The Yellow Wallpaper Essay

The brain is a strong but delicate muscle inside the human body. However, if this muscle gets overworked it will affect the overall persona of that individual. Depression or any other mental diseases are not diagnoses or setbacks that should be taken lightly. Back in the 1800’s and 1900’s medicine and the knowledge of the individuals that decided to practice medicine was not extensive. Due to medicine, not being as advanced as it is today, a lot of patients were getting treating improperly. The character within The Yellow Wallpaper is a great example of not only a mental disease but also malpractice. Although the main character within The Yellow Wallpaper may be a woman of high social status, the narrator goes mad for the following reasons: she is extremely drugged with improper medicine, she lacks autonomy, and her post-partum depression escalates. Some might say that the story of The Yellow Wallpaper is simplistic, however, it can also be viewed that the simplicity of the story is what makes it complicated and comprehensive.

She mentions how her husband disregarded her illness, stating that “if a physician of high standing, and one 's own husband, assures friends and relatives that there is really nothing the matter with one but temporary nervous depression - a slight hysterical tendency - what is one to do?” (648). The doctor couldn’t see an illness without physical symptoms, but by telling everyone else that there isn’t really anything wrong, he neglects to acknowledge the way she feels by implying she can’t really be suffering if there’s no reason to suffer. In a way, he’s telling her how to feel, an action that’s both belittling and disempowering. He continues to impose his beliefs about her illness throughout the story, telling her “you really are bet¬ter, dear, whether you can see it or not. I am a doctor, dear, and I know. You are gaining flesh and color, your appetite is better, I feel really much easier about you” (652) when she tries to open up to him regarding the way a lack of stimulus and the horrible yellow wallpaper around her is only making things worse; he goes on to tell her “can you not trust me as a physician when I tell you so?” (652), using his position as a doctor to invalidate the way she feels. The entire time, the narrator knows that her treatment isn’t right for her, writing “[I’m] absolutely forbidden to "work" until I am well again. Personally, I disagree

Mental illness is really affecting the main character; she is getting worse and worse. She is is given a “rest” treatment, and she is not allowed work or write. She decides to keep a secret journal to help relieve her mind. In the journal she writes about the room she is in and describes it and describes the disturbing yellow wallpaper. In her journal she writes “The paper is showing sub patterns only visible in certain light and it is deteriorating fast”.  Over a few weeks she said that the wallpaper has become not only ugly but menacing. By resting she feels she is getting worse and her husband John knows she is getting worse, but doesn’t change his treatment. He just belittles her illness and brushing of anything she says. John eventually get her to see another doctor, doctor S. Weir Mitchell. She sees him but he is not much help either. She is getting a form of medical care that ignores the concerns of the patient, and is being belittled by the doctor, and is kinda brushing her off to the side and not really fully examining her situation.

For a long period, those suffering from disorders were not given the most adequate treatments. In fact, it was believed that those with mental illnesses were possessed by demons or were accused of witchcraft because of their abnormal behavior (Comer, 2014). Later on new solutions for these illnesses rise. Those with mental disorders would either get operations called trephinations (Comer, 2014) or were locked away in a hospital, which is exactly what happened to the protagonist of this short story “The Yellow Wallpaper” by Charlotte Perkins Gilman. However, the protagonist was not locked up away in a hospital, but she was locked up in a room in her house because of her husband, a physician, believed this would help “cure” her depression. Unfortunately, his treatment did not the way he expected. But recently, changes have been made, and breakthroughs in the cause and treatment of mental illness have been discovered. Unfortunately, these discoveries did not come soon enough for some. Luckily, psychologists have learned from the mistakes of doctors' treatments. Her husband diagnosed her with depression, therefore he should have encouraged her to go out and do activities she highly enjoys. It would have been great if he spent more time with her or surround her with her loved ones instead of having her

husbands only thought of their wives by their illnesses, not as a person having one. This caused a great

In “The Yellow Wallpaper,” the narrator has treated for depression by her husband, John. She wants to get better, but her husband continues to tell her to rest. She writes in her diary about her experiences and depression to ease her mind. The narrator would hide her diary from her husband, hoping her secrets would not be discovered. She continues to talk about the wallpaper in her child’s room, hoping and wanting change. She continues on to see another psychiatrist, but unfortunately, she receives the same results. This source will be used to demonstrate how women were treated with medical diagnosis.

