Journal entry# 38 Charlotte Perkins Gilman

Siu Faat Jimmy Wong
English 48b
March 7, 2008
Professor Lankford

Quote:

If a physician of high standing, and one’s own husband, assures friends and relatives that there is really nothing the matter with one but temporary nervous depression—a slight hysterical tendency— what is one to do?

Summary:

This is a quote found in the beginning of the story. It explains how her husband feels about her problem and how she feels about his treatment.

Response:

I think this quote clearly shows the unequal marriage at that time period. In the beginning of the story, I think that the narrator only feels a little bit sick. However, John, her husband, insists that she is suffering from a “temporary nervous depression”. He told her that she should think about the house instead of her “condition”. Since John is her husband and a professional physician, the narrator cannot refuse his treatment. At that point, I can feel her powerlessness in her family. His husband thinks that he is absolutely right and what the narrator needs is to be locked in the room and to do nothing. Although the narrator clearly knows that the “congenial work, with excitement and change would do [her] good” (Norton809), she does not have the choice to write or to do other things which can help herself. Therefore, instead of the “phosphates and phosphites”, I think that the narrator needs stimulation and activity which can strengthen her body and mind. However, the treatment which John provides is totally opposite. In my opinion, the treatment definitely worsens her situation and makes her even feel more depressed. Unluckily, in that society and that time period, she can say nothing to oppose the authoritative voices from her husband. Otherwise, her husband may say that she is in a much worse situation and provide some more stupid treatments to her which she does not have any right to say “no”.
From this quote, I can see that the narrator is just served as “a little girl” who is considered to have no ability to understand what is happening in her body. In the text, John even simply laughs at her about her idea. Here, I can easily see the imbalance of the family status between woman and man. Woman always has to follow instruction while man is always the one who sets the instructions