Mental illnesses are one of the hardest things to portray in stories. These stories uniquely characterize them for the reader to understand what is really going on. This is especially hard in short stories. One story that shows mental illness in a unique way is “The Yellow Wallpaper” by Charlotte Perkins Gilman. This short story focuses on this woman in the 1800s and her journey of mental illness. She tries to heal, but instead she slowly goes mad, unknowingly. The reader can infer that the reasons for her actions were the time period, her environment, and her role as a mother. This short story was written in the 1800s. During this time there was only a few things done for women with mental illnesses. One thing that was done for them was the rest cure. This “cure” was where the women were not allowed to do anything. They could not write, draw, or do anything that mentally stimulated them. All they were allowed to do was take a walk …show more content…
Their jobs were to provide for their family and it takes a tole on women when they are unable to do so. This is shown in this story. We learn that the narrator has a baby but she never sees it in the span of the story. One odd thing in the story is when she first saw her bedroom she said it reminded her of a nursery. However, when she describes it, it does not resemble a nursery at all. The narrator states, “"for the windows are barred for little children, and there are rings and things in the walls."” This quote is describing the bars that keep the windows closed. The reader can infer that something is not right because this description is not like a nursery at all, this sounds like a room in a mental illness facility. The narrator cannot understand that this is a cage for her because she is too focused on her baby. This could be a result of postpartum depression. This diagnosis is something that wasn’t recognized in the 1800s therefore this illness feeds on her