From Madness To Self-realization

Charlotte Perkins Gilman (1860-1935) was an eminent American social critic and feminist activist at the turn of 19th and 20th century. She was such a prolific writer that her literary creation ranges from novel, poetry, lecture to social comment and autobiography, and so on. Among her literary works, her feminist writings help establish her great reputation. The Yellow Wallpaper and Herland, to be analyzed here in this thesis, are regarded as two typical works dealing with this subject.These two works demonstrate Gilman's reflection and exploration of female autonomy from different perspectives. In The Yellow Wallpaper (1892), she discussed deprivation of female autonomy resulted from women's victimization by patriarchal society and its damaging effect on women's body and mind. While, in Herland (1915), Gilman created an all-female utopian land where women, free from any male-defined gender roles, demonstrated their great potential when they were in full autonomy.Charlotte Perkins Gilman was a great thinker ahead of her time. She was praised as one of the best brains and profile among American women. Her works contribute a lot to modern feminist theoretical construction.This thesis intends to focus upon the theme of female autonomy in The Yellow Wallpaper and Herland, and how Gilman discussed it through her various writing techniques, and so on. Based on the study of these two works, I reach the conclusion that: Gilman's reflection and exploration of female autonomy is very comprehensive and enlightening; it provides guidance for the awakening of women's self-consciousness and their overall physical and mental development. The studies of these two works combined also demonstrate the general development process of Gilman's feminist thoughts.