Emancipation and feminism in the literature of the late 19th and early 20th centuries are most vividly expressed in the prose of Kate Chopin, and Charlotte Perkins Gilman, whose characters experience transformational changes in their lives. These changes are reflected in contradictory, liberating, and enslaving emotional revelations (Jamil 215). Writers use a wide range of lexical and syntactic tools and plot devices, to convey the unique events of the heroines’ inner lives (Yazgi 147). Many scientists analyze with interest how Kate Chopin and Charlotte Perkins Gilman managed to realize their ideas in literary writing so accurately. An equally important topic is the analysis of women’s mental states in the context of the norms and rules imposed on them by the patriarchal society (Núñez-Puente 11). In this annotated bibliography, the importance of emotions and individual freedom as essential elements of being human will be discussed as the inextricable elements of early 20th-century feminist literature.
Berkove, Lawrence I. “Fatal Self-Assertion in Kate Chopin’s “The Story of an Hour”.” American Literary Realism, vol. 32, no. 2, 2000, pp. 152-158.
In this article, Berkove regards the heroine’s self-assertion as the deepest element of her being. The author also discusses the presumed “deeper level of irony” placed as the second layer of the plot, where, the heroine is seen rather as a self-immersed and immature egoist, and her self-assertion is considered extreme. It is assumed that Louise achieves deceptive enlightenment by denying intelligent thought, which leads to a break in the mental pattern of her personality.
According to this ironic position, the heroine’s emotional liberation had to be achieved by a more traditional way of reasonable reflection, to ensure the consistency of the pattern. The author notes that the second layer of the story can be found in the antagonism between the “narrator, author, and the unreliable protagonist” (Berkove 153). The author’s attention to this second layer is critical since the irony under discussion is so subtle that the reader could attribute it to their imagination. Moreover, the ‘unobtrusiveness’ and ‘elusiveness’ of the heroine’s selfishness and immaturity make these hints especially painful.
Jamil, S. Selina. “Emotions in “The Story of an Hour”.” The Explicator, vol. 67, no. 3, 2009, pp. 215-220.
In the article, Jamil reflects on the role emotions play in the sudden enlightenment of the heroine upon receiving the news of her husband’s death. According to Jamil, emotions connect Louise’s body and soul and fill her mind with a kaleidoscope of new meanings. Her sudden awakening to life is most complete and extremely vivid, as for too long she has suppressed her personality in favor of the patriarchal demands of marriage.
Inability to return to her former self eventually kills Louise, who cannot survive being put in the cage of obedience to the ‘private will’ of her husband (Jamil 217). Her liberated being illuminates the subjects of sense, such as the nature surrounding her and observed by Louise through the open window.
The author emphasizes that inner freedom and self-assertion, as well as the fullness of emotions, were something alien to Chopin’s contemporaries. The freedom of understanding and self-realization by women was perceived as a disease, some kind of dangerous mental disorder, and not as a sign of mental health.
Núñez-Puente, Carolina. “A Queer Eye for Gilman’s Text.” Atlantis, vol. 41, no. 1, 2019, pp. 11-30.
In this article, the author analyzes, how the queer movie The Yellow Wallpaper (1989) depicted the topics of unstable identity, lesbian tendencies, autoeroticism, mental illness, gender, and class inequalities. The analysis of the word queer widens the further discussion of feminine psychology. The author says that the term queer means “to ask, to inquire,” which is why this perspective is highly applicable to the story (Núñez-Puente 12). The ‘queer theory’ is applied, assuming the need to question and be suspicious about the “apparently natural ways of thinking” (Núñez-Puente 12). Interestingly, questioning the righteousness of the domination of a particular system of sexual classification fits in well with the heroine’s emotional issues.
St. Jean, Shawn. “Hanging” The Yellow Wall-Paper”: Feminism and Textual Studies.” Feminist Studies, vol. 28, no. 2, 2002, pp. 397-415.