Over forty million Americans suffer from a mental health condition; and, unfortunately, fifty six percent do not receive any treatment at all. “Mental illnesses are health conditions involving changes in thinking, emotion and behavior”(Psychiatry.org). People live with their conditions even though their quality of life and personal relationships may be negatively affected. When one lives in a state of denial about having a mental illness, they are cheating themselves out of living life to their fullest potential and will achieve true freedom only when they face the illness head on and seek recovery.

In “The Yellow Wallpaper” by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, we see the narrator’s descent into madness throughout the short story. In the beginning of the story, the narrator seems to be sane and able to think rationally. It seemed that the husband was not truly keeping track of how she was doing, but left her in the room by her self because that is what he thought was best. It was not till later in the reading that the narrator truly descended into madness. The confinement of the room and having no one to speak seemed to be the real reason for her insanity.

protagonist of this story is sick, most likely mentally ill, but her husband, who is also her doctor,

Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s short story, The Yellow Wallpaper, reflects elements of Gothic literature. Gothic literature came to light during the Romantic Era of the late eighteenth-century. Famous Gothic stories are described as eerie, horrific, and supernatural. Some famous examples of Gothic literature that may have inspired Gilman include: Frankenstein, Dracula, and the works of Edgar Allen Poe.

All throughout history there has been a stigma around mental illness and feminism. “The Yellow Wallpaper” was written by Charlotte Perkins Gilman in the 1900’s. “The Yellow Wallpaper” has many hidden truths within the story. The story was an embellished version her own struggle with what was most likely post-partum depression. As the story progresses, one can see that she is not receiving proper treatment for her depression and thus it is getting worse. Gilman uses the wallpaper and what she sees in it to symbolize her desire to escape her depression and the controlling nature of the patriarchal society of the twentieth century. The story shows an inside look into the thoughts and feelings of a person with a mental illness such as depression. Gilman also uses symbolism to showcase how the male figures in her life had control over her well-being more than she did. Both her husband and doctor hindered her from healing by not listening to her when she expressed what she felt would help her. She does not clearly say that she feels overwhelmed by the patriarchal society of the 1900’s; however, one can infer this by her wording and actions throughout the course of the story. Charlotte Perkins Gilman uses “The Yellow Wallpaper” to reveal the truths of a woman’s everyday struggles in a patriarchal society and also the deeper struggles of a woman with depression.

The story literary states that the narrator’s husband is loving, caring and kind, but by the context clues it can be denoted that her husband is a high-ranking physician who is obsessively controlling. This contrasting aspects expresses the narrator's hopefulness, that is constantly contradicted by its reality. However, this helplessness does not make her less confident, as she acknowledges her mental illness and disagrees with her family’s ideas of secluding her in order to “heal”, as stated when she says, “Personally, I believe that congenial work, with excitement and change, would do me

Gilman's critique of the rest cure, a treatment often prescribed to women during the late 19th and early 20th centuries, foreshadows Jane's psychological unraveling in The Yellow Wallpaper. The narrator's confinement to the nursery and her restricted interaction with the outside world mirrors this treatment, which recommended near-total inactivity and isolation to treat hysteria and other nervous disorders. The setting represents a physical manifestation of her mental imprisonment, which has been exacerbated by the medical treatment she has received from the doctors who have treated her, her brother, and her husband John. In addition to foreshadowing Jane's eventual mental degeneration through the setting and imagery described, the barred windows,

By the end of the story the narrator finds in her mind a way to free herself behind the wallpaper or the oppressiveness of her mental illness by letting her illness take

The short story starts off with a narrator who has some sort of mental illness. Her husband is also her doctor and prescribes her rest