LITR 5535: American Romanticism
 
Sample Student Research Project, fall 2003

Mindi Swenson
Literature 5535
Dr. Craig White
November 18, 2003 

The Emergence of a Woman’s Self-Discovery in

Literature During Late American Romanticism / Early Realism

            When we think of women writers today we see successful, gifted and talented women.   Although these women writers have been established for sometime their status of contributions to society has only been recognized way too late.   During the late romantic/early realism period numerous women found success in writing despite the fact that they may have encountered numerous obstacles in their path.  The characters these women wrote about almost have a kinship with themselves bringing out certain personality traits not seen written about women before.  From these traits a voice emerges in literature that has been hidden from the public view.  This new true voice of female self-discovery finally comes out for the public to see in numerous works of that day.  Courage, independence and emotional portrayal are the pivotal key traits that make up their self-discovery in the works of numerous female writers such as Gilman, Freeman, Woolson, and Chopin.

            These women writers were writing in the day where women were taught to maintain their place in society and family.  After the Civil War “the homosocial world of women’s culture began to dissolve as women demanded entrance to higher education, the professions, and the political world” (Showalter 67).  The roles of housewife and society maiden that were created by society did not allow for any room of expression by these women.  The lack of women who at this time were seeking a higher education or pursuing the arts was very small.  If they did not come from a family who supported them in their quest than most likely they did not get the chance to pursue their dreams.  If a woman did want to extend their learning most of the time they did it in secrecy.  A woman artist was not someone who was viewed with great admiration.  Many times women had to lie to get their work published or looked at.  Women were at the mercy of male publishers and could only hope for what these men might approve to be published. 

            These men writers and publishers were the only track that women have to look to a historical literary past on.  Based on the patriarchal writings of their past literary history when women wrote the themes of their works, these themes seemed to be predetermined.  The movement of women seeking more in their life than just being a wife and mother brought out writers that started to show the preoccupations they had in these roles through emotion and self- expression.

Writing the way a woman feels has been successfully done over and over by men.  Even though these men write convincingly about a woman’s thoughts and feelings there’s no way they will really ever know.  Based on a critical essay, The Madwoman in the Attic:  The Woman writer and the Nineteenth century Literary Imagination the authors state that “Unlike her male counterpart, then, the female artist must first struggle against the effects of a socialization which makes conflict with the will of her (male) precursors seem inexpressibly absurd, futile, or even self annihilating” (Leitch 2027).  Women writers had to overcome their fears of portraying their inner most feelings in their works.  As mentioned in objective 1B a romantic heroine may appear empty or innocent of all but potential or desire and a willingness to self-invent or transform.

As seen through the period of late American romanticism/early realism it is shown that the characters and authors often make a journey of self-discovery.  Women writers want to be recognized and acknowledged as equals in the predominately male world of literature.  This willingness to discover their own literary course and to self-invent can greatly be seen through the works of Charlotte Perkins Gilman.

            Overcoming anxiety and finding a purpose behind it comes out well in the women characters in Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s, The Yellow Wallpaper. Throughout this short story the reader gets a true picture of the stress that was put on women in their roles in the home and in society.  There were numerous books published about a woman’s roles and how she must play them and some entries from one of these books include, “Duties of the wife – Avoid all Causes for Complaint, How to dress for certain events, Beware of confidants, etc,” (Culley, 122).  There were so many entries it seemed like a text book for how to be a wife, as if wives had never existed before.  The pressure of maintaining these roles and living the facade of a perfect life took its toll.  Many of the women during this time were complaining of this stress and being misunderstood by their husbands and doctors.  Perkins herself states she “became increasingly aware of the injustices inflicted on women” (Baym 1658). 

Her life seems to resemble the character of the wife in The Yellow Wallpaper.  The wife’s stunted career as an artist only to be trapped in a marriage she was basically forced into, only intensifies her desire to create and justify why she is trapped in the world she is in.  This woman’s self-discovery of her true mental state is a crucial step in women finally being able to break the mold and express their true thoughts.  Gilman herself succumbed to the roles society placed upon women, Gilman “entered into the marriage reluctantly, anticipating the difficulties of reconciling her ambition to be a writer with the demands of being a wife, housekeeper, and mother” (1658). 

