Gervanna Stephens
Instructor – Mrs. Lucinda Peart
ENGL331 – Literary Criticism
6 December 2011
Feminism and its function in a critical reading of the short
stories The Story of an Hour by Kate Chopin and The Yellow Wallpaper by
Charlotte Perkins Gilman and the poem “Poem in Praise of
Menstruation” by Lucille Clifton.
The Feminist movement began as an attempt to underscore the
despotism of the patriarchal society that is reflected
exceedingly in literature and permit women to be established as
equals. According to Paul Ady, associate professor of English at
Assumption College in Massachusetts, the feminist literary critic
is predisposed to the rebuffing of patriarchal models in
literature “that privileges masculine ways of thinking and
marginalizes women politically, economically and psychologically”
(Lewis).
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Feminist criticism scrutinizes gender politics in works and
delineates the subtle assembly of masculinity and femininity and
their status in relation to each other, their position and
marginalization within literary works. Feminism’s purpose ergo is
to change the degrading view of women so that all women will
realize that they are not a nonsignificant Other, but that each
woman is a valuable person possessing the same privileges and
rights of every man (Bressler 144). The status of women is what
concerns feminism. Jonathan Culler argues that “feminist
criticism” is “the name that should be applied to all criticism
alert to the critical ramifications of sexual oppression, just as
in politics ‘women’s issues’ is the name now applied to many
fundamental questions of personal freedom and social justice”
(Culler 56).
Feminism has its origins in the struggle for women’s rights
which began in the late eighteenth century chiefly with Mary
Wollstonecraft’s A Vindication of the Rights of Woman (1792) (Dictionary
of Literary Terms and Literary Theory). However, it was those
that purported the movement in the twentieth century that greatly
influenced Feminist thought. Theorists such as Virginia Woolf,
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Simone de Beauvoir and Elaine Showalter have made momentous
contributions to the historical development of Feminism and
Feminist Criticism.
Feminist criticism comprises a variety of approaches in its
practice, for it encompasses facets of Reader Response Criticism
and Cultural Studies; for interpretation is influenced by one’s
status, race, gender, class, sexual preference and so forth,
hence different individuals will react differently. Structuralism
and Deconstructionism act also as aspects of Feminism, for
“feminism aims to break down the public/private split in relation
to reason and feeling and the binaries of masculinity/femininity
so as to allow for a different vision of gender and society”
(Waugh & Rice 144). Feminist criticism also connotes
Psychoanalytic Criticism, for it exerts ‘the psychological
sentence of the feminine gender’ according to Woolf (Dictionary
of Literary Terms and Literary Theory). It is important to
feminism because it tries to clarify why people invest in
behaviours which seem irrational, counter-productive and against
their best interest, an example of which is De Beauvoir’s The
Second Sex. Feminism is able to embrace these critical schools of
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thought, Marxism, deconstruction, psychoanalysis and New
Historicism for it is more an approach or mind-set than a school
of criticism.
Feminist criticism lends itself then to comprehension
through an investigation of its historical growth, the
assumptions posited through the theory and the components of its
methodology. In addition, the application of feminist criticism
to the short stories The Story of an Hour by Kate Chopin and The Yellow
Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman and Lucille Clifton’s “Poem
in Praise of Menstruation” will explore the practices of the
theory in critical analysis to allow for a better understanding
of the literary pieces.
A study of feminist criticism, its historical development,
the assumptions associated with the theory and the methodologies
in using the theory is necessary in order to garner a round
understanding of the theory of Feminism. The historical
development of feminism was purported through the works of
several theorists, namely Virginia Woolf, Simone de Beauvoir and
Elaine Showalter who at aimed defining and asserting women.
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In the early 20th century, British scholar and teacher
Virginia Woolf was a critical individual for the feminist
criticism movement. One of her most influential works A Room of
One’s Own laid the groundwork for present-day feminist criticism.
