Yellow Wallpaper Mental Illness

Throughout the story “The Yellow Wallpaper,” the narrator of the story displays signs of depression. The narrator of the story was brought to an old colonial mansion that has been untenanted for a long while by her husband John, who believed that she had a nervous condition. On the walls in the nursery of the house, there was yellow wallpaper that, according to the narrator, was horrific. After staying in the house a while, the narrator began to become obsessed with the wallpaper, and she would use some bizarre language to describe the sight. When the narrator describes the wallpaper you can tell that there is a something deeper that’s wrong other than just a nervous condition: “There is a recurrent spot where the pattern lolls like a broken

Mrs. Peters says ?Somebody ? wrung ? its ? neck.? [Their eyes meet. A look of growing comprehension, of horror?](1177) Now

“The Yellow Wallpaper” is the story of a woman descending into psychosis in a creepy tale which depicts the harm of an old therapy called “rest cure.” This therapy was used to treat women who had “slight hysterical tendencies” and depression, and basically it consisted of the inhibition of the mental processes. The label “slight hysterical tendency” indicates that it is not seen as a very important issue, and it is taken rather lightly. It is also ironic because her illness is obviously not “slight” by any means, especially towards the end when the images painted of her are reminiscent of a psychotic, maniacal person, while she aggressively tears off wallpaper and confuses the real world with her alternative world she has

However, her defensiveness takes a sharp, unexpected turn when she mistakenly believes her husband's sister, Jennie is trying to solve the mystery of the yellow wallpaper. The Woman kills Jennie and locks herself in her room. Meaning is found because the yellow wallpaper stimulated her rather bored mind, as it taunted her. The Woman's new understanding obtained s similar to Juliet's- what it's like to be so obsessed with something, that a need to protect it, or have it to yourself becomes too strong to

In "The Yellow Wallpaper," Charlotte Perkins Gilman presents the narrator, being the main character, as an ill woman. However, she is not ill physically. She is ill in her mind. More than any chemical imbalance that may be present; the narrator's environment is what causes her to go mad.

Exploring the Mental Distress in The Yellow Wallpaper Unbeknownst to many, new mothers can develop mental health conditions like postpartum depression. In the short story “The Yellow Wallpaper” Charlotte Perkins Gilman, presents a young woman who is suffering from postpartum depression and is mistreated by her husband who traps her inside her house all day. After reviewing the protagonist's distress she exhibits symptoms of postpartum depression but because she didn't get treated properly she develops postpartum psychosis due to the lack of social interaction. Firstly within the short story, the main character who is a new mother was diagnosed with depression and moved to a new house and started having these issues when the main character first gave birth. The quote

“The Yellow Wallpaper”, written by Charlotte Perkins Stetson, is a first person narrative told by a depressed wife, who wrote ten short entries in a secret journal. In the narrative, the wife’s physician and husband diagnose her with “temporary nervous depression” (Stetson 648). The narrative took place in the 1900’s when there were minimal treatments to cure nervous depression. The husband was a dominant physician in the story who believed that bed rest and the minimum amount of daily activity would cure the wife’s state of depression. The failed treatments to cure what was assumed to be “nervous depression” later caused the wife to lose her sanity, emotional stability, and mental focus toward the end of the story. There are a plethora of different depression stages whose symptoms match the wife’s, but the closest type of depression associated with her symptoms would be postpartum depression and postpartum psychosis. If not treated correctly, postpartum depression can lead to a more severe type of depression called postpartum psychosis, which causes the patient to have suicidal tendencies and mass hallucination. In researching depression after birth, one may prove that the wife suffered from postpartum depression, which leads to post partum psychosis; this explains her symptoms and loss of sanity throughout the narrative; specialists in the field of after birth depression support this statement.

It’s all over the place! Why, it looks as if she didn't know what she was about!” (559). Mrs. Hale begins pulling out the stitches and fixing what Mrs. Wright messed up. Mrs. Hale then asks Mrs. Peters what she thinks Mrs. Wright was worried about.

