Charlotte Perkins Gilman: Poems

Charlotte Perkins Gilman: Poems Analysis

To the indifferent woman

The poem begins with the narrator addressing the women living comfortably in their homes without a care in the world. The women in question care only about those close to them and the narrator asks them how they are not affected by all the suffering that takes place in the world.

The narrator criticizes those women because according to her, those women believe the problems affecting the rest of the world can’t affect them and thus they do nothing to make the world a better place. In the third stanza the narrator mentions how she believes everyone is responsible for making the world a better place and how the women who refuse to do so are worthy of being criticized.

The narrator mentions how she believes women, as mother, have the purpose of spreading peace in the world and how those who refuse to do this must be criticized by the rest of the world. The poem ends with the narrator claiming these women must do anything they can to help the rest of the women, living in all the corners of the world.

Locked inside

The narrator starts this poem by presenting a woman inside a room, trying to escape. The woman is forced to see the same walls every day. Suddenly, the woman has a thought and she finds how her door is actually locked from the inside and thus it is up to her to free herself.

Boys will be boys

The narrator begins the poem by claiming how the title of the poem was used as an excuse when talking about the behavior of boys in general. The narrator mentions how no matter how the boys behaved, they were excused because ‘’they were boys’’ and thus could not help it.

In the last stanza of the poem the narrator proposes that the same thing apply to women and thus she wants women to receive the same benefit of the doubt as boys do.

The housewife

In the poem is told from the perspective of a woman who is a housewife and is written in a classical style. The woman talks about the safety she experiences in her own home and asks herself why she should leave it since it brings her so much joy.

The woman talks about her duties: cleaning, making food and making sure her family has clothes. Her work is never done and she works day and night. The woman is not educated and she mentions how she does not know a trade outside of her housework. The poem ends with the claim that the housewives have a special brain, different from that of the rest of the women what allows them to do such things.

Update this section!

You can help us out by revising, improving and updating this section.

Update this section

After you claim a section you’ll have 24 hours to send in a draft. An editor will review the submission and either publish your submission or provide feedback.