These roles that women were expected to live up to only made them fear defeat.  If they somehow expressed a thought or feeling that was near to what they truly wanted to do then they were thought to be having a fit of “hysteria”.

This “hysteria” that Gilman writes about was misunderstood from the beginning.  Freud only made things worse with his studies on the mental faculties of women:

Hysteria, the disease with which Freud so famously began his investigations into the dynamic connections between psyche and soma, is by definition a “female disease” not so much because it takes its name from hyster (the organ which was in the nineteenth century supposed to “cause” this emotional disturbance) but because hysteria did occur mainly among women.  Because throughout the nineteenth century this mental illness, like any other nervous disorders was thought to be caused by the female reproductive system, as if to elaborate upon Aristotle’s notion that femaleness was in and of itself a deformity” (Leitch 2030). 

Women themselves did not even know what to call this condition.  Many believed their husbands or doctors and took the prescribed medicine which was usually only relax and take it easy and by all means do not use your mind for anything unnecessary. 

Mental exercises such as writing, reading or art only made the women of that day seem abnormal.  “As romantic poets feared, too much imagination may be dangerous to anyone, male or female, but for women in particular patriarchal culture has always assumed mental exercises would have dire consequences.”  For example John Winthorp’s wife when not performing her duties of wife and mother was seen to have “fallen into a sad infirmity, the loss of her understanding and reason, which had been growing upon her divers years, by occasion of her giving herself wholly to reading and writing, and had written many books,[…]if she had attended her household affairs, and such things as belong to women[…]she had kept her wits.” (2032).  Gilman’s character in The Yellow Wallpaper states her husband’s prescriptions for her, “I take phosphates, or phosphites – whichever it is – and tonics, and journeys, and air, and exercise, and am absolutely forbidden to “work” until ‘I am well again” (Baym 1660).

Gilman’s self discovery of a woman’s true mental state helped propel women’s literature within the literary community.  She not only gave women reasons why they felt this way but gave women everywhere a sense of belonging and that if they did feel this way they were not alone.  The wife in The Yellow Paper seemed to make her own self discovery when she fully connects with the wallpaper, “the dim shapes of the wallpaper get clearer everyday” (1665).  I believe that the character is finally seeing clearly her own mind and what she must do to get through the daily routines of being a wife and mother without having the success of writing.  She also states, “I wonder if they all come out of that wall-paper as I did?” (1670).  This statement is made at the end of the story when the wife seems to declare that she is now cured, but as the reader sees this declaration is only in her mind.  She thinks she has come out of her shell and realized her potential. 

Recently in the late 1980’s the rediscovery of Constance Fenimore Woolson’s writings have been shown to have a great contribution to women’s literature.  Woolson did see success as a writer during her time to some degree but her soul wish was “to be taken as seriously as the writers she most admired—Dickens, her uncle James Fenimore Cooper, Charlotte Bronte, George Elliot, George Sand, and Turgenev among them.  One of the main focuses of her writings is “the marginalization of women who pursue education or art” (Baym 1482)..  Her short story Miss Grief signifies the direct impression made on a woman who is trying to hold her own in man’s world.  Woolson’s self-discovery that a woman can have a successful career in writing and be an artist is clearly made in this story.  Her short story Miss Grief shows us the lengths women will go to in order to achieve recognition for their work as a writer.    

From the beginning the reader can sense Miss Crief’s desperateness in her many attempts to see her mentor.  Her mentor states, “I asked where the visitor was.  Outside sir-in the hall.  I told her I would see if you were at home.  She must be unpleasantly wet if she had no carriage.  No carriage, sir:  they always come on foot” (1485).  Her continuous attempts to get his attention are so sad and pathetic that the reader cannot help but feel for her. 

