The Yellow Wallpaper, By Charlotte Perkins Gilman

Where exactly did the rest cure come from and is it used today? Silas Weir Mitchell created the rest cure in the 1900s to treat hysteria and other nervous depression conditions. The cure was worse than the so called disease itself. The rest

The “rest cure” was a common treatment for depression in women in the nineteenth and early twentieth century. Women were locked in a room involuntarily and forced to “rest.” The patient was locked in a room and not allowed to leave or function in any type of way. The narrator in Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s story The Yellow Wallpaper is subjected to this cure. The story is written to expose the cruelty of the “resting cure”. Gilman uses the wall paper to represent the narrators sense of entrapment, the notion of creativity gone astray, and a distraction that becomes an obsession.

“The Yellow Wallpaper,” written by Charlotte Perkins Gilman in 1892, is a great example of early works pertaining to feminism and the disease of insanity. Charlotte Gilman’s own struggles as a woman, mother, and wife shine through in this short story capturing the haunting realism of a mental breakdown.The main character, much like Gilman herself, slips into bouts of depression after the birth of her child and is prescribed a ‘rest cure’ to relieve the young woman of her suffering. Any use of the mind or source of stimulus is strictly prohibited, including the narrator’s favorite hobby of writing. The woman’s husband, a physician, installs into his wife that the rest treatment is correct and will only due harm if not followed through. This type of treatment ultimately drives the woman insane, causing her to envision a woman crawling behind the yellow wallpaper of her room. Powerlessness and repression the main character is subject to creates an even more poignant message through the narrator’s mental breakdown. The ever present theme of subordination of women in “The Yellow Wallpaper” is advanced throughout the story by the literary devices of symbolism, imagery, and allegory.

The surroundings which one is placed in can drastically contribute to their mental state. Deterioration and a lack of stimulation will be reciprocated within the mind of the inhabitant. “The Yellow Wallpaper,” written by Charlotte Perkins Gilman in 1892, depicts a young, unnamed woman who is suffering with post-partum depression. In this time period, the treatment of mental illness typically did more harm than good as electroshock therapy, and the rest cure were the classic treatments of choice. Similarly, William Faulkner, the author of “A Rose for Emily”, written in 1930, gives the reader an inside look upon an elderly woman experiencing mental distress. Although there are major signs of an issue being present within Miss Emily’s old, southern house, the town chooses to ignore and cover them up as to not disrupt the elderly woman who buys poisons without a reason and sleeps next to the dead corpse of her lover. Theme and setting play two very distinct and important roles within each of these stories allowing the reader to have a more complete understanding of the message the author is trying to convey.

Hysteria was the “go-to, catchall diagnosis” for all women, consisting of any “problem” including, but not limited to, nervousness, faintness, loss of appetite, (lack of) sexual desire, headaches, insomnia, muscle spasms, and trouble-making. For centuries, literature portrayed as submissive and obedient to men and oppressed by society, culture, and even men. In The Yellow Wallpaper, Gilman presents readers with a story of a woman suffering from depression, possibly post-partum, but whose remedy is “rest cure,” a treatment invented by Silas Weir Mitchell for neurasthenia involving isolation and rest as a cure for hysteria in all its forms. The Yellow Wallpaper is a narrative concerning the gradual demise of the mental stability of an unnamed, newly married upper-middle class woman in late nineteenth century rural America. Gilman uses psychological terror to not only portray the narrator’s fall to insanity, but also to shed light on the rather unfortunate role of women in the institution of marriage. The narrator’s husband, John, is a physician who firmly expresses disbelief in his wife’s claims of depression. From the beginning of the story, the reader can tell immediately that the narrator has absolutely no voice. John assures her and others that nothing is wrong but “temporary nervous

In Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s short story “The Yellow Wallpaper,” she discusses some of the issues found in 19th century society such as women’s oppression and the treatment of mental illness. Many authors throughout history have written stories that mimic their own lives and we see this in the story. We see Gilman in the story portrayed as Jane, a mentally unstable housewife who cannot escape her husband’s oppression or her own mind. Gilman reveals a life of depression and women’s oppression through her short story “The Yellow Wallpaper.”

Charlotte Perkins Gilman was born in 1860, in the city of Hartford, CT. She would later move to California. She would end her own life in 1935, after she was diagnosed with breast cancer. She fought for women’s rights and was an advocate of socialism. She wrote novels, poetry and short stories. She was a woman who was educated; her writing reflected her knowledge, relating to her strong thoughts on woman’s rights and independence and how women of Victorian times suffered from this lack of rights. In her short story “The Yellow Wallpaper”, Charlotte Perkins Gilman conveys her views on feminism and how women are treated through characters who represent this treatment. The characters she uses help the reader really get drawn into her story;

Many people know what it feels like to be “trapped” in the emotional sense of things, but how many can say they have been both physically and emotionally trapped. Charlotte Perkins Gilman used her personal bout with depression to create a powerful fictional narrative, which has broad implications for women. When the narrator recognizes that there is more than one trapped, creeping woman, Gilman indicates that the meaning of her story extends beyond an isolated, individual situation. Gilman’s main purpose in writing The Yellow Wallpaper is to doom not only a specific medical treatment but also the misogynistic principles and resulting sexual politics that make such a treatment possible. Those things lead to the major themes of the story: freedom, confinement, and madness.

