The Woman Behind The Paper by

Visual Mood Board

eboneylt — 2025-03-21 19:36:01 UTC

Location

eboneylt — 2025-03-21 19:36:18 UTC

In the novella, the setting is described as, "A colonial mansion, a hereditary estate, I would say a haunted house,--". From looking at this description and other quotes, I think that the best fit for the exhibition would be the Florence Griswold Museum in Connecticut as Gilman is from here and this building is similar to that of the novella and would be interesting to create a similar experience via having a house that looks lived in to capture the normalcy that will provide the mundaneness of the Gilman part of the exhibition in comparison to the eeriness of the Yellow Wallpaper section/ experience in which the turn will captivate the uncanny aspect.

The Yellow Wallpaper

eboneylt — 2025-03-21 19:36:30 UTC

https://www.nlm.nih.gov/exhibition/theliteratureofprescription/exhibitionAssets/digitalDocs/The-Yellow-Wall-Paper.pdf

Bibliography

eboneylt — 2025-03-21 19:40:46 UTC

Alkan, H. “A Liberal Feminist Approach to Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s The Yellow Wallpaper”. ulakbilge, 65 (2021 Ekim): s. 1229–1236. doi: 10.7816/ulakbilge-09-65-02

https://www.ulakbilge.com/makale/pdf/1635731661.pdf

Gilman, C. P. (1981). The yellow wallpaper. Virago Press.

Gilman, Anna O., and “Hysterical” Writing. NWSA Journal, 1(1), 52–74. http://www.jstor.org/stable/4315866

Herndl, D. P. (1988). The Writing Cure: Charlotte Perkins

Wiley, K. The Yellow Wallpaper. (22 February - 12 July 2020). William Morris Gallery, London, England

https://www.stephenfriedman.com/news/202-kehinde-wiley-the-yellow-wallpaper/

Hill, M. A. (1980). Charlotte Perkins Gilman: A Feminist’s Struggle with Womanhood. The Massachusetts Review, 21(3), 503–526. http://www.jstor.org/stable/25089070

Parry, M. The Literature of Prescription, Charlotte Perkins Gilman and The Yellow Wallpaper. (25 March 2024). NLM Traveling Exhibition

https://www.nlm.nih.gov/exhibition/theliteratureofprescription/index.html#:~:text=The%20Literature%20of%20Prescription:%20Home%20page

Verbrugge, M. H. (1976). Women and Medicine in Nineteenth-Century America. Signs, 1(4), 957–972. http://www.jstor.org/stable/3173245

Charlotte Perkins Gilman

eboneylt — 2025-03-21 19:41:25 UTC

Born in Connecticut (1860-1935)

Had a very unstable home as her father left the family home when soon after Charlotte's birth
Had to move around with her mother and brother a lot
Developed a high sense of independence
During her first marriage and after the birth of her daughter, it is stated that Charlotte struggled with depressive episodes and was constricted by the confines of married life and motherhood (which shows heavily in The Yellow Wallpaper)
Her husband insisted on a more traditional marriage
She wrote "To the Young Wife", in which she questioned women's true fulfilment whilst coping to be a dutiful housewife and societal structures

The Gilman part of the exhibition will delve into every aspect of Gilman including her art, writing and struggles with misogyny and how her tenacity and work ethic fought for change for women across America.

Gilman and Mental Health

eboneylt — 2025-03-22 18:02:25 UTC

When looking at Gilman's medical history it is evident that due to the time in which Charlotte was seeking medical advice, there was very little knowledge or research done for female mental health or women's health in general. Influences such as misogynistic societal structures, as well as sexist agendas lead to the misdiagnosis' of hysteria in women when they were struggling to be a "dutiful housewife", along with many other outrageous symptoms when we look back today. Charlotte's historical evidence, combined with what we saw from her writings about struggling to be a housewife and mother showed signs suggesting she possibly struggled with post partum depression. However, was diagnosed by Dr. Silas Weir Mitchell (nervous disease specialist) with neurasthenia, or nervous exhaustion, which was another diagnosis male 'medical professionals' (during this time) used to define the weaknesses and strengths between men and women to push their own sexist agendas. Neurasthenia consisted of stress in women that "exceeded their natural limits". Charlotte after this was discouraged from pursuing her career as a writer and artist. This heavily influenced The Yellow Wallpaper. Seeing as Gilman was extremely passionate bout women in the world of employment and economic freedom, this was incredibly frustrating and you can see this reflect in the narrative of Jane in the novella; predominantly when talking about John (her husband) and his refusal to believe her and discouraging her writing.

The work Gilman did for women was heavily influenced by her upbringing as well as her own experience with men in positions of power that abused their professionalism to push their own sexist agendas to enforce the suppression of women.

Gilman vs Yellow Wallpaper

eboneylt — 2025-03-30 19:34:07 UTC

The Gilman exhibition:

Her life (where she grew up around Connecticut, her education and family origins)
Her works (To The Young Wife, Women and Economics etc...)
The art she made (The flower girls and trading cards art she sold)
What she did for women (Women and Economics, her works to abolish prostitution and establishing the age of consent)

The Yellow Wallpaper experience:

Eerie
Playing with sound (background speakers whispering sensory based)
Headphones (with the audiobook mention on this Padlet)
Hired actor walking around in the backgrounds around the house or almost see through sheets of the wallpaper
Fake mirrors to emulate someone living in the wallpaper however not making it obvious as to make people question what they have just seen
Sounds of babies crying in the nursery
Dark lighting, sickly yellow

Normalcy of a regular exhibition meets uncanny when experiencing The Yellow Wallpaper experience.

At the end of the Yellow Wallpaper experience there would be a return to the Gilman exhibition that would not be accessible until the whole exhibition was complete. At the end of this section there would be an explanation of the novella and the history behind its creation and why it is a staple in 19th century Gothic literature even being such a small story.

Audiobook

eboneylt — 2025-03-30 19:46:05 UTC

The audio aspect of the book will provide a more immersive experience for the listener. The torment and struggle Jane experiences in the first narrative being listened to as opposed to just reading the book would get the listener into her headspace on a personal level seeing as this is will be combined with a set, designed to visually represent the room where Jane stays at home isolated and struggling with her emotional turmoil whilst also managing motherhood. The performance by Jamie Loftus in this particular audiobook is unsettlingly eerie and the deliverance of the finale is utterly bone chilling, which is why I think this will have a more uncanny affect after the regularity of the previous exhibition.

Brochure For The Exhibition

eboneylt — 2025-04-11 20:22:37 UTC

I intend, with the brochure to to not disclose any specific details towards The Yellow Wallpaper Experience in order to achieve the viewers affected by the uncanny twist.

I have included the date to be the week before Halloween so people will be intrigued as to how the exhibition would be as I have quoted as a "review", "The perfect way to start autumn spookiness".