No one gets to live through all of history's main events, but through research and cultural contexts everyone has the chance to learn about past events that they have missed.  I began furthering and deepening my knowledge on the topic of nineteenth-century feminists by researching the most famous women from the past time period.  I came across the names of Judith Sargent Murray, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Margaret Fuller and Charlotte Perkins Gilman. All four of these women had the same goal in mind: to change society's views on women and to improve their equality with men. Whether it be on the arguments of the history of mankind, women's economic independence, anti-slavery or the equal educational opportunity for the population of women, they all became successful.  From their speeches and writings these women and several other nineteenth century feminists helped changed the laws and customs for centuries to come after their reigns.  I then chose to research further on one specific piece of work, Charlotte Perkins Gillman's story titled The Yellow Wallpaper.  The significance of  how men looked down upon women, treating them as less than equal individuals which leads to severe mental illness is depicted.  After taking part in learning about the history of mental illnesses of women and nineteenth-century feminists through two different sources, my interpretation of "The Yellow Wallpaper" has been greatly influenced. 

As my primary source on the argument of men demoralizing women, I chose the scholarly article "Monumental Feminism and Literature's Ancestral House: Another Look at "The Yellow Wallpaper"" written by Janice Haney- Peritz in 1986.  In the beginning of this article Haney- Peritz talks about women's struggle of "patriarchal domination," as represented in this story by the husband, John, speaking to his own wife as if she were a child and not giving her a voice in their relationship.  After the topic of patriarchal domination, the phrase unheard contradictions are summarized. These are represented in the story as the contradicting statements the narrator wanted to say to John but never did and we know she wanted to due to her writings. The most significant and most interesting idea in this article is the idea of the "haunted house." In the very beginning of the story the narrator felt something strange about the ancestral hall she would be calling her home. After a short time, the ordinary yellow wallpaper turns into the strangeness she once feared, almost as if it is fate.  I believe this source did affect the historical-cultural moment by adding an additional point on feminism that Gilman did not come right out and make perfectly clear.  As depicted in the story Gilman clearly establishes the theme of male oppression and the unequal treatment of women during her time.  In this source, Janice Haney- Peritz brings up the topic of men and women rivalry.  She states in this source there is a rivalry between John and his wife that starts when he begins to tell her she is getting better.  The rivalry gets larger when the narrator becomes the child John always wanted her to become by having her stay in one place and always listening to him.  The topic of rivalry affected the historical- cultural moment for me by giving me a new perspective on men's demoralizing treatment toward women in the nineteenth- century; not only was there unequal treatment but there was also a sense of men wanting to have the upper hand and wanting women to always lose. 

In 2004, Colleen Mack-Canty wrote the article titled "Third-Wave Feminism and the Need to Reweave the Nature/Culture Duality."  This article discusses the third wave of feminism we are in today but more importantly, the second wave of feminism that got us to where we are today. This second wave more specifically being during the time of Gilman and all the other feminist advocates. The second wave of feminists challenged women's exclusion from the public world of politics and economics just like in "The Yellow Wallpaper." After reading this article, I was not aware of the ancient Greeks and their role in creating the beginning of the feminist movement that was to come later in life.  "The Greeks developed philosophy and politics in a dualistic framework.  They created men as representing culture and needing to have domination over natural processes, both of nonhuman nature and of human embodiment."  After the Greeks, early philosophers such as Hobbes and Locke, continued with the association of men with culture and women with nature.  Learning this part of history, I became familiar with this event in the background of the text.  As philosophers continued to promote men's domination in society over women, feminism really began.  Today's feminists begin with women's points of view while the second wave feminists had to focus on multiple oppressions as they intersected with sexism, such as the behaviors John displayed toward his wife.  Even though how he treats his wife is not related to politics like current feminists argue about, it shows the difference in time.  If it weren't for the feminist of the 19th century, the second wave, the third wave feminists would be having a much harder time arguing against male dominance.

After reading these two articles that were from completely different time periods and on slightly different topics, I was able to form a better understanding and even a different interpretation of "The Yellow Wallpaper."  These articles helped me to learn and to appreciate important pieces of history that have created the society I live in today.  These articles taught me how harsh sexism really was toward women and what women had to endure from men. This gave me a new found respect for the feminist advocates in the past and in today's world. I believe after reading both of these sources and "The Yellow Wallpaper" people responded as I did in the sense of being proud of the history nineteenth- century feminists created.  When these texts were originally published people responded by being educated more and seeing what was really going on in the world of feminism.  Reading these texts long after they were published, I not only read about feminism for the first time but I learned more about the time period.  The first time I read "The Yellow Wallpaper," I saw the yellow wallpaper's significance in the narrator's life but now I see it in the sense that she is the wallpaper.  After reading my primary article, I can say the wallpaper and the woman behind the wallpaper represent the narrator by them all being trapped in some way.  The woman is trapped behind the wallpaper, the wallpaper is trapped against the wall due to John not wanting to remove it and the narrator is trapped in her own life.  Lastly, I got to learn about the specific wave "The Yellow Wallpaper" was written in and the wave I am currently living in. 

What will the feminist advocates of the twenty-first century be fighting for? After seeing how far the topic of women's inequality has changed to equality over the course of one century, I am intrigued to live through the end of the third wave and into the beginning of a fourth, more complex wave.   Each of these two sources provided me with information on the topics varying from the sexual politics of male domination, gender oppression and women's omission from the public world.  Through "The Yellow Wallpaper" and sources on the topic of nineteenth century feminism, I have a deeper understanding of Gilman's story and a greater appreciation toward those who put their lives on the line to support women and more importantly the topic of feminism.  While learning about the history and culture of "The Yellow Wallpaper", my research has greatly helped me to create a new interpretation of the story and has allowed me to put my new learned knowledge into context when reading the text. 