treats her like a child and just like a child she is kept in this

Within the medical community, doctors often neglected women 's health during the nineteenth century. Society viewed women as weak and fragile beings making them more susceptible to illness. Surprisingly some believed that women could consciously control their sickness to gain attention or to avoid their womanly duties (Poirier 16). Silas Weir Mitchell was a well-known neurologist during Gilman 's life. He made many medical discoveries during his career along with creating treatment for locomotor ataxia (a nervous disease), neurotic women, and gunshot wounds that disrupted the nervous systems (Poirier 17). This procedure, called the Rest Cure, consists of the patient resting and exerting as little energy as possible alongside maintaining a balanced diet. Gillman personally visited Mitchell in seek of help during a time of great depression post the birth of her daughter. However, his treatment did not help but, caused her almost to lose her sanity. Gillman addresses Mitchel in her literature "John says if I don’t pick up faster he shall send me to Weir Mitchell in the fall. But I don’t want to go there at all. I had a friend who was in his hands once, and she says he is just like John and my brother (Gilman 197)." Janes husband, brother, and Mitchell are alike in the fact they all believe a woman 's hysteria correlates with their sex. These men also agree in one form of treatment: isolation, rest, and food. Showing that men of

Throughout the course of history, gender roles have seen a drastic reform and reversal. The late 19th century and early 20th century have represented a time period where American women were restricted to common household jobs, and prevented from being part of much social or economical progress. Women were expected to maintain an image of moral standard and were frequently cast in an insignificant role in society, ironically, due to the worries men had with the higher population of women ("Women in the Twentieth Century and Beyond." 1). As a strong advocate for women 's rights, Charlotte Perkins Gilman played a significant role as she fought against the common, marginalized label that had been put on women during the time period. In her short story, "The Yellow Wallpaper", Perkins utilizes recurring, vivid imagery to highlight the theme of the unjust isolation of women. With the use of a distant house, a secluded garden, a shut window, and a useless wallpaper, Perkins conveys the message that the 20th century was plagued with the oppression of men by the social segregation of women in the United States. The century marked an era of deterioration of not only the emotional well being of women, but also caused detrimental mental issues as well.

In Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s short story “The Yellow Wallpaper,” what is hoped to be a dream vacation for relaxation becomes a nightmare for the protagonist. This protagonist, who plays the role of narrator, is in the midst of a nervous breakdown who has left her village for recovery. The narrator, along with her husband, lives in a house that they have taken on rent so that she can recover efficiently. During this period, the protagonist passes her time observing the yellow wallpaper and after some time of observation, she finds attractive patterns in that wallpaper which changes with light that falls on it during night and day. The protagonist becomes so acquainted with that pattern that she sleeps all day and wakes up all night to observe the changes that happen in that pattern. After some time, the narrator gets much tired with the place that she wants to leave that house even if they have rented it for three months. On the other hand, pattern in the yellow wallpaper keeps the protagonist’s interest in that house which was a headache for her and she lives there for three months only to observe the pattern which changes with sunlight.

     In the late nineteenth century, after the American social and economic shift commonly referred to as the "Industrial Revolution" had changed the very fabric of American society, increased attention was paid to the psychological disorders that apparently had steamed up out of the new smokestacks and skyscrapers in urban populations (Bauer, 131).  These disorders were presumed to have been born out of the exhaustion and "wear and tear" of industrial society (Bauer, 131-132).  An obvious effect of these new disorders was a slew of physicians and psychiatrists advocating one sort of cure or another, although the "rest cure" popularized by the physician S. Weir Mitchell was the most

with a rest cure. The doctor in the story is much like the doctor that

The phrase “don’t judge a book by its cover” usually means the cover of the book could mislead the actual meaning of the text. Just like that if the author states that the genre of the book is supposed to be horror doesn’t mean it is actually horror. Audience could view the novel or the text different ways. Certain genre has certain rules and criteria that they need to follow in order to create that genre. In “The Yellow Wallpaper” by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, she shows how the narrator who may or may not be Jane, moved into this big house with her husband John for few weeks. He is also her doctor, treating her for postpartum depression. She wasn’t supposed to do anything or meet anyone. Since she was so bored, she started to look in depth in the wall paper, and noticed a lady, the monster trying to get out of the pattern. Toward the end of the story she got worst because her illness became the monster in the wall paper. In “The Nature of Horror” by Noel Carroll, he explains how to decide if a text is classified as horror or not. There are many techniques he suggested, like a horror text should have discovery plot, or audience and narrator should feel disgusted and horrified. There should be a monster and the monster have to be from a foreign place. Based on Carroll’s text, Gilman’s story does qualifies as horror because she used the discovery plot to set the story and explained how the monster from the wall and her illness was from a foreign place, and it was threatening