Charlotte Perkins Gilman and Virginia Woolf both published works relating to the physical and mental intimacy that women need. A Room of One's Own clearly establishes a connection between female creativity and physical intimacy. Interestingly, Woolf states in her essay that “without a private room, a woman cannot engage effectively in the mental task of writing.” (Wool 52). Gilman's The Yellow Wallpaper makes a similar argument about mental privacy, depicting a female protagonist whose mental functioning has been disabled by an abusive male character, to the point that she loses her sanity. Austen's connection between private life and female creativity is not as simple as Woolf makes it in her writings. Austen's belief in mental privacy pales in comparison to Gilman's depiction of madness. Returning to the novel, despite the independence that Charlotte maintains by separating her own bedroom from that of her husband, her main goal of securing her own privacy is of little emotional significance. As Woolf points out in A Room of One's Own, a woman needs a quiet, even soundproof, room for her physical intimacy to translate into productive activity.