Women in the 19th Century
Women in the 19th Century
The five stories "The Acadian Ball," "The Storm," "Editha," “The New England Nun,” and "The Yellow Wallpaper" all deal with strong women characters. The stories also have in common the fact that their writers lived in much more restrictive times than today. For example, 19th century women were typically not allowed to own property. They could not borrow money without their husbands’ or fathers’ or brothers’ signature on the loan. They could not serve on a jury because they were obviously too emotional to make a rational decision. They could not vote. In case of divorce, they usually lost their children. Also, men were rarely ever arrested for beating their wives.
Since it was not considered necessary to educate women, there were many exceptionally intelligent women who were frustrated with their lives and the rules they had to live with. Of course, women had control of the running of the household, but not usually the money. However, they often learned to manipulate men emotionally since they could not confront them openly without being considered too aggressive (consider Editha’s manipulation).
Let’s look at the stories separately first.
KATE CHOPIN
Kate Chopin (pronounced sho-pan like the composer) was of Irish descent. However, when she moved with her husband to New Orleans, she learned enough about the Acadian (Cajun in our vernacular) culture that the cultural setting of most of her writing is inspired by New Orleans Cajun culture. Look back at the head note on her for a fuller description of her themes, where you will see that much of her writing had to do with the restrictive lives of women in the nineteenth century, not just politically, financially, and culturally, but also sexually. It was always sort of expected that men’s desire would be fully expressed, often outside of marriage, and that was just the way men were wired; however, women were not really expected to express such desire and maybe not even have it. NICE women certainly would not talk about it if they did.
Chopin actually challenged those notions through several of her writings, including The Awakening (pub. 1899), which was considered a bit scandalous. The scenes in the book are not very explicit, certainly not by today’s standards, but the heroine Edna, after having an emotional, but chaste, relationship with another man, Robert—the beginning of her “awakening”,-- leaves her husband, moves to her own house, and briefly takes a lover. However, when her real love Robert refuses to take her away from her husband, Edna ultimately realizes that she does not fit in that society and cannot see a way out. So she swims out into the gulf, presumably drowning.
Now, this story would almost fit in perfectly with nineteenth century fiction such as Anna Karenina, by the Russian Tolstoy. Anna is much like Edna—smart, educated, married to a rich, passionless husband. She, like Edna, rejects her safe marriage and has a long-time affair with another man. Nonetheless, she cannot find a comfortable state of mind and certainly can never be accepted in Russian society again, so she throws herself under a train.
Although Edna’s life ended with her drowning, some critics suggests that she was not giving in to suicide, but rather to the freedom to control her life (ergo death). Calixta, you will note, did not drown herself or throw herself under a train. What does that suggest about Chopin’s view of women’s desire? “The Storm” was not published until about 1950, by the way.
William Dean Howells
Howells, perhaps because he was a man, was not so much concerned about women’s lives as he was what was happening to the society as a whole and to the direction of “romantic” fiction (see link assigned in Module 2), which was highly emotional and contrived so that the good guy won, right was might, etc. His point was that fiction should reflect life in the truthful, believable behaviors of characters and the believable outcomes for actions (see realism link assigned in Module 2). So Editha, as a character is pretty much perfect as a female symbol of what was wrong with fiction. She is blessed to have a rather easy life, unlike the vast majority of real women in that era; she has very strong opinions about things she knows nothing about (sort of like all of us sometimes). The newspapers of the day were exaggerating war atrocities of the Mexicans and trying to incite war, probably because violence sells newspapers. And she bought into all the propaganda. That, on top of her reading of sentimental, romantic literature, causes her to say such things as, “I could not love you near so much, loved I not honor more.” She calls the war “glorious.” (Has there ever been a glorious war?) Because she doesn’t have enough to do and because she believes whatever she hears, her mind is the devil’s workshop.
So what does she have in common with Calixta? She is an American woman in the nineteenth century. She is strong willed. She managed to have her way with her man. The results are tragic, though.
Charlotte Perkins Gilman
Do not try to interpret “The Yellow Wallpaper” before you read carefully the head note on Gilman. (Mercy, I wish the print were bigger and the book lighter!!) You will see that the narrator of the story has a lot in common with her creator. What do you think of the “rest cure” prescribed for the narrator? Again, here is a woman whose life is predetermined for her by her position as a married woman in the pre-twentieth century culture. Because she has no power in the relationship, her husband does not respect her requests and opinions. He’s not a bad guy and he does love her. He just thinks she does not know what’s best for her.
Mary E. Wilkins Freeman
As a New England woman, Freeman grew up in very traditional surroundings, with men being in control. But as a writer, she maintained herself from selling her stories and poems, and did not marry until she was 49. So she was quite independent for a woman of her time.
Her characters, like her, have a mind of their own and often carry out quiet rebellions against male dominance. In “The Revolt of Mother,” the mother of the family, after being married to a successful farmer for 40 years and living in a substandard home, is quite outdone when he decides to build an elaborate barn, ignoring her continued requests for a better home for their children. So she arranges for him to be called out of town, during which trip, she moves the household and children into the new barn.
Louisa Ellis has lived on her own a long time, too, when Joe comes back to marry her. So it seems reasonable that she would consider the strain on her personal space that Joe would be creating. Read carefully the images of his intrusion in the story.
Bear in mind that women’s position at the time was the same throughout Europe and North America. Even though women gained the right to vote in the 1920s, their full-blown rights across the culture took another 50 – 60 years to be granted legally. (Some argue that the current controversy in our state over the abortion issues is still a women’s rights issue. We could blog about that in our groups if you want to. Just set up a blog and let the group know.)
For a specific reference, my mother never chose a political candidate. My dad took her to vote for the first time in the 1960s and told her how to vote. So she never had a vote; he had two. But, seriously, all you have to do is to watch a few movies set in the 1940s, 1950s, and even 1960s to see how women are stereotyped. The earlier the movie, the more likely women characters were to be seen as silly, shallow, subordinate to men, air-headed, etc. You will even see a male character spanking a wife or girlfriend during those old movies. Imagine that.
As you think about these women, notice what they all have in common: all three of these women were very strong-willed. They all wanted something. Think about their motivation for what they wanted and how the whole thing turned out.