She asserts that men have and continue to treat women as
inferiors. It is tyrannical and dictating tongue of patriarchy,
she declares, that defines what it means to be female and who
controls the political, economic, social and literary structures
(Bressler 145). It is the false belief of society that women are,
by nature, less intellectually and/or physically capable than
men, it excludes women from the academy, the forum, and the
marketplace. As a result of this policy exclusion the true
potential of many a woman goes unfulfilled (Tong 2). This
unfulfillment of a woman’s latent talent Woolf hypothesizes
through Shakespeare’s sister, who is equally as gifted a writer
as Shakespeare himself. Her gender though, prevents her from
having “a room of her own.” For as a woman, she cannot obtain
education of gainful employment. Her inherent artistic abilities
therefore have no chance to bloom, because she cannot meet the
expense of having her own room. Symbolic of Woolf’s portrayal of
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the solitude and autonomy needed to seclude one’s self from the
world and its social restrictions in order to think and write. In
due course, Shakespeare’s sister dies alone without any
acknowledgement of her outstanding ability (Bressler 145-146).
It is for this reason Woolf argues that women must reject the
social construct that society has forced upon them. Should women
reject this social construct, they should also establish their
own identity and challenge the existing, cultural ideas
concerning the identity of the female. Additionally, women should
develop a female discourse that will accurately portray their
relationship “to the world of reality and not to the world of
men” (Bressler 146).
Another significant contributor to feminist criticism is
Simone de Beauvoir. A French writer she became noteworthy because
of her contributions to feminist criticism, in her work entitled
The Second Sex (1949), Simone de Beauvoir asserts that French
societies are patriarchal in nature. Beauvoir posits that because
the female is not male, she becomes the Other, on object whose
existence is defined and interpreted by the male, the dominant
being in society. In the major cultural institutions of society,
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the woman finds herself portrayed as a subordinate and
consequently a secondary or inferior player in these
institutions. Beauvoir declares, like Woolf, that women must
fracture the bonds that society has used to bind them. They need
to view themselves as self-governing human beings and thus
establish themselves as significant individuals in society. In
order to do this, women must first reject the social construct
that men are the superlative and women are the insignificant
Other and hence defy and deny male classification (Bressler 146).
With the work of Beauvoir permeating the 1940’s, we look
towards the 1980’s where the voice of feminist criticism found
its dominance in Elaine Showalter. Showalter detects in the
history of women’s writing three historical phases of evolution.
A feminine phase (1840-80), in which women writers imitated dominant
male artistic norms and aesthetic standards. A feminist phase (1880-
1920) followed, in which radical and often separatist positions
were maintained. Finally, a female phase (1920 onwards) proved the
culminating point for the evolution of women writers; it looked
particularly at female writing and female experience. The need
for the concept of ‘phasing’ resulted partly from a need to
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achieve theoretical respectability and to create a sense of
progress in the practice feminist criticism (Barry 123).
It is the mandate of Feminist critics to develop a peculiar
understanding of the female and the female experience in art
through the literary forms and techniques. To do this, Showalter
expresses that the uncovering of misogyny or male hatred of women
is necessary. Hence, the terms gynocritics and gynocriticism
were given life through this need to define and develop the
female. It refers to “constructing a female framework for
analysis of women’s literature to develop new models based on the
study of female experience, rather than to adapt to male models
and theories.” Showalter aims at unearthing the false cultural
assumptions of women as depicted in literature as well as to
reject these assumptions by ascertaining women as writers and
readers in their own right (Bressler 149).
Gynocriticism provides critics with four models: the
biological, linguistic, psychoanalytical and cultural models. The
biological model focuses on how the female body is portrayed in
the text to produce literary images and a personal, intimate one
that oftentimes becomes the focal point in works authored by
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women. The linguistic model is concerned with female language and
refers to the differences in the male and female linguistic
approach for it questions the idea if women speak or write
differently from men. The psychoanalytic model uses an analysis
of the female psyche and its relation to the writing process to
highlight the contrast between the flux and fluidity of female
writing and the rigidity and structure of male writing. The
cultural model additionally, investigates how the society in
which the female author works and functions shapes their goals,
responses, and points of view (Bressler 155-156).
