How does Gilman use Mrs. Marroner to depict the changing role of women?

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How does Gilman use Mrs. Marroner to depict the changing role of women?

The story was written by a woman called Charlotte Perkins Gilman in the 1900’s, the author was trying to show what the attitudes of men to women at that time were like and what they basic roles of women were with their fight to get equality with men. Gilman was treated badly mostly by men in her life due to one of the facts being that her father left her and her mother when Charlotte was young, therefore she wrote this story. She was a feminist; therefore this is a feminist tale. She was an early one due to the fact there weren’t many feminist authors at that time. CPG fought for the education of woman and felt they had a right to stand up and go against men. So basically the story is about the “turning” of women on men, where two women were betrayed and humiliated by one man and went out of their way to prove him wrong.

  CPG thought that women and men should be equal in all ways. She saw men treat her badly when she was young and she decided to turn on them and prove her worth. In the story she starts that Mrs. M was a highly educated person who had a PHD in college, so this depicts that CPG wanted women to have a fair education just like men instead of them becoming housewives.

  When CPG was little her father left her and her mother which left both of them in great debt. From that point on CPG became a stronger person, which to aspire to become a feminist, to stand up to the likes of men, it was this strength in which she most likely created the character Mrs. Marroner who at the end of the story shows herself as a powerful woman by leaving her husband and her husband being the weak person due to the fact that he was going to go back to his wife to plead for forgiveness. CPG basically wanted to see men and women on the same levels.

  When we first meet Mrs. Marroner we know that she is a wealthy person because of the surroundings she lives in for example her “Elaborate dress” and her “Soft carpeted, thick-curtained, and richly furnished” chamber. Which in contrast to Gerta is very high since Gerta only had a small room without the luxuries due to the fact that she is just a servant in the house (which also proves that Mrs. M is rich.)

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  Mrs. M is somewhat depicted as an independent character who is usually seen as working on her own and getting on by herself. She tries not to think of the worse since when she read the letter from her husband that had the 50 dollars in it; she thought that somehow that she had got the wrong letter.  She is then deeply shocked when she finally realizes that the letter was actually for Gerta, and when she reads it figuring out that Gerta was actually pregnant, most of her sorrow turns to rage and her main instinct is to ...

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