Woolson’s interpretation of what men think of women is seen clearly through the lead male character, “But I should not have treated my visitor so cavalierly if I had not felt sure that she was eccentric and unconventional—qualities extremely tiresome in a woman no longer young or attractive, and without money to gild them over” (1484).  

Men during this time period seem to have misimpressions about what a woman is all about.  When the writer clearly reads her card that says she called on him he reads her name as Miss Grief when in actually it is Miss Crief.  He immediately starts to make notions of what type of person she is without having actually met her.  It is these immediate judgments made by men of this time period that women writers were trying to turn around.

Woolson’s writing helped bring American women writers recognition they finally deserve.  A woman’s self-discovery to realize that she could have a great career as a writer is a great milestone in women’s literature.  Just as Woolson brings recognition to women writers, Mary E. Wilkins Freeman brings a woman’s independence out for the world to see.

In A New England Nun Freeman’s main character Louisa is making her own self-discovery that she can be alone and still be a complete person instead of being forced into marriage and all the roles that marriage brings with it.  Louisa’s daily routine is never changing; it is consistent and never wanes.  Although she is waiting for her betrothed to come back and marry her she is content with her life and does not like change.  She is isolated by choice and it doesn’t seem to bother her.  However the reader could take the stance that Louisa was forced into this role because the man expects her to wait. 

An independent person does not need a lot of friends to feel like a whole person.  The absence of people in her life is shown when fiancé Joe comes over, “A little yellow canary that had been asleep in his green cage at the south window woke up and fluttered wildly, beating his little yellow wings against the wires” (1613).  This shows how little the bird sees anyone new come into their little home.  The bird’s life is as controlled as Louisa’s.  If Louisa meets new people then so will the bird.

Louisa’s levels of aprons signify the different times of day and what she must accomplish during these times.  “[…took off her pink and white apron.  Under that was still another—white linen with a little cambric edging on the bottom; that was Louisa’s company apron.  She never wore it without her calico sewing apron over it unless she had a guest” (1613).  These different aprons signify the different events of her day.  Even though they are small events they are special to her.

Louisa is very content with her life and is accustomed to being by herself - an independent woman.  When she discovers within herself that she no longer loves Joe Dagget nor wishes to be married she carries on with her life just like she always had.  She breaks up with Joe just as methodically as she does her chores.  “She simply said that while she had no cause of complaint against him, she had lived so long in one way that she shrank from making a change” (1620).  Just as simple as that she ended a ten year relationship and personally declared her independence. 

At the end of the story she is as content as she ever was and goes on about her life as normal “Louisa all alone by herself that night, wept a little, she hardly knew why; but the next morning, on waking, she felt like a queen who, after fearing lest her domain be wrested away from her, sees it firmly insured in her possession” (1620).

The self-discovery of independence shown in Woolson’s story gives women the self assurance that it’s ok to be by yourself; that you don’t need a man or the stature that comes with marriage to be a whole person.  It’s not required in our lives to follow a certain path it’s important to do what is right for you.

One of the most important female writers of the late romantic/early realism period is Kate Chopin.  Her writings really “awakened” a whole generation of writers.  Born in 1850 Kate’s writing career began shortly after the death of her husband in 1882.  Her contribution to the late American romanticism propels women into the twentieth century.  When The Awakening was published in 1899 not all of her supporters were rallying to her cause.  Her new book was thought to be “too strong a drink for moral babes –should be labeled ‘poison’” (Toth xv).  On the other hand she had great supporters such as St. Louis’s most prestigious women’s club, the Wednesday Club. 

After her death in 1904 her works just seemed to disappear, then in the 1960’s a Norwegian scholar Per Seyersted discovered Kate’s writing and restored her to American Literature at a time when women and men could appreciate her works for what they were – an earlier supporter of women’s possibilities (xxi).  During the sixties her work was restored and seemed to correlate with the rising feminist movement in our country.

