stories, questioning the traditional gender roles of wife and mother, of which the
former ’ s “ The Yellow Wallpaper ” (1892) and the latter ’ s “ The Story of an Hour ”
(1894) are highly representative. 32
Over the past several decades, Gilman ’ s text has become one of the most well -
known, widely taught short stories of the period. This much interpreted semi
-
autobiographical story about a woman suffering through S. Weir Mitchell ’ s “ rest cure ”
under the doubly patriarchal supervision of her physician - husband John (and with the
agreement of her brother, also a doctor), was intended to save women from being
driven crazy, which it apparently did, according to Gilman ’ s “ Why I Wrote ‘ The
Yellow Wallpaper
’
”
(1913)
. The narrator indicts her husband and Mitchell, by
writing “ John is a physician, and perhaps – … perhaps that is one reason I do not get
well faster ” ( “ Wallpaper ” 31). The story condemns not merely Mitchell ’ s misogynist
cure, which prohibited women from writing and from thinking deeply, but also a
society whose broader concept of women ’ s role quashes what Gilman, in the story, as
well as in her highly infl uential Women and Economics (1898) suggests is a fundamental
human need, “ the creative impulse, the desire to make, to express the inner thought
in outer form … ‘ I want to mark! ’ cries the child ” ( W & E 116 – 17). The narrator is
infantilized and dehumanized by the strictures put on her mental and physical activ-
ity. Locked in a nursery with barred windows and a bed bolted to the fl oor much of
the time, with a “ schedule prescription for each hour in the day ” ( “ Wallpaper ” 33),
she eventually crawls around the room (like a baby), obsessed with the room ’ s wall-
paper, which she sees imprisoning and even strangling women. Her captivity, and
the repression of her humanity and creativity, eventually drive her mad. Gilman shows
us that her only path to freedom from patriarchal oppression, other than suicide, which
she also contemplates – “ to jump out the window would be admirable exercise ” (46)
– is to go mad, a Pyrrhic victory highlighted by John ’ s fainting spell upon seeing her
crawling around the room: “ Now why should that man have fainted? But he did, and
right across my path … so that I had to creep over him every time! ” (47). In addition
to rejecting second - class status for women, Gilman also uses the story, along with
several of her non - fi ction works (see p. 193, above) to suggest the radical idea that
not all women are suited to be mothers: “ It is fortunate Mary is so good with the
baby. Such a dear baby! And yet I cannot be with him, it makes me so nervous ” (34).
Gilman wants women to be free to create intellectually, not just biologically. More
than just a text of mental hygiene reform, “ The Yellow Wallpaper ” represents an
effort to show Gilman ’ s audience the extremely urgent need for radical reform of
traditional gender roles.
Chopin, like Gilman, sees signifi cant problems with society ’ s traditional construc-
tions of woman as wife and mother. While she is best known for The Awakening
(1899), in the years prior to its publication she focused primarily on short fi ction. In
“ The Story of an Hour, ” fi rst published in Vogue as “ The Dream of an Hour ” (1894) ,
Mrs. Mallard, the protagonist, at fi rst reacts to the news of her husband ’ s sudden death
with terrible grief, followed by exhaustion. Soon, however, she feels something coming
Short Fiction and Social Change
207
into her consciousness, and begins to whisper “ ‘ free, free, free! ’ ” after which, in place
of her former “ repression ” (138), she begins to feel gloriously alive: “ Her pulses beat
fast, and the coursing blood warmed and relaxed every inch of her body ” (138). What
follows is a manifesto of female independence: “ she saw … a long procession of years
to come that would belong to her absolutely … she would live for herself. There
would be no powerful will bending hers ” (138). Although there is no question that
she loves her husband – what could love, “ the unsolved mystery, count for in face of
this possession of self - assertion which she suddenly recognized as the strongest impulse
of her being! … ‘ Free! Body and soul free! ’ She kept whispering ” (138 – 9) – it is plain
that married life has stifl ed her, transforming her into a slave. Subsequently, she
murmurs “ a quick prayer that life might be long. It was only yesterday she had
thought with a shudder that life might be long ” (139) (clearly the concerns of Seneca
Falls have not yet been addressed, despite the passing of half a century). Chopin
implies that death might be better than marriage, at least from a wife ’ s perspective.
Tragically, however, Mrs. Mallard ’ s freedom is short - lived; she goes downstairs,
only to encounter her husband, who had been far from the accident, as it turns out.
