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Mental Illness In The Yellow Wallpaper

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Gilman received much backlash for her short story by many men publishers and critics. The topic of mental illness and the effects of these illnesses if not treated properly are disturbing, and men did not want to accept the truth. Mentioned in Queering The Yellow Wallpaper? Charlotte Perkins Gilman and the Politics of Form, “The literary merit of Gilman's story was recognized by contemporary (male) readers and even by (male) publishers who nevertheless rejected it on account of its disturbing content.” This “disturbing content” is indeed disturbing, which is the reason Gilman wrote “The Yellow Wallpaper.” Gilman wanted to reveal the truth to make an impact and change in the future treatment of mental illnesses through the publication of her story. …show more content…

“The Yellow Wallpaper” is known as a feminist document written for social reform. The heroine’s relationship with her husband is perceived as a typical marital relationship of the nineteenth-century where the husband is the dominant one in the relationship. Within the first page of Gilman’s short story, the heroine explains that her husband does not believe she is mentally ill. “You see he does not believe I am sick! And what can one do? If a physician of high standing, and one's own husband, assures friends and relatives that there is really nothing the matter with one but temporary nervous depression—a slight hysterical tendency—what is one to do? (Kennedy, 305). The repetitive phrase, “What can one do?” is the heroine expressing her limitations in her relationship with her husband. Women in the 19th century depended on their husbands in their marriage. Their husband provides money and shelter. Since the heroine’s husband refuses to believe in her illness there is not much she can do; she has no place to go and no

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Since she was locked up in a room in the rented house she began to hallucinate and imagine different things in the yellow wallpaper that she despised. However, as the story progresses it becomes harder and more difficult to determine whether the women's imagination is getting the best of her or if she is beginning to go mad, since she hallucinates people in the yellow wallpaper. Interestingly enough, Gilman’s story actually isn’t the first time that women have been linked to weak nerves in regards to the medical field. In fact, nervousness in females have had medical attention for centuries. Gilman’s main purpose in writing The Yellow Wallpaper is to condemn not only misogynistic principles, but the types of medical treatment it resulted

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The short story “The Yellow Wallpaper” explores a woman’s journey as she attempts to escape the male-dominated society’s restrictions. Taking place in the 1890s, the central character, Jane, and her physician husband, John, move to a new summer house, and under his influence, she’s confined to the nursery room to help treat her postpartum depression. Over time, with the strict isolation and terrible yellow wallpaper, Jane’s mental health further deteriorates, ultimately leading to her madness. In “The Yellow Wallpaper,” Gilman examines the traditional gender roles of women and stigmas surrounding mental health in the late 1800s through the narrator’s struggle with postpartum depression as she is stifled and controlled by her husband and the

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Deemed “ill”, the narrator is forced into rest cure, “So I take phosphates or phosphites – whichever it is, and tonics, and journeys, and air, and exercise, and am absolutely forbidden to ‘work’ until I am well again.” (Gilman 1). The forced confinement and the absence of “congenial work, with excitement and change” (Gilman 1) drive the narrator deeper into insanity as the story progress. Convinced by her husband and brother, who are established physicians of “high standing” (Gilman 1), the narrator starts to believe she is actually mentally ill. Thus, as Janet’s theory suggests, the narrator’s own belief that she is mentally ill, “patients own idea of pathology”, results in her showing signs of hysteria, “translated into physical disability” (Tasca et al. 114).

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Gilman speaks of mental illness and how it affected her life in her short story “The Yellow Wallpaper.” Mental illness affected Gilman's life personally. Amy Hudock says “Charlotte Perkins Gilman used her personal bout with postpartum depression to create a powerful fictional narrative which has broad implications for women (2). This shows how Gilman uses her own experience

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----------------The yellow wallpaper is a short story which shows the regressive and condescending treatment of “hysterical” women. The author writes about the common “rest cure” which women had to endure to “cure” their mental problems. The book came out in 1892 and created an outrage across the country by the more dominant sex in the era – the male sex. One physician in Boston obviously felt offended as he responded with; “Such a story ought not to be written… it is enough to drive anyone mad to read.”. Because of comments like this, Charlotte Perkins Gilman did not find success until the middle of the 20th century.

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Charlotte Gilman’s “The Yellow Wallpaper” illustrates the belief that women in the 19th century were too fragile to handle trauma. A common “cure” at the time was called the Rest Cure, which forced women to rest in order to get well. Her story projects her emotions of disdain for the treatment. In fact, her husband enforces the cure which intensifies the narrator’s deterioration into madness. “The Yellow Wallpaper” uses symbolism, metaphors