484 Gilman, Charlotte Perkins
of criminal activity while he ponders his “foolish
wench,” Polly. Macheath confesses that Polly’s affec-
tions sway him to consider marriage seriously, but
his thoughts are soon interrupted by the entrance
of Mrs. Coaxer and her stable of prostitutes. After
much banter concerning the “kind service” provided
by Mrs. Coaxer’s women, Macheath is shortly
arrested by Peachum, the culmination of his plot to
remove Macheath from Polly’s life. Macheath then
curses women as “decoy ducks” who seek only to
destroy men, a sentiment that soon sours his attitude
toward Polly.
Macheath is first visited in Newgate Prison
by Lucy, a former lover, who immediately rebukes
him for his relationship to Polly. Macheath has
a way with words, however, and he is soon able
to calm Lucy’s trepidations. Peachum, meanwhile,
has presented his case against Macheath to Lockit
the prison guard, who confirms Macheath’s guilt
and threatens him with execution. Polly then visits
Macheath as he broods in prison, and she meets
Lucy for the first time, and the two women learn of
Macheath’s polygamy. The rival women first focus
their anger toward Macheath, then turn their rage
upon each other. Each jilted women takes little com-
fort in Macheath’s assurance of love as a “joke.” Soon
Lucy begins to soften her stance toward Macheath,
but Polly remains in turmoil.
Lockit meanwhile finds himself trying to keep
track not only of Macheath, Polly, and Lucy, but also
of Peachum’s plot to have Macheath executed for
his crimes. The multiple subplots prove too much
for Lockit, however, and Macheath manages to
escape with Lucy’s aid, only “to go to her” (Polly), as
Lucy fears. To calm her worries, Lucy then decides
to confront Polly and settle the argument between
them once and for all, and the two women carry
on numerous arguments and discussions about love,
men, marriage, and women. Neither woman reaches
a satisfactory conclusion regarding themselves and
Macheath, and the play then hastens to a conclusion
that leaves the love triangle involving Lucy, Polly,
and Macheath unresolved.
After finally being confronted by both women in
prison near the end of the play, the Jailor introduces
“four women more,” each one “bearing a child” to
Macheath. Six women now appear on stage and
each claims an amorous association with Macheath,
but rather than pick one of the six, the Beggar and
Player suddenly appear and release Macheath from
prison to appease the audience, and there the play
ends. The audience never knows which woman
Macheath ultimately chooses, if he chooses any
woman at all, nor whether or not he is legally mar-
ried to Polly, Lucy, or both. Instead, The Beggar’s
Opera ends on a humorous note that leaves the spec-
tators to draw their own conclusions regarding love.
James N. Ortego IIgiLman, CHarLoTTE PErkinS
The Yellow Wallpaper^ (1892)
The Yellow Wallpaper was first published in New
England Magazine as “The Yellow Wall-Paper” in- Although now seen as Gilman’s most impor-
tant work, during her lifetime she was most known
for Women and Economics (1898), a nonfiction work
that explored the place of women in late-19th-
century America. The Yellow Wallpaper was largely
critically ignored until it was reissued by the Femi-
nist Press in 1973.
The Yellow Wallpaper is the first-person account
of a woman undergoing a “rest cure.” She has been
diagnosed with a “hysterical tendency” by her physi-
cian husband because she has been unable to care
for her newborn baby. As part of her “rest cure,”
she has been confined to an attic room and forbid-
den to have any physical, emotional, or intellectual
stimulation. This includes the instruction that she
is not to write. The story, her journal account of her
experience, becomes evidence of her disagreement
and defiance of this prescription.
Shortly after being confined, the narrator decides
that there is something strange about the wallpa-
per that covers the walls of this attic room. As the
story progresses, she becomes convinced that there
are women trapped inside the strange pattern of
the wallpaper. The story ends with the narrator’s
attempt at freeing the women in the wallpaper.
Three major themes explored by Gilman in The Yel-
low Wallpaper are illness, gender, and freedom.
Since its republication, The Yellow Wallpaper has
been considered an important work, not only of
feminist literature but also of American literature.