Turned Short Story

In this short story ‘Turned’ Gilman conveys the status of women in 19th century Boston. Women in Boston were classed in terms of their social status and this story shows us this class distinction. The content of this story is basically a love triangle which involves a Swedish maid ‘Gerta Peterson’ and a rich and wealthy couple the ‘Marroners’. As she was born as an illegitimate child herself, Gilman stars this story by a dramatic opening by describing the women’s bedrooms.

By conveying a detailed description Charlotte Perkins Gilman describes Mrs. Marroner’s bedroom as a, ‘soft-carpeted, thick curtained and richly furnished chamber’.

Essay Example on Short story ‘Turned’

Whereas she describes Gerta’s bedroom as a, ‘uncarpeted thin curtained and poorly furnished chamber’. What is Gilman trying to show about their social status? Gilman is simply showing that the rich women are more respected than poor women and also the rich have got the valuable things whereas the poor are just being used to work for the rich.

This shows that Mrs. Marroner is a rich woman whereas Gerta is a poor woman. In Boston all women try to look for rich husbands so that they could have a good life just like Mrs. Marroner. Mrs. Marroner is a married woman in her thirties.

She is a, ‘loving, trusting, and affectionate woman’. Mrs. Marroner also has a, ‘good relationship with her husband Mr. Marroner who is apparently out of the country for business’. Business has been delaying him from ‘weeks to months’ and while he was away he used to wrote to his wife, ‘long, loving and frequent letters deeply regretting his delay explaining how necessary and how profitable it was’.

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Whenever Mrs. Marroner received the letter she ‘impulsively kissed it’ in the dim hall. She was never a ‘jealous woman’ she studied in university where she ‘held a PhD’ and became a ‘teacher’ before she was married.

Gilman shows that Mrs. Marroner had a very good educational background. Mrs. Marroner had a ‘good relationship’ with Gerta. She tried to teach her and had grown to ‘love the patient’. Perhaps having no babies of her own made her to love the big child more. By writing this sentence Gilman expresses the feeling of Mrs. Marroner towards Gerta and show that Mrs. Marroner treats Gerta as her own child. She also says that Mr and Mrs. Marroner had frankly ‘admired her and her visible perfections’ they were also very ‘fond of her’.