An Obstacle

Fiction | Poem | Adult | Published in 1884

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Summary

Background

Poem Analysis

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Literary Devices

Symbols & Motifs

Biblical & Demonological Figures

Throughout the poem, Perkins Gilman includes religious and occult symbols. When conveying how intelligent the speaker is, Perkins Gilman says she “argues like a Solomon” (Line 23). The article “a” before Solomon transforms the Biblical figure into an archetype. Solomon is known in the Bible for being the wisest of the kings of Israel. In 1 Kings 3:7-12, Solomon asks God for discernment in justice, or wisdom, and God grants him this wish. Perkins Gilman’s simile casts the speaker as an embodiment of a Solomonic wisdom in opposition of the “fool” (Line 24) prejudice. Occult texts, called grimoires, regularly include the Key of Solomon, which reference his rule over demons.

At the end of the poem, Perkins Gilman includes a type of demon that Solomon faced and defeated—an incubus. Prejudice is no longer a man, but an “awful incubus” (Line 45) in the final stanza. An incubus is a male sex demon (a succubus is the female version of the same demon type). Generally, the sins related to incubi are physical (i.e. sexual) in nature. However, Perkins Gilman’s speaker views the demon as incorporeal—without the body of a huge man, as portrayed in previous stanzas—and defeats it by simply adopting detachment or indifference and walking through it. This speaks to many grimoires’ treatment of demons as needing to be invoked or acknowledged to have power over humans.

The Road

The road is an important symbol in “An Obstacle.” Perkins Gilman repeats “path” throughout the poem; the reader travels from Line 1’s “a mountain-path,” through Line 7’s “path quite clearly showed,” to Line 21’s “no other path.” This road is a symbol for completing daily tasks. In other words, it is the way the speaker must travel to accomplish her work. In A Dictionary of Literary Symbols, Ferber asserts that “so fundamental is the experience of traveling on a path that many other basic human activities, even the whole of human life, are described [...] in such terms as ‘path,’ ‘way,’ or ‘course’” (150). Classifying the path as on a “mountain” (Line 1) gives it a Biblical valence and attests to the uphill or climbing nature of a woman’s work—especially in the face of man’s prejudice toward her.

The Mountain

Gilman uses the symbol of the mountain as a way to describe the nature of the speaker’s road, as well as a way to invoke the enduring and educational presence of nature. The “mountain-path” immediately highlighted in Line 1 suggests the difficult path that the righteous must take in Matthew’s gospel of the Bible (7:14).

Mountain also appears as a modifier for other natural elements, such as air and water. On her path, the speaker encounters “mountain winds” (Line 22) and “mountain mists” (Line 39). The air of the mountain becomes wet during the delay in her journey, illustrating the passage of time. Furthermore, the mountain is a spectral presence—one that is not directly discussed, but only included as a way of defining the natural world with which the speaker interacts and from which she learns.