Seeing him, she lets out a “ piercing cry ” and falls dead. Chopin, having told her story
in mostly unironic manner up to this point, concludes it with a savage inversion:
“ When the doctors came they said she had died of heart disease – of joy that kills ”
(139). Of course, the truth is, she has died of a broken heart, having lost the intoxi-
cating freedom she had so briefl y enjoyed. Chopin and Gilman reject the domestic,
both as trope and social structure, using anti - domestic themes to drive home to their
readers the injustice and inhumanity of fi n - de - si è cle women ’ s roles.
Although not all writers discussed here would agree with Jack London ’ s claim that
“ socialism was the only way out for art and the artist ” (Charmian London 528), they
would agree that the short story can be an effective weapon with which to impel the
nation in the direction of social justice. From temperance and workers ’ rights fi ction
to stories of Native American resistance and Euro - American exploitation, American
writers in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, utilizing tropes of both
domesticity and violent confl ict, found short fi ction a highly congenial genre for
expressing their desire for change.
Notes
1
See Frank Luther Mott, A History of American
2
See Mott, A History of American Magazines:
Magazines: 1741 – 1850 , 341 – 2, and Mott, A
1885 – 1905
, 11
–
12. According to Mott,
History of American Magazines: 1850
–
1865 ,
including failed publications, mergers, etc.,
4 – 5. According to Mott, as many as 5,000
nearly 11,000 magazines were published
magazines were active in this period. He
during this period.
quotes the
Illinois Monthly Magazine 1.302
3
This chapter is designed to present a broad
(April 1831), as proclaiming that “ this is the
overview of the short fi ction of social change
golden age of periodicals ” (qtd. in Mott, A
between 1820 and 1918. For extended deep
&n
bsp; History : 1741 – 1850 , 341).
analysis of the stories noted here, the reader
208
Andrew J. Furer
will need to look elsewhere. (See “ References
novels, rather than short stories, as the post -
and Further Reading ” below, for some useful
1880 works excerpted in Mattingly ’ s anthol-
critical works and collections.)
ogy indicate. One possible reason for this was
4
In fi ction, however, women appear to pre-
the decreasing number of temperance gift
dominate, as a casual survey of temperance
books and temperance magazines being pub-
magazines and gift books reveals. Interest-
lished. According to Frank Luther Mott,
ingly, among the men who did produce such
most of the latter survived only a few years,
work was Walt Whitman, albeit in long
and only two major ones survived more than
form, not surprisingly – a novel, rather than
a decade past the Civil War (Mott, A History
short stories. In 1842, he published Franklin
of American Magazines: 1850
–
1865 , 210);
Evans, or The Inebriate: A Tale of the Times,
meanwhile, relatively few new ones were
which seems to have sold as many as 20,000
started in the later era.
copies (Whitman, Franklin Evans , ed. Casti-
7
As Mattingly notes, older women led the
glia and Hendler xiii). According to Mark
temperance crusade in public, as well as at
Walhout, later in life, Whitman liked to joke
home; here, Alcott suggests a way in which
about his novel. He told Horace Traubel that
young women and girls could add their voices
he had written the novel for money “ ‘ with
to the crusade, albeit in a more domestically
the help of a bottle of port or what not.
’
restricted manner. The
“
Silver Pitchers
”
Another version had Whitman penning the
society is a local, informal one; Alcott thus
novel in Tammany Hall with the help of gin
implies that the proliferation of independent,
cocktails from the nearby Pewter Mug
”
small
-
scale informal groups of younger
(Walhout 39). Such tales, however, according
women would be a useful supplement to
to Walhout, are not credible. Apparently,
large - scale organizations such as the WCTU,
Whitman both preached and practiced tem-
run by adult women.
perance throughout his life. As a journalist,
8
Garrison refers to her as early as 1829 as “ the
for example, he reported positively on Tem-
fi rst woman of the republic ” (qtd. in Karcher,
perance events in New York. He also com-
ed., A Lydia Maria Child Reader 1).
posed an unfi nished sequel to Franklin Evans
9
See, for example, her story “ Willie Wharton ”
called The Madman (Walhout 39).