"There comes John, and I must put this away -- he hates to have me write a

It is believed the narrator (sometimes identified as Jane) in “The Yellow Wallpaper” is diagnosed with temporary nervous depression after having a baby. Her husband, John, denies she has a “real” problem (Gilman 87). He takes

Madness is the state of being mentally ill. It is the spectrum of behavior characterized by abnormal mental or behavioral patterns. Madness manifests as the violation of societal norms, including becoming a personal danger to one’s self. As a woman in the male-dominated society of the 19th century, the narrator has no control over her own life. This lack of control contributes to her descent into madness. The rest cure prescribed by her physician husband provided the environment for her madness to flourish because it was only in her imagination where she retained some control and could exercise the power of her mind. The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman centers on the deteriorating mental condition of the female narrator. Gilman’s demonstrates of the progression of her madness throughout the story is reflected in the narrator’s change in attitude toward her husband, her growing obsession with the wallpaper, and her projection of herself as the woman behind the wallpaper.

The "Yellow Wall Paper "by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, is a chilling study and experiment of mental disorder in nineteenth century. This is a story of a miserable wife, a young woman in anguish, stress surrounding her in the walls of her bedroom and under the control of her husband doctor, who had given her the treatment of isolation and rest. This short story vividly reflects both a woman in torment and oppression as well as a woman struggling for self expression. The setting of "The Yellow Wallpaper" is the driving force in the story because it is the main factor that caused the narrator to go insane.

The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman is a story set in a 19th century colonial mansion, in which the narrator and her husband stay for the summer. The narrator, who is unnamed, is undergoing a rest cure for some kind of mental illness after giving birth. This mental illness is now known as postpartum depression. Rest cure involves doing absolutely nothing and this triggered the further deterioration of the narrator’s mental health. Her husband, John, monitors her condition while they stay in the mansion. She is confined in a room— supposedly a nursery room— with barred windows and scratches on the floor. The most noticeable feature of the room by the narrator is the yellow wallpaper. Each day, her description of the yellow wallpaper becomes more disturbing; from being just plain wallpaper to being a prison cell for trapped women, shaking the bars, wanting to be free from it. Instead of getting well from the rest cure, the narrator’s mental state worsened as what is depicted in her journal entries. She eventually goes mad and her husband fainted from the sight of her condition.

    Even so, the domestic system the men have set up for their wives and their disregard for them after the rules and boundaries have been laid down prove to be the men's downfall. The evidence that Mrs. Wright killed her husband is woven into Mrs. Hale's and Mrs. Peters's conversations about Mrs. Wright's sawing and her pet bird. The knots in her quilt match those in the rope used to strangle Mr. Wright, and the bird, the last symbol of Mrs. Wright's vitality to be taken by her husband, is found dead. Unable to play the role of subservient wife anymore, Mrs. Wright is foreign to herself and therefore lives a lie. As Mrs. Hale proclaims, "It looks as if she didn't know what she was about!" (1177).

The mood of the story shifted from nervous, anxious, hesitant even, to tense and secretive, and shifts again to paranoid and determination. Her anxiousness is evident whenever she talks to John. She always seems to think for lengthy time when attempting to express her concerns about her condition to him. The mood shift from anxious to secretive is clear when she writes “I had no intention of telling him it was BECAUSE of the wall-paper.” (9). She wants no one to figure out the affect the wallpaper has on her and she wants to be the only one to figure out its pattern. The final mood shift to determination is obvious when she writes “But I am here, and no person must touch this paper but me – not ALIVE!” (11). She is steadfast in attempting to free the woman from the wallpaper. She even goes as far as to lock herself in the room to make sure that she is not interrupted. The major conflicts of this story are the narrator versus John over the nature of her illness and its treatment and the narrator’s internal struggle to express herself and claim independence. During the entire story her and John’s views about her treatment conflict with each other, especially when it comes to her writing. He even makes her stay in the room upstairs instead of in a prettier room downstairs that she would prefer. She often keeps her views to herself or writes them down in