Abstract

WOMAN’S CONFLICT FOR LIBERTY AND FINANCIAL INDEPENDENCE IN CHARLOTTE PERKINS GILMANS SELECTED POEMS

Asst. Instr. Adnan Taher Rahma, Asst. Instr. Salman Hayder Jasim, Asst. Instr. Safaa Hussein Sagheer

Volume: 10 Issue: 2 2020

Abstract:

Charlotte Perkins Gilman (1860-1935) is one of the greatest feminist writers, an advanced lecturer and a sociologist who provided philosophical leadership to the feminist movement of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Gilman's efforts deal mainly with the status of women. As a feminist she challenges the social hierarchy that makes woman distinctively and naturally inferior to male. Definitely, she protests forcefully against the idea of masculine sovereignty and high rang of social supremacy by blaming the patriarchy for abasement and preserving gendered instruments that make women second class citizens. Her interest in women arose from a concern that, as one-half of society and humanity, their restricted role in society retarded human progress. Thus, Gilman's contribution to feminism must be observed within the context of her humanist philosophy. How women were confined to their homes, may have been primarily enticed by Gilman's poetry and her other literary works. She exemplifies the image of woman as a victim under the authority of patriarchal system specifically in the Victorian American period. This system deals hostilely with a female as a self-defeating,submissive, second citizen and obedient servant. Therefore, there is acrucial and essential change in woman’s status to break the old belief which states that the appropriate place for woman should be at home to take care faithfully and tirelessly the members of her family. In her poetry, Gilman tries to highlight how woman can make a fundamental change in society by contributing in public life effectively. In other word, Gilman calls for liberation of women from the severe ties of domesticity through financialfreedom and independence.If they were allowed equal opportunities with men in truly human activities, society would be promoted not only from their direct works, but also the children would finally have two fully human parents with actual responsibilities. Gilman also argued against the idea that women could not successfully combine a career and marriage. She says "Work doesn't make a woman less womanly.", on the contrary, economic freedom would free woman to become full member of society and to achieve balance with her. Turning from domestic service to social service, they would enter into organic social as functional parts of the social body.

DOI: http://doi.org/10.37648/ijrssh.v10i02.016

Back Download

References

• Cogan B. Frances. Ail-American Girl: The Ideal of Real Womanhood in Mid-Nineteenth-Century America. Athens: U of Georgia P, 1989.
• Cott, Nancy. 'The Grounding of Modern Feminism'. New Haven: Yale UP, 1987.
• D. Knight, Denise ed. 'With the first grass-blade: Whitman's Influence on the Poetry of Charlotte Perkins Gilman,‖ Quarterly Review. 11Summer 1993.
• Degler, Carl N. 'Charlotte Perkins Gilman on the Theory and Practice of Feminism,' American Quarterly 8, Spring, 1956.
• Eddy, Jeanne O'Farrell. ―Concoctions and Life-Long Connections: Women in the Kitchen‖, Ph.D. Dissertation. New York: Skidmore College, 2010.
• Gilman, Charlotte Perkins. In This Our World. Oakland, California: McCombs & Vaughn, 1893. London T. Fisher Unwind, 1895.
• Gilman, Charlotte Perkins. The Living of Charlotte Perkins Gilman: An Autobiography. New York and London: D.Appleton-Century Co., 1935.
• Gilman, Charlotte Perkins. 'Social, Domestic and Human Life,' Folder 165, CPG Collection; CPG, Women and Economics, ed. Carl N. Degler New York: Harper and Row, Harper Torch books, 1966.CPG, 'Who Owns the Children?' 1, Folder 165, CPG Collection.
• Gilman, Charlotte Perkins. Women and Economics: A Study of the Economic Relation Between Men and Women As a Factor in Social Evolution. 1898; repr., California, 1998.
• Horowitz, Helen Lefkowitz. Wild Unrest: Charlotte Perkins Gilman and The Making of The Yellow Wallpaper. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2010.
• Knight, and Scharnhorst eds. In This Our World and Uncollected Poems. New York: Syracuse University Press, 2012.
• M.A. Jo Potts, Helen. ―Charlotte Perkins Gilman; A Humanist Approach to Feminism‖ Ph. D.
• Marriage According to Charlotte Perkins Gilman-She Writes, https://www.she write/ Com /profiles/blogs/marriage according to charlotte_ perkins_ gilman. Accessed March 1, 2020.
• Rosenberg, Carroll Smith. Disorderly Conduct: Visions of Gender in Victorian. America New York: Oxford University Press, 1985.
• Scharnhorst, Gary. Charlotte Perkins Gilman. Boston: Twayne Publishers, 1985.
• Wells, Kim. 'Charlotte Perkins Gilman.' Domestic Goddess, 1999. Online.
• Woloch, Nancy. Women and the American Experience. 2nd ed. New York: McGraw, 1994.
• www.womenwriters.netldomesticgoddess. Accessed February 2nd, 2020.
• http://democraticvistas.net/index.php/charlotte Perkins Gilman.AaccessedFebruary 9, 2020.
• https://swopdoc.com/poem-to-the-young--wife-byCharlotte-PerkinsGilman.html, Poem: To the young wife by Charlotte Perkins Gilman-EassysAufsatz.Accessed March 3, 2020.