( Atlantic Monthly 11 [March 1863 ]: 324 – 45),
5
Because temperance fi ction is not widely
reprinted in Karcher, ed.,
A Lydia Maria
known today, we will examine multiple texts
Child Reader.
here. Concerning Sargent, see Mattingly, ed.,
10
“ Charity Bowery ” (1839) , while supposedly
Water Drops from Women Writers: A Temperance
an interview, according to the author, shows
Reader
(17 n.6). According to Mattingly,
parallel themes. It relates the life story of a
women temperance writers were able to be
slave woman, a narrative that effectively dem-
more open about their dissatisfaction with
onstrates that even the kindest of slaveowners
“ woman ’ s place ” than many other writers of
cannot ultimately diminish the horrors of
the time. They addressed topics which other
slavery. Charity has such a master, but after
fi ction writers, and even male temperance
his death, she is inherited by her mistress, “ a
writers, dared not, “ not only general equality
divil!
”
This woman proceeds to sell away
between the sexes and violence against
Charity ’ s children, one by one, something her
women but also prejudicial societal attitudes
master had promised never to do. These sales
towards victims of male assault and abuse, a
occur even though Mrs. McKinley, the mis-
woman ’ s right to her own body, marital infi -
tress, knows that Charity is doing outside
delity, and the imperative for women to focus
work to save up to buy her children back.
on their own needs ” (5).
Indeed, her mistress repeatedly turns down
6
Later temperance fi ction, published by writers
Charity ’ s offers, even when the latter is able
including Elizabeth Stuart Phelps, Frances
to pay “ market value. ”
Ellen Watkins Harper, and Marietta Holley,
11
See, for example, Angelina Grimk é , An
well into the late nineteenth and early twen-
Appeal to the Christian Women of the South
tieth centuries, increasingly took the form of
(1836) .
Short Fiction and Social Change
209
12
The passage continues, “ or at least is incorpo-
and accordingly all experience hath shown
rated and consolidated into that of her
that mankind are more disposed to suffer
husband under whose wing, protection, and
while evils are sufferable, than to right them-
cover she performs everything; and is therefore
selves by abolishing the forms to which they
called … a feme - covert . ” One partial exception
are accustomed. But when a long train of
was Mississippi after 1839, when the state
abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably
granted women the right to hold property in
the same object, evinces a design to reduce
their own name, although only with their
them under absolute despotism, it is their
husbands ’ permission. As time passed, other
duty to throw off such government, and to
states slowly began to modernize these laws;
provide new guards for their future security.
in 1848, New York passed a Married
Such has been the patient sufferance of the
Woman ’ s Property Act that gave wives some
women under this government, and such is
control of their property
–
by the 1860s,
now the necessity which constrains them to
nearly a dozen additional states had passed
demand the equal station to which they are
similar legislation.
entitled. The history of mankind is a history
13
An interesting minor reform convergence
<
br /> of repeated injuries and usurpations on the
connects temperance activism and women
’ s
part of man toward woman, having in direct
rights in the person of Amelia Bloomer, who
object the establishment of an absolute
was both the editor of the temperance maga-
tyranny over her. To prove this, let facts be
zine The Lily and one of the major American
submitted to a candid world. He has never
proponents of “ rational dress ” for women.
permitted her to exercise her inalienable
14
“ The Declaration of Sentiments ” (1848) is
right to the elective franchise. He has com-
quite a radical document, even by twenty
-
pelled her to submit to laws, in the formation
fi rst - century standards: “ When, in the course
of which she had no voice. He has withheld
of human events, it becomes necessary for one
from her rights which are given to the most
portion of the family of man to assume
ignorant and degraded men – both natives
among the people of the earth a position dif-
and foreigners. Having deprived her of this
ferent from that which they have hitherto
fi rst right of a citizen, the elective franchise,
occupied, but one to which the laws of nature
thereby leaving her without representation in
and of nature ’ s God entitle them, a decent
the halls of legislation, he has oppressed her
respect to the opinions of mankind requires
on all sides. He has made her, if married, in
that they should declare the causes that
the eye of the law, civilly dead. He has taken
impel them to such a course. We hold these
from her all right in property, even to the
truths to be self
-
evident: that all men and
wages she earns. He has made her, morally,
women are created equal; that they are
an irresponsible being, as she can commit
endowed by their Creator with certain
many crimes with impunity, provided they
inalienable rights; that among these are life,
be done in the presence of her husband. In
liberty, and the pursuit of happiness; that to
the covenant of marriage, she is compelled to
secure these rights governments are insti-
promise obedience to her husband, he becom-
tuted, deriving their just powers from the
ing, to all intents and purposes, her master
A Companion to the American Short Story Page 46