Critical to the theory also, in addition to the theorists of
the ages who have been the vehicles for the development of
Feminism as a literary theory are the assumptions that form the
base of feminist criticism. Feminist criticism postulates that
the reader’s status specifically gender affects the text’s
interpretation; that women have not had equal access to writing,
publishing and reading in the production of literature; and that
social change finds an arena in literature. The reader’s
interpretation of a text finds its influence by interacting with
his or her own status inclusive of gender, race, class, sexual
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preference, religion and other contributing features. A person’s
status in life depends largely on their worldview, and through
this framework, meaning is constructed. For this reason, a reader
will acknowledge or rebuff certain principles promoted or
undermined in a text based on his or her race, class, sexual
preference, religion and other contributing features.
That women have not had equal access to writing, publishing
and reading in the production of literature is also a poignant
philosophical principle of Feminism. Customarily, female authors
could not write or publish their own works for they were not seen
as equal to their male counterparts. Writers such as Charlotte
Bronte, George Eliot and George Sand had to accept the social
constructs of their day and the definition of women and
accordingly write under male pseudonyms in attempts to equal the
intellect and creativity of their male foils (Bressler 148-149).
In this respect, of recognizing patriarchy, emphasis on male
education was dominant, leading to the exclusion of females.
Subsequently, many women could not read or write literature and
in addition, the males controlled the publishing houses and
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through that arena, the dispersal of stereotypical dogmas
flourished.
Social change finds an arena in literature. The portrayal of
women in literature as inferior beings when compared to men has
been a means of promoting and reinforcing the stereotypes of
women as sex maniacs, angels, monsters, wicked stepmothers, old
spinsters or barmaids to name a few as posited by patriarchal
society. They were limited to secondary positions and homely
duties to fulfil the need of the male to be in control. Women
need to dispute the long held patriarchal assumptions about their
gender and re-evaluate the traditional literary canon that has
corrupted what it means to be a woman. Through a taking on of
literature, philosophical and theoretical views, women can also
reject the prevailing female constructs of society by portraying
the woman as self-sufficient, strong, self-assured and equal to
the man.
In the application of feminist criticism to any literary
form an understanding of how to apply the principles of the
theory is essential. It is the assertion of feminism that an
examination of the qualities of the gender of the author and/or
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characters by the reader is pivotal. Feminism also puts forward
that consideration to the promotion or undermining of stereotypes
is necessary to analyze a text. Pen ultimately feminist criticism
asserts that imagination must be put in play as the reader must
think about how a text might be read by a certain type of reader
or how it may be neglected by another type of reader.
It is the mandate of the reader to identify the qualities of
gender, class, race, sexual orientation, and religion of the
author and/or characters. Factors such as these directly
influence the way an author writes as well as the ‘how’ and ‘why’
of character portrayal. The task of discovering the status of the
author and/or characters lends itself to the identification of
stereotypes in a text. In the process of determining the presence
of stereotypes, an examination of the characters will reveal
either the promotion or undermining of such. In addition, whether
a text promotes or undermines stereotypes is dependent on whether
the author is male or female. Visualization of how a text might
be read is quintessential to the practice of the theory. Will a
female and a male arrive at the same or different conclusions if
they read the same text? How might a certain type of reader based
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on their gender, culture, or social class interpret a text?
Questioning these disparities in how a reader may view a text or
neglect a text are all parts of the techniques used in feminist
criticism.
Though a text may not abashedly concern itself with feminist
ideals, a feminist approach may be illuminating. Kate Chopin’s
The Story of an Hour and Charlotte Perkins Gillman’s The Yellow Wallpaper
however are personifications of feminist literature. The
application of the feminist theory to these stories will be
explored through characterization, theme and setting. In each
story masculinity/femininity is presented in the characters and
their actions and through these presentations, the concept of
stereotypes are either endorsed or destabilized.
In Chopin’s The Story of an Hour, the main character Mrs. Mallard
is knowledgeable of the “right” way for women to behave, her
thoughts, emotions and feelings however are in contrast not so
conventional. From the story’s beginning, she is introduced as
“Mrs. Mallard” and referred to as “she” for most of the account.
This anonymity and namelessness placed on her symbolizes the loss
of individuality and identity of women that patriarchy seeks to
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keep intact. It is not until paragraph 16 of the story that the
reader learns her name. It is when she has become “free! Body and
soul free!” that she is addressed by her own name, “Louise.” It
is her sister, Josephine, who calls out to her using her
Christian name, Louise, which proves to be the male form of
Louis, similarly, Josephine’s name is the male form of Joseph.
