The historical implications of patriarchal ideas regarding gender led Charlotte Perkins Gilman to write “The Yellow Wallpaper”. During the 1900s, women were excluded from the public sphere and remained subjected to the domestic and private spheres. Women were considered as second-class citizens with virtually no individual rights. It was every woman’s responsibility to fulfill her domestic duties of becoming a mother, and raising her children with a high sense of morality and nationalistic, as well as patriotic values (cite). Because women’s lives revolved only around the domestic sphere many suffered mental issues, or so it was believed. Gilman’s reasons for writing the story were based on her personal life and experiences, specifically the treatments she had …show more content…
The treatments she received from S. Weir Mitchell constituted of rest cure meaning Gilman was prohibited from creative work, and was advised to “live as domestic life as possible [and to] have [her] child with [her] all the time” (Gilman 1935: 821). After a couple of months of following the treatment plan Gilman began to loose her sanity as she recalled her experiences “if I were only well to enough to write a little it would relieve the press of ideas and rest me” (Gilman 1899). John, Gilman’s husband, took the responsibility of implementing her treatment upon himself. He rented the old ancestral hall, and placed her in the room with instruments constantly reminding her of paraphernalia of solitary confinement and dirty, ripped yellow wallpaper (Gilbert and Gubar 1979: 818). Gilman did not dare to question his judgments, because