During a young girl’s journey to adulthood young women are taught to stifle their opinions and to silence their ideas.  Kate was lucky in that she grew up in a household of strong women who encouraged her to find her own voice.  Even after the tragedies that were inflicted upon her family after the Civil War Kate found herself in a school for girls and was constantly surrounded with successful strong willed women whom she looked up to a great deal. 

While attending The Academy of The Sacred Heart, Kate looked up to one teacher in particular.  Her name was Madam O’Meara who inspired her young women pupils to be “valiant women”.  Her teacher realized that Kate needed writing to help her express her feelings of loss that she had endured during the war.  “She needed to express herself, not simply drown herself in others’ stories.  Writing, Mary O’Meara suspected, would be Kate O’Flaherty’s cure.  It would let her hear and find and use her own voice” (Toth 39).

Kate’s work The Awakening reveals to readers what limited choices women have when they feel stifled or forced into a life they loathe and the mistakes they make that could make them potentially lose the only life they have ever known.  Her main character Edna, “enters into a marriage to spite her family and closes doors to all her dreams therefore silencing her own voice” (Chopin 210).  When Edna gets to the Grande Isle for a summer get-a-way her new relations that she takes up with allow her to finally regain her voice. 

Women of this day were known to be passive and submissive and not very worldly.  Kate’s character exemplifies this passiveness to a great extent.  It is within this passive depression that Edna finds that she wants more from her life.  Maybe if others surrounding her in her family had kept her busy with other affairs she may not have bothered to look deeply within herself.  Edna’s struggle to define herself as an active subject, and to cease to be merely the passive object of forces beyond her control brings us an ending in the novel that leaves more questions than answers (Chopin and Treichler 264).

Entered into a loveless marriage, Edna at the birth of a friend’s child is reminded of her own childbirths and is disillusioned, Edna exclaims, “youth is given up to illusions[…]a decoy to secure mothers for the race” (Chopin 157).  Although Edna is definitely defiant for her day maybe Kate was trying to show a woman who chooses to go to the extreme and push the limits as to what her reading public would take.  Would they even understand why Edna acts as she does? 

Kate Chopin will be most remembered for her portrayal of female characters and the lengths she went to examine their inner most thoughts and desires.  “Her characters are able to dream past the present reality – although they rarely achieve their dreams” (Toth xxi).  She is one leader of women’s self-discovery seen at the end of American romanticism. 

As we look forward to what women writers will produce in this century a clear path has been laid out for them to follow.  Who knows what insights and new inspirations will come out in future women’s writings?

Works Cited 

Baym, Nina, ed.  The Norton Anthology of American Literature, Shorter Sixth Edition.  New York:  W. W. Norton & Company, 2003.

Chopin, Kate.  The Awakening.  New York:  Barnes & Noble, Inc.  1995.

Freeman, Mary E. Wilkins.  “A New England Nun.” The Norton Anthology of American Literature, Shorter Sixth Edition. Ed. Nina Baym.

Gilmore, Charlotte Perkins.  “The Yellow Wallpaper.” The Norton Anthology of American Literature, Shorter Sixth Edition. Ed. Nina Baym.

Kahane, Claire.  Passions of the Voice.  Baltimore:  The John Hopkins University Press, 1995.

Leitch, Vincent B., ed.  The Norton Anthology, Theory and Criticism.  New York:  W. W. Norton & Company, 2001.

Showalter, Elaine.  Sister’s Choice.  New York:  Oxford University Press, 1991.

Toth, Emily.  Introduction.  A Vocation and a Voice.  By Kate Chopin.  New York:  Penguin Book, 1991.  vii-xxvi.

Toth, Emily.  Unveiling Kate Chopin.  Jackson, Mississippi:  University Press of Mississippi, 1999.

Treichler, Paula A.  “Language and Ambiguity.”  The Awakening, A Norton Critical Edition.  Ed.  Margo Culley. 

Woolsen, Constance Fenimore.  “Miss Grief.” The Norton Anthology of American Literature, Shorter Sixth Edition.  Ed. Nina Baym.