The irony of the names, reveal that even within a personal
femininity the masculine agenda cannot be quelled and patriarchy
rules dominant.
Dr. S. Selina Jamil, Associate Professor of English at
Prince George’s Community College said in her article ‘Emotions
in the Story of an Hour,’ “The narrator points out, that Mrs.
Mallard is not struck, as “many women” have been, by “a paralyzed
inability” to accept the painful sense of loss. On the contrary,
she is roused from her passivity by an uncontrollable flood of
emotion.” “She wept at once, with sudden, wild abandonment; in
her sister’s arms…she went away to her room alone, she would have
no one follow her.” It is through her actions that Chopin reveals
to the reader the spontaneity of Mrs. Mallard’s emotions and
feelings. She first accepts her sister’s support in her initial
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moment of grief, but as she takes on her individuality as a
liberated woman, she shuns the company of everyone, symbolic of a
rejection of society’s stereotypes.
Mr. Mallard is characteristic of oppression for Mrs. Mallard
in the story. His reported death gives her liberation, frees her
from her marriage, and allows her the independence she needs to
take on her own feminine attributes. Mr. Mallard signifies too,
the return of bondage and anonymity for Mrs. Mallard making her
into the “insignificant Other” (Bressler 146) once more, for when
he comes in “view of his wife” he reestablishes her role as
“wife” and her freedom is short-lived in its essentiality for she
is now ‘domesticated’ once more and her death soon follows. Her
death however may be symbolic of her ultimate freedom from the
strains of patriarchy.
Parallel to this plot is Charlotte Perkins Gillman’s The
Yellow Wallpaper. The story centers on a young woman, Jane, who is
the narrator. In the opening sentence, the narrator remarks,
“John and myself,” “in introducing ‘myself’ and ‘John,’ the
narrator highlights her awkward positioning in her sentence and
at large, society for she is not even on par with ‘ordinary
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people like John’” (Golden 195). Her attempts to write and
explore the well of her creative mind however go against the set
norms established to throw off the constraints of patriarchal
society in order to be able to write.
In contrast to the narrator is John’s sister, Jennie,
clearly epitomizing the stereotype of the woman in society, for
she is a perfect and enthusiastic housekeeper and hopes for no
better profession. She represents the “husband’s sibling-
surrogate, other woman, sister-in-law, nursing-sister, keeper…and
is viewed by the narrator as a conjugal collaborator, enforcer,
and rival claimant upon the wallpaper…” (Crewe 280).
Hume depicts John, the narrator’s husband as “mechanistic,
rigid, predictable and sexist” (Hume 478). There is also the view
of him as a “censor and heterosexual rescuer” (Crewe 280), but
also “…chained to a madwoman… the logical product of his own
ideology” (King 31), for he “resembles the penal officers of the
eighteenth-century psychiatric wards or penitentiaries…” (Bak
41). John hence is characteristic of the domineering tyrannical
male that aims at both oppressing and repressing the woman of
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society, for he lauds his masculinity over the femininity of his
wife.
In addition to the patriarchy present in the story that
seeks to overpower and dominate the woman, the narrator’s husband
and brother are characteristic of “the power that men possess
over women… to prescribe what they may or may not do and… to
diagnose—to name what is sickness and health, abnormal and
normal” (King 27). Similarly in Chopin’s The Story of an Hour in
comparison to Gilman’s The Yellow Wallpaper the male-dominated medical
profession identifies the illnesses of both women but are
incapable of treating either Jane’s depression for she eventually
goes insane or Louise Mallard’s heart trouble. Signifying the
impotence of patriarchy and the need for women to reject the
societal frameworks of misogyny and be characters in and of their
own volition.
