An Obstacle

Fiction | Poem | Adult | Published in 1884

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Summary

Background

Poem Analysis

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Literary Devices

Themes

Overcoming Prejudice

The central theme of “An Obstacle” is overcoming prejudice. This process is figuratively represented through the personification, gendering, and depersonalization of “Prejudice” (Line 11). Perkins Gilman’s use of capitalization and the male pronouns “he”/”him” (Lines 13, 14, 15, etc.) initially turns the concept into a large man. This man’s size is repeatedly emphasized; he sits “all across the road” (Line 12) and is described as “huge and high” (Line 14). Perkins Gilman highlights the masculine and overwhelming nature of prejudice with this characterization. The obstacle seems insurmountable—especially to a woman “with many things to do” (Line 2) climbing upward on a mountain (of life, tasks, or a literal peak).

Further, the speaker’s characterization of prejudice includes personality traits—specifically stubbornness. He is compared to a “colossal mule” (Line 20): an animal invoked to describe something incredibly stubborn. While mules are generally not known for their size, prejudice is, “colossal” (Line 20), or an unusually large mule, connecting the descriptions of prejudice’s large presence with his temperament. Building upon this, prejudice’s stubbornness is born from malice: The speaker says he has an “obdurate ill-will” (Line 34). Standing in the way is not just a mulish act—prejudice is an extremely large, immovable obstacle who is bitter and mean.

Setting up prejudice as male and enormous creates a contrast with the speaker. Based on Perkins Gilman’s other writings and interviews, her poetry focuses on issues women face. She experienced gender-based discrimination during her lifetime and publicly responded to obstacles by becoming a suffragist who imagined utopian feminist worlds. The speaker in “An Obstacle” reads as a woman trying to go about her daily tasks, laboring for herself and her community. However, she encounters a huge, immovable, and malicious figure—a personification of male power and privilege.

The speaker is able to overcome the obstacle of prejudice by depersonalizing it, or taking away its human attributes. By sitting down and deciding that the figure is not a physical being, but simply a spirit, she can walk “directly through him” (Line 47). This symbolically represents not giving any weight to prejudiced attitudes. Stripping prejudice of its corporeality disempowers it, and allows the speaker to complete her tasks.

The Many Talents of Women

In contrast to prejudice, a male “fool” (Line 24), the speaker is characterized as industrious, community-oriented, and multitalented. The speaker has a variety of time-sensitive tasks to complete; this is emphasized through repetition in Line 9, where her time is “limited,” and Line 21 where “time was short.” She understands the necessity for time management, described in the line her “path quite clearly showed” (Line 8). However, the outside force of prejudice slows her progression.

When hindered by prejudice, the speaker demonstrates her intellectual and emotional capacities. The speaker attempts to persuade prejudice using several methods, starting with appealing to common courtesy and arguing with logic. When these strategies fail, she demonstrates a broader range of expression, including the physical act of “danc[ing]” (Line 25). Furthermore, her attempts are described using terms that can refer to both physical and mental methods of persuasion. For instance, “belabored” (Line 27) has two meanings: 1) to overwhelm the listener with immense amounts of detail, and 2) to attack the listener. Labor, the root word of belabored, also has several meanings: It usually refers to the work of an employee or giving birth to a child. This again points to the speaker being a woman.

At the end of the poem, the speaker demonstrates emotional maturity and problem-solving skills. Taking time to sit and process her feelings—including an “ecstasy of woe” (Line 38)—allows her to come up with yet another solution for overcoming prejudice. She gets her “load settled fair” (44), meaning that she collects herself and shoulders her workload. This load is composed of tasks for “other people” (Line 4), as well as herself. Then, she is able to treat prejudice not as an embodied “he” (Line 14), but as an intangible spirit through which she can walk. This demonstrates both the ingenuity and tenacity of the speaker.

Taking Inspiration from Nature

The speaker’s final, successful method of dealing with the obstacle of prejudice is partially inspired by the natural surroundings. Halfway through the poem, in stanza four, nature—specifically the wind—is highlighted: “The mountain winds were cool” (Line 22). The wind returns in stanza seven, as the speaker sits and processes her emotions. She notes that the “mountain mists were rising fast, / The sun was sinking slow—/ When a sudden inspiration came, / As sudden winds do blow” (Lines 39-42). The simile, or comparison, between the wind and inspiration near the end of the poem develops the earlier presence of the wind: It begins to play a key role. The speaker has to stop and be mindful of nature as she processes her feelings to come up with yet another approach.

Furthermore, the “wind” in Lines 22 and 42 is echoed in the way the speaker physically deals with the obstacle of prejudice. She is successful when she decides to treat Prejudice as if he is merely wind, or “air” (Line 46), and walks through him. Prejudice is not an embodied figure, like the speaker originally believes, but an ethereal nonentity. A 21st century urban or suburban reader might understand Perkins Gilman’s incorporeal “incubus” (Line 45) as a kind of glass ceiling. However, Perkins Gilman draws upon more pastoral and magical elements, like the wind and spirits, to describe to her audience obstacles that women faced while working in the late 1800s and early 1900s.