Close To Insanity In The Yellow Wallpaper

If someone you knew was mentally ill, do you think the best choice would be to keep them alone? Do you think treating them like a five year old is what they need or want? In The Yellow Wallpaper, the narrators husband John treating her as if she were a child that needed to be protected from the outside would only lead her closer to insanity. John made her stay in the house as if she were one of his patients. He completely cut her off from the outside world and wouldn 't let her see her friends simply because he thought they 'd worsen her condition. She was like a child and John was her strict father, he wouldn 't let her do anything besides eat and sleep. Since the beginning of the short story the narrator has been treated as if she were one of John 's patients instead of his wife. For instance, when she wanted John to change the wallpaper he told her she was "letting it get the better of her" and "that

Another thing that led the narrator close to insanity was basically being isolated in the house. She spoke many times about wanting to see cousin Henry and Julia but John said he would only let her see them when she gets well and anytime before that he would rather "put fireworks in her pillowcase" than let her see those "stimulating people." After awhile she thought it was "discouraging not to have any advice and companionship." John spent most of his time in town because of serious cases and Jennie let her be alone when ever she wanted to be. When she was alone she said she would always cry I 've nothing and started to imagine things is the wallpaper. According to Michael Mechanic, who wrote an article on social isolation for Mother Jones, people socially isolated can "expericiencr extreme restlessness, childish emotional responses, and vivid hallucinations." The narrator obviously experience many of those things like imagining a woman in the wallpaper, never sleeping at night, and crying over nothing. More human contact could have helped her