Influence of Emerson's Self-Reliance on Gilman's Yellow Wallpaper The great writer Ralph Waldo Emerson once wrote, "trust thyself: every heart vibrates to that iron string" (p 1033). How surprised he would be to find that half a century later this kind of idea would culminate in a growing restlessness among American women dissatisfied with their lives and their role in society - a society dominated by men with little or no place for women outside the house. One such writer who helped lead the fight for domestic and social reform was Charlotte Perkins Gilman. One of his most particularly powerful works is “The Yellow Wall-Paper,” intended to highlight the subservient and highly underappreciated role women play in marriages of the time. Through this work, Gilman expressed her internal frustrations with the servitude that women had to endure in their marriages during that time period, and championed her own brand of Emersonian nonconformity for women. By adopting such a profoundly sad view of married life, Gilman hoped to inspire other women to seek new roles not only in the domestic arena, but also in the public arena. “The Yellow Wall-Paper” represents to a large extent what the feminist movement of the late 19th century stood for, and by analyzing both the history and context of its creation, the type of interpretation Gilman made of Emerson's work becomes evident “Self-Reliance.” Although "The Yellow Wall-Paper" focuses on a wife's sudden decline into madness, the story brings out a very important issue: that of the role of women not only in domestic life, but also in society. Already from the first lines of the story it is clear that the wife's point of view concerns her place in the marr... in the middle of the paper...", written almost half a century earlier, but intended to apply to women to achieve a similar greatness through liberation. Evidently, both authors achieved their goals and became literary founders of a new American image created during the 19th century, but which transcends the boundaries of time even today. American Transcendentalism. New York: Capricorn Books, 1974. Emerson, Ralph Self-Reliance, New York: Feminist Press, 1973. ------. Life of Charlotte Perkins Gilman: An Autobiography Century, 1935. Kasmer, Lisa. "The Yellow Wallpaper" by Charlotte Perkins: A Symptomatic Reading. Literature and Psychology. 36, (1990): 1-15.