Motherhood and Liberation in Making a Change by Charlotte Perkins Gilman

Abstract

This paper examines Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s Making a Change in terms of motherhood at Gilman’s time. The motherhood in Gilman’s society and how motherhood turns the mother’s life into an entrapment for a woman is my first issue. How the difficulties of motherhood bring the narrator to the verge of death and the perception of motherhood in the patriarchal society will be scrutinized.

 To solve this problem Gilman promotes the idea of ‘social motherhood’ which requires the entire race to be responsible for motherhood. ‘Social motherhood’ is defined as a community responsibility. The difficulties of Julia as a new mother and the help of Mrs. Gordins as an experienced mother will be the focus of my analysis. Julia’s liberation after gaining her economic independence and how the relationships among the family members change after her emancipation will also be analyzed.