Mental Illness In Charlotte Perkins Gilman's The Yellow Wallpaper

Millions of Americans suffer from various types of mental illness each day-anxiety, depression, posttraumatic stress disorder, obsessive compulsive disorder, etc. Of these millions are women. Nowadays, they receive adequate and equal treatment, comparative to men, for their disorders. However, this was not always the case for women. “The Yellow Wallpaper,” written by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, follows a woman in the Victorian age that is being treated for postpartum depression, but what her doctor and husband believe to be just a nervous disorder. The story journals her descent into madness because of the treatments she has been expected to follow. The narrator, unnamed, is advised to refrain from journaling, work, interaction with others while

This option was invented by Dr. S Weir Mitchell and used to treat women diagnosed with “temporary nervous depression” (Gilman 1) or “slight hysterical tendencies” (2). Patients were ordered to obey the three components of the cure-rest, diet, exercise. They were advised to undergo “total bed rest” (Wilson 284) and “lie down for an hour after each meal” (Gilman 7). While resting, they were advised to refrain from “touching pen, brush or pencil as long as [they] live” (Wilson 284) in order to refrain from intellectual work. They are expected to take “phosphates or phosphites” (1) along with eating “a rich diet of creamy foods” (Quawas 536). The final component of the treatment included limited exercise. Because the patient was advised to stay in bed, their muscles needed to be exercised in order to keep daily functioning of the body. Doctors advised “electrical stimulation of disused muscles” (Thrailkill 536) and only exercise when the patient feels available to do so. There were multiple reasons that Dr. Weir Mitchell and other doctors of the time believed the rest cure was suitable for treating nervous disorders. The medical profession in the late 1800s and early 1900s had not made the distinction between illnesses of the brain and illnesses of the body. The common symptoms of depression-fatigue, hysteria, and crying- were believed to be caused by the body’s malfunction. Thus, nervous disorders at the time, later diagnosed as mental illnesses, were determined to be caused by worn-out nerves. To repair the nerves, patients were advised to rest themselves and refrain from stimulation that could hinder the repairs. In reality, because the illness stemmed from the mind and doctors did not treat it as such, the patients became even more ill, much like the narrator in “The Yellow Wallpaper.” The proposed cure was actually detrimental to the patient’s health. The