The author analyzes the emotional state of Jane, the narrator, and protagonist of “The Yellow Wallpaper” short story. Her descent into the “postpartum psychotic delirium” is said to be “both psychologically realistic and impossible” (St. Jean 397). The heroine’s psychology is then analyzed in terms of the Lacanian theory that introduces the ‘Imaginary,’ ‘Symbolic’ and ‘Real’ into human’s self-identification, starting from the assumption of the imaginary quality of the ego.
The transition from feminism to Lacanian theory is discussed in detail. For instance, St. Jean says that the heroine’s story is the classical example of Lacanian psychosis, with the stages of “self-constitution, the Name-of-the-Father, the Symbolic Order, and the mirror stage” (398). At the same time, the author admits that this feminist story implicitly critiques the patriarchal bias of the story. St. Jean gives a detailed explanation of Lacanian theory that unites the heroine’s unconscious, her written words, and the ‘reality’ behind the wallpaper.
Yazgı, Cihan. “Tragic Elements and Discourse-Time in “The Story of an Hour”.” The Explicator, vol. 78, no. 3-4, 2020, pp. 147-152.
In the article, the author argues that Kate Chopin had the purpose of saving her protagonists from the critics of conservative parts of society. To achieve this goal, she used the literary techniques outlined in Aristotle’s Poetics. Chopin turned to the tragedy genre, as “tragedy is a great form to induce pity and fear,” and “if Louise Mallard, the woman who feels gladly liberated upon hearing her husband’s death, was to be sympathized with, her story needed to appear as a tragedy” (Yazgi 148). In the article, the process of the heroine’s self-revelation is also analyzed.
The author emphasizes that Louise suddenly saw not her future, but the horror of the self-denial of past years. The realization of freedom from submission to patriarchal norms causes a physical reaction in Louise’s body, which develops into an emotional rebirth. The depression of the heroine is so strong that, even freed, she sees in fear the shadow of the patriarchal force that threatens to submerge her again. Chopin masterfully uses vocabulary and syntax to convey the confusion of Louise’s surging feelings, subject to a strict internal rhythm of growing delight and ending in disaster.
Jamil, Selina. “Imaginative Power” in “The Yellow Wallpaper.” A Quarterly Journal of Short Articles, Notes, and Reviews, vol. 1, no. 1, 2021, pp. 1-7.
Miall, David S. “Emotions and the Structuring of Narrative Responses.” Poetics Today, vol. 32, no. 2, 2011, pp. 323-348.
St. Jean, Shawn. “An Updated Publication History of” The Yellow Wall-Paper”.” Studies in Short Fiction, vol. 34, no. 2, 1997, pp. 237-237.
Works Cited
Berkove, Lawrence I. “Fatal Self-Assertion in Kate Chopin’s “The Story of an Hour”.” American Literary Realism, vol. 32, no. 2, 2000, pp. 152-158.
Jamil, S. Selina. “Emotions in the Story of an Hour.” The Explicator, vol. 67, no. 3, 2009, pp. 215-220.
Jamil, Selina. “Imaginative Power in “The Yellow Wallpaper”.” A Quarterly Journal of Short Articles, Notes, and Reviews, vol. 1, no. 1, 2021, pp. 1-7.
Miall, David S. “Emotions and the Structuring of Narrative Responses.” Poetics Today, vol. 32, no. 2, 2011, pp. 323-348.
Núñez-Puente, Carolina. “A Queer Eye for Gilman’s Text.” Atlantis , vol. 41, no. 1, 2019, pp. 11-30.
St. Jean, Shawn. “An Updated Publication History of” The Yellow Wall-Paper”.” Studies in Short Fiction, vol. 34, no. 2, 1997, pp. 237-237.
St. Jean, Shawn. “Hanging” The Yellow Wall-Paper”: Feminism and Textual Studies.” Feminist Studies, vol. 28, no. 2, 2002, pp. 397-415.
Yazgı, Cihan. “Tragic Elements and Discourse-Time in “The Story of an Hour”.” The Explicator, vol. 78, no. 3-4, 2020, pp. 147-152.