you did, too! The first time I read it, for some reason, I was reminded of the scene in 'Madeleine' where she starts to imagine the crakcs in the hospital ceiling look like a rabbit - I honestly didn't know why I made the association, at first, beyond the obvious, but the farther I get from it, hte more the two moments feel similar - like MAdeleine is the way the husband would have imagined the story going - a girl can have some 'spunk', that's adorable, just so long as she knows that she's a troublesome child, and must be disciplined and ketp to with in her bounds. If you keep someone within a boundary, they find ways to subvert the meaning of what's within their narrow borders, I guess. That makes less sense now that I write it down, but hopefully you'll know kind of what I mean...

Yea! Yea! Yea! And thanks for the link. The Yellow...

2010-08-20T16:44:42.541+01:00

Yea! Yea! Yea! And thanks for the link. The Yellow Wallpaper was one of those life-changing stories for me, particularly once I began doing research with it for my thesis. To have written that extensively about it and still like it is a testament to Gilman for sure.

There's so much good stuff in this story, and what qualified as "sick" is fascinating. Dr. Weird Mitchell, whom she mentions, was actually her doctor. He treated women for an array of symptoms, all labeled as hysteria. A lot of times he blamed them for not wanting to do domestic work and longing for the rest cure.

When I teach this story, I make the students drop cell phones and iPods at the front of the class. We then have a discussion of how long it would take them to go crazy without them. It's always fun to see their thinking of the story change.

I'd love to do a chat about this somewhere where we weren't afraid of spoilers. I love seeing others' take on it.