Entrenched into the plot of each story are several themes
appropriate to feminism. The first of which refers to the
subordination of the female in a highly patriarchal society
lending to her becoming the ‘Other.’ In Chopin’s The Story of an Hour
Mrs. Mallard is representational of the female in the story who
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becomes the Other. She has no identity for she is juxtaposed in
one way for majority of the plot, as Mrs. Mallard, hence only in
relation to her husband does she seemingly ‘exist.’ When
addressed by her name, Louise, it is ironic but not surprising to
see that her personal name is the feminine derivative of the male
name Louis. Characteristically too, that her sister, Josephine,
also falls in this category as well, for her name too, is the
female offshoot to the name Joseph. It lies then to associate the
subordination of females with not only overt acts of oppression
but in tandem with the slight and more implied overlooked forms
of the mental and emotional rather than the physical.
Gilman’s The Yellow Wallpaper portrays a female narrator who
meets restriction by her husband from writing, because he
disapproves of this desire. He represses her creativity and
imaginative skills through his efforts to help her. These prove
futile and misplaced however, for his attempts in turn portray
his wife as a helpless child rather than a woman in her own
right; she is subdued and dependent and has become in respect to
them both, the Other.
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The narrator inadvertently rejects this label of the ‘Other’
by the ending of the story. As the narrator strips off most of
the wallpaper, the conforming self is left, the creation of a new
social convention. As the woman behind the paper “gets out,” the
image is not of liberation, rather it is the victory of the
social ideal. The woman from behind the paper assists the
narrator in tearing it down, destroying the Other self. “The
narrator is both the woman behind the pattern who is securely
tied with a rope, and she who does the tying,” (King 31) the
narrator creates the wallpaper and it creates her. “While the
heroine misreads and misrecognizes the yellow wallpaper which
represents her suppressed self, she is also writing ‘The Yellow
Wallpaper,’ which in turn is also herself” (King 31-32).
Another theme finding its prominence in the short stories is
marriage as an inherent tool of patriarchal oppressiveness. The
organization of marriage from its inauguration, places women at
the hands of men, for they are the dominant forces of the
institution thus wielding control. Both Chopin and Gilman reveal
through the literature that marriage as a socially constructed
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institution though providing shared contentment is inherently
oppressive.
In The Story of an Hour, Chopin seeks to highlight the natural
way in which marriage causes oppression. For even though Louise
readily describes her husband as kind “the kind, tender hands”
and loving “the face that had never looked save with love upon
her,” she nevertheless experiences a joyous relief at the news of
his death. Though she rejoices, her actions do not suggest she is
spiteful or malicious towards her husband, for she also notes,
“she knew that she would weep again…” at his funeral. Her relief
then could be in characteristic to a joyous independence found
through her release from marriage, as her thoughts suggest,
“there would be no one to live for during those coming
years; she would live for herself. There would be no
powerful will bending hers in that blind persistence with
which men and women believe they have a right to impose a
private will upon a fellow-creature. A kind intention or a
cruel intention made the act seem no less a crime…”
Louise Mallard expresses no definite way in which Brently Mallard
oppresses her, but with her thoughts, it is inferred that
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marriage itself is the oppressive force, that robs persons of
their independence and identity.
In Gilman’s The Yellow Wallpaper, the nature of marital
oppression occurs similarly to Chopin’s The Story of an Hour, but is
more forceful in this story. It can be critiqued that marriage
acts, as a compensation of patriarchy, for it is not a
partnership, as society would have many be deceived, but a legal
male dominated arena by which females can be further oppressed.
The narrator of Gilman’s story is so grafted deeply into the
marriage structure that she states, “John laughs at me, but no
one expects that in a marriage.” For Gilman such an affirmation
allows for the critique of the superciliousness of male attitudes
towards women and reveals the sad state of what is a marriage on
the ‘inside’ that seems to disregard the derision of women.
In both stories, the woman as a prisoner motif is evident in
regards to the theme marriage as an inherent tool of patriarchal
oppressiveness. These women ergo die for or fall prey to insanity
because of the cause for which they fight. Both stories however
see the women’s “cause” being to “reject the social construct and
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establish their own identity in search of a room of one’s own”
(Bressler 146).
The final theme that is weaved into the plot of the short
stories up for discussion, is the idea of, men as therapists,
erroneously treating women to show their “superiority.” Mrs.
