"Are you content to rear your children so? Untaught yourself, untrained, perplexed, distressed, Are you so sure your way is always best? That you can always know?"
Encouraging this young wife to step out of her comfort zone and to enter the public sphere, she brings up the concept of raising children. If not for her own edification, she asks whether this young women feels confident that she knows how to raise children. Are her answers so certain since she was never taught them? This argument for education and work above all the others is most likely to resonant with a stay-at-home-mom who really wants to do what's best for her children.
"There was once an Anthropoidal Ape,
Far smarter than the rest,
And everything that they could do He always did the best; So they naturally disliked him And they gave him shoulders cool, And when they had to mention him They said he was a fool."
This Anthropoidal Ape is the ancestor of human beings. He was born with an evolutionary advantage of intelligence which made the tasks of the other animals easy for him. Although the other animals were jealous of him, he couldn't change his natural propensity for advancement, so he continued to invent and come up with new ideas which challenged the status quo.
"Do you believe the sorrow of the world
Does not concern you in your little homes?
That you are licensed to avoid the care
And toil for human progress, human peace,
And the enlargement of our power of love
Until it covers every field of life?"
This is the heart of Gilman's disgust for the housewives. She cannot understand their limited perspective. If all the suffering and trouble of the world exists, then how should a few women be allowed to pretend it does not in order to focus upon their immediate lifestyles? Gilman believes that every human, including women, has something to contribute to the global cause of human progress.
"Till she comes a thought! She lifts her head,
The world grows wide!
A voice–as if clear words were said–
'Your door, O long imprisonéd,
Is locked inside!'"
This little piece of transcendental poetry attests to the power of the human mind. While trapped in her room, this woman wakes up one day to realize that she is no more trapped than she allows herself to be. Through her mind, she can visit untold places and invent any concept which she dares. In this line of thinking, then, her imprisoner -- the door -- is the one who is actually trapped because it cannot think like her.
"Now then, all forward together!
But remember, every one,
That 'tis not by feminine innocence
The work of the world is done.The world needs strength and courage,
And wisdom to help and feed–
When, 'We, as women' bring these to man,
We shall lift the world indeed."
In this poem, Gilman urges women to unite across the world. Once they've agreed to cooperate for the cause of human progress, she warns them not to fall into their own ways. She tells them not to approach their task out of naivete because the world will crush them. Instead they need to be courageous. In strength alone will the women be able to help the men and to change the world.
