Turned is a short story embedded with themes of feminism and social hierarchy, written by Charlotte Perkins Gilman in 1911. The story exhibits a plot of infidelity, as young and naive servant Gerta sleeps with the husband of her prosperous mistress Mrs. Marroner. Upon first reading this story, I felt that it would conform to the discourse of male supremacy and the woman would return to her husband because she could not live without him. However, I was pleasantly surprised to learn that instead of forgiving Mr. Marroner, like many female characters in conventional narratives of that era did, she took control of the situation and made a decision that was in the best interest of herself and her pregnant servant. I felt throughout the story that the narrator was attempting to guide the direction in which I read the text. Although, due to my feminist, middle class ideals, I was subjective toward this text and took on the role of a resistant reader.
Turned fails to adhere to the codes and conventions of many novels of this era and espouses the independence of women rather than male hegemony. This becomes apparent as Mrs. Marroner endeavors to gain independence by changing her name back to her maiden name Miss Wheeler and create herself a new identity. This action denotes power on her behalf and on the behalf of other females, considering that divorce and separation were not prevalent in this time period. Moreover, the sovereignty of women is later reinforced, as she leaves the home she shared with her husband and finds herself and Gerta another place of residence.
In addition to the occurrence of gendered ideologies within the text, notions of education, wealth and class are present. This is evident as Mrs. Marroner is employed at the University, implying that she is well educated. It also emphasizes the cultural assumption that education denotes affluence and high social mobility. The prosperity and social class of Mrs. Marroner is represented in the first passage of the story. The luxurious nature of the home she shared with her husband is described as a: “soft carpeted, thick curtained, richly furnished chamber” (Gilman, 1911). The socio-economic status of Mrs. Marroner was later reinforced in tutorial groups, as an activity from Reading Stories involving the comparison of Mrs. Marroner and Gerta, was completed. The activity presented many binary oppositions, for example, Gerta was represented as young, poor, naive and uneducated, whereas, Mrs. Marroner was wealthy, strong, educated, and well respected. This activity revealed the abundance of gender, class, education and economic ideals within the text.
The concluding sentence opens the story up to a variety of endings. Such endings were discussed in the tutorial. Although there was a myriad of responses due to the differing cultural, social, educational and economic backgrounds of my peers, we all agreed that the text provides the cultural assumption that infidelity is wrong. The last line of the story: “What do you have to say to us?” is polysemous and could be interpreted numerous ways. It was suggested by a fellow peer that Mrs. Marroner is leaving the conversation open for an apology. I was taken aback by this suggestion, but after rereading the text several times I negotiated my reading position and was open to this ending. However, I thought that this was a rhetoric statement implying that he could say or do nothing to repair the damage he had made. Due to my feministic ideals, I had hoped Mrs. Marroner would not forgive her unfaithful husband and instead would start a new life and relationship with Gerta and bring the baby up together. Unlike other texts in my literary repertoire, this text does not exhibit the conventional ending of ‘happily ever after’. Therefore, I thought that this proposed lesbian ending between Mrs. Marroner and Gerta would provide readers with an unconventional, but happy ending.
By including this text into my professional teaching repertoire, I hope to further on Moon’s (2009) notion and teach students about dominant, alternative and oppositional readings. I would develop an activity whereby students could write their own ending to this story, according to the reading position they took. The ending they write would be informed by their cultural, social, economical and educational backgrounds.
Works Cited:
Gilman, C, P. (1911). Turned. In Mellor, B., O’Neill, M., & Patterson, A. (1990). Reading Stories (pp. 13-24). Cottesloe, WA: Chalkface Press.
Moon, B. (2001). Literary Terms: A Practical Glossary. Cottesloe, WA: Chalkface Press.
Reading between the lines... 