Mallard in Chopin’s The Story of an Hour is “afflicted with a heart
trouble” ergo she needs to be preserved; the preservation of
Louise Mallard lends itself to the preservation of her oppressive
discourse. The male diagnoses Mrs. Mallard, the male is incapable
of effectively treating her condition and the male inevitably
pronounces her dead. Her heart condition may have developed as a
reaction to her substandard status in a male dominated society
and her marriage, for her face “bespoke repression” and the
narrator reveals that there was a “powerful will” that was
“bending” hers. She is only an appendage to her husband, the
Other, and is only referred to for most of the discourse in
juxtaposition to her husband. Additionally, her heart condition
could have been in simple terms a broken heart resulting from a
lack of attention from her husband, for he seeks not to
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understand his wife, but in her thoughts “impose a private will
upon a fellow-creature,” specifically her.
Gilman presents in The Yellow Wallpaper the narrator, Jane, with
a nervous disorder. Her husband, John, a physician prescribes
rest therapy for her. He prevents her from engaging in any forms
of activity, inclusive of her favourite hobby, writing. John
being a physician along with the narrator’s brother who supports
his decisions is oblivious to what is actually the right
treatment for his wife’s “condition,” he and her brother
recommend what they believe she needs ignorant to what is
actually the cause of her illness; patriarchal hegemony. Though
meaning well, John is incapable of realizing the venomous effect
he has on his wife, “John is a physician, and perhaps… that is
one reason I do not get well faster.” Even though the narrator
pens these words, it is evident that she does not realize their
full extent, for she follows her husband’s dictates, aiding in
stifling her positive qualities, imagination and creativity.
It is ironic too, that the husband has confined the
narrator, his wife, to the upstairs bedroom of a rented
summerhouse so that she can recuperate. She is restricted from
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writing and working and has to hide her journal from him. He
controls her access to the rest of the house as well, “…hardly
lets me stir without special direction.” The story relates more
than its written plot, for it also tells the tale of imprisonment
on the narrator’s mental state and her eventual decline into
psychosis in spite of the treatment prescribed by patriarchy,
symbolized through her husband.
An exploration into the setting surrounding each story will
allow for understanding the application of feminism. It will
highlight how different epochs reflect dissimilar ideas and
notions in regards to women and reveal how even the physical
surrounding can inhibit the female.
Both narratives take place in the late nineteenth century, a
time when women were still in the shadows, for they were to be in
the home and happy. It was men at the time that determined and
assigned women’s roles and as such, perpetuated a conceptual
prison that subjected and silenced women. Women at the time were
viewed “as emotional servants whose livelihood was to be
dedicated to the welfare of home and family to preserve the
social constructs and maintain stability” (Papke 10). They were
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restricted to set parameters determined by men known as the
woman’s sphere or the domestic sphere. Women were urged to give
up self-definition and were recommended to become identified by
their service to others and in particular, men. Desires to
achieve were quickly quelled, especially outside the domestic
sphere, for “it was from an ambitious desire to extend the limits
of the sphere, that many have brought trouble upon themselves”
(Newton 882). Welter asserted, “if anyone, male or female, dared
to tamper with the complex virtues which made up True Womanhood,
he was damned immediately as the enemy of God, of civilization,
and of the republic” (372). For even in the home, achievement for
the woman was to be circumscribed.
Chopin’s The Story of an Hour takes place in an American home,
in a single hour. The physical setting is springtime and
comprises blue skies and the trees were in view, “…the tops of
trees that were all aquiver with the new spring life…there were
patches of blue sky …” The physical setting depicted or hinted at
the emergence of a new life, the one that Mrs. Mallard thought
awaited her. She could only be master of herself after her
husband’s passing like so many wives of late nineteenth century
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America. As a widow, “there would be no one to live for…she would
live for herself.” She would leave nothing behind, for she had no
children, an occurrence that the doctors would have sought to
blame on her. In fact, when she leaves the story through death,
she is a character of lack in the male discourse, for she has
failed to live up to the domesticity and homeliness ascribed by
men.
In the late 1800’s women were not given the opportunity to
choose their careers over their families, because to do so, meant
to give up the other. In The Yellow Wallpaper however, the narrator
does not get this choice, for she is given strict orders that
‘rest’ will be her cure and thus should do nothing else. “The
ideal woman of the time was not only assigned a social role that
locked her into her home, but she was also expected to like it,
to be cheerful and gay, smiling and good humored” (Lane, To
Herland 109). For Gilman’s narrator in the story an attempt to
refuse this role leaves her spiraling down into psychosis and
though now “free” from patriarchy, she does not possess the
ability to appreciate it, because she is not in her rightful
mind. Similarly, Mrs. Mallard in The Story of an Hour is now
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eternally and forever free from male dominance but cannot
experience the joys of her liberation and independence because
she lost her life to do so.
Both women in each story sit inside and watch nature, they
do not actively engage with what they see outside, for the world
outside of their designated room is the public sphere of which
they are not to enter. They are prisoners inside the woman’s
sphere; they are slaves to patriarchy.
Finally, the feminist theory will be applied to the poem,
“Poem in Praise of Menstruation” by Lucille Clifton. Feminist
poetry is lined with blatant feminine connotations and female
language. In dissecting feminism’s relevance to this poem, a
study of imagery, style and tone versus mood is critical.
The poem as the title suggests speaks to the pride of being
a woman for it highlights a very private female occurrence, that
of menstruation. Clifton uses feministic imagery rather
dramatically in her poem. She speaks to a river bright as blood,
brave, coming in a surge of passion and pain and more ancient
than the beginning. Clifton expresses the central theme of her
poem through the exploration of a function of the female body. It
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is personal and intimate and a significant image, in fact, the
sole imagery of the entire poem.
Imagery refers to the use of language to represent objects,
actions, feelings, thoughts, ideas, states of mind and any
sensory or extra-sensory experience (Dictionary of Literary Terms
and Literary Theory). In the poem, prolific detail is given to
the description of menstruation and the image of likening it to a
river. Lines 1-2 speak to the beauty of a river, “if there is a
river
more beautiful than this” the surface of which is normally calm
and able to reflect whatever hangs or hovers over it. Lines 3-4
give the distinction of the “river” as being different however,
for it is “bright as the blood red edge of the moon” with these
lines, images of war, death and carnage flash into the mind’s
eye. A look back at the poem’s title however, allows for an
association of the image presented with the cycle of menstruation
which according to the Concise Oxford English Dictionary is the
discharge of blood from the lining of the uterus at intervals of
about one lunar month.
Stephens 29
Lines 9-12 “a river braver than this coming and coming in a
surge of passion of pain…” though rivers may seem calm and slow
flowing on the surface, the currents underneath prove powerful
and constantly rushing forward. Its movement is swift and
decisive but despite the glory of its coming, there can be
adverse effects, if the “river” should overflow its banks
resulting in pain for those in the vicinity.
Lines 13-14 “a river more ancient than this” evoke another
poignant image. It envisions that the female monthly cycle of
menstruation originates from the beginning of the human race,
when the poet refers in the latter lines to “daughter of eve
mother of cain and abel…” This lends the reader to visualize and
acknowledge that the praise of menstruation is not only physical
for despite the pain that comes with it, it signifies that the
body is working correctly for a non-pregnant female. In addition,
the reference to biblical characters distinguishes the menstrual
act as glorious and as the title suggests, inevitably worthy of
praise.
The style and structure of the poem aids the feminist
movement and asserts women. The style refers to how the writer
Stephens 30
says things; it is his/her voice and the structure, to how the
voice of the writer is expressed through form. The poem is
written in free verse; hence, it has no regular metrical pattern,
no delineated stanza or line length and depends on natural speech
rhythms for its rhyming scheme is also not determined (Dictionary
of Literary Terms and Literary Theory).
Every word of the poem is in common letters, which suggests
a sense of flow, as the thoughts come easily and naturally
reflecting a connection by the writer with the central idea
discussed throughout the poem. This flow of the words, could also
parallel the flow of the menstrual cycle each month and the flow
of blood that exits the body during the process. There are
punctuations in the poem, no capital letters to suggest that any
aspect of the poem is greater than any other part. There are no
commas to suggest a pause and no periods to hint at an end, only
the line breaks for the next stanzas are present and even those
do not suggest a pause or end or fragmentation, for the ideas of
the previous lines, flow into the lines following them. This
could also suggest that unless a woman has reached menopause –
which refers according to the Concise Oxford English Dictionary
Stephens 31
is the cessation of menstruation in a woman’s life – the
menstruation process is continuous.
The fact that there are no periods to end the sentences or
the poem itself lends itself to the development of an idea that
feminism and the feminist movement is continuous and ever
developing. Women must consciously reject and actively rebel
against the social constraints of society and patriarchy that
would not have them introduce to the “public sphere” private
womanly matters. Women must assert, in the home, school,
workplace and through the literary world that a “woman’s sphere”
is not limited to private thoughts and avenues, but it is
explicit and encompasses the literary canon for it exposes its
shortcomings and is the needed “filling” to satisfy the gap in
literature without women’s writings.
Lastly, in applying the feminist theory to the poem, “Poem
in Praise of Menstruation,” a look at tone and mood will ensue.
Tone and its relation to mood is essential in the application and
understanding of the poem. Pride is the central tone permeating
the poem, which would contrast sharply to the feelings of the
reader when analyzing the poem epitomizing the mood.
Stephens 32
Tone is the reflection of a writer’s attitude, manner, mood
and moral outlook in a piece of work and the way the personality
of the writer permeates the work (Dictionary of Literary Terms
and Literary Theory). Mood on the other hand speaks to the
feelings that the reader experiences while or after reading the
piece of literary work.
The central tone of the poem is one of pride. From the poet
exudes pride, when she speaks of menstruation, she compares it
vividly to nature and delights in doing so, for she equally makes
claim that it is as part of the female make up. There should be
no qualms about its origin, for though it may be a painful ordeal
or cause discomfort, it is an expression of femininity and what
makes us “woman.”
For a woman to reject this part of her, she rejects her
feminineness and accepts patriarchy’s claims that a “woman’s
sphere” should never enter the “public and social sphere” of
life. Clifton says, “beautiful and faithful and ancient and
female and brave” (lines 23-24) in personifying and immortalizing
women and praising not only her bodily functions, but in
extension praising and uplifting her.
Stephens 33
The mood elicited in the reader from the poem initially is
one of wariness and disgust, because things private and sacred to
a woman are on public display for anyone to see, criticize, and
in turn talk about generally. To the reader at first glance upon
the initial impression this seemed sacrilegious.
Upon a second look at the piece and after examining however,
the literary techniques and thought placed on writing such a poem
and making it glorify the menstrual cycle, the reader feels a
sense of satisfaction. After transacting with the poem, a sense
of understanding looms in the reader’s mind, for it had to take
strength for the writer to first create the piece and then think
about publishing it considering that she is a female.
The reader is emboldened by the poem for it speaks of the
menstrual process in a positive light. It exalts and admires the
monthly cycle and thus praises all women and lifts them up from
the gutters of society and patriarchy. The reader and all women
are given through the poem, a personal voice and a personal
insight into the workings of the “woman’s sphere.” The poem
speaks so intimately about the female body and transcends not
only Showalter’s biological model of criticism but usurps the
Stephens 34
literary canon of “maleness” and adds the “fe” to the word to
express“femaleness” and connote a pride and joy in “femaleness”
that extends throughout literature.
The application of Feminism as a literary theory to the
short stories The Story of an Hour by Kate Chopin and The Yellow Wallpaper
by Charlotte Perkins Gilman and Lucille Clifton’s “Poem in Praise
of Menstruation” has resulted in a deeper understanding of the
theory. This exploration of Feminism through the short stories
and poem lends itself to the idea that Feminism is more an
approach to literature or a way of thinking than a structured
school of critical theory.
The aim of Feminism is to revolutionize the debasing outlook
of women, so that women like Mrs. Mallard in The Story of an Hour and
Jane in The Yellow Wallpaper will realize that they are not a
nonsignificant Other, but a person of worth deserving of the same
treatment and privileges as a man. Feminism aims to give women
the strength to reject the societal constructs of definitions in
relation to man and allow her to, like Clifton in the poem “Poem
in Praise of Menstruation” exalt her femininity and see herself
as an autonomous being and significant in her own right.
Stephens 35
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Perkins Gilman and the
Politics of Form.” Tulsa Studies in Women’s Literature 14 (Fall
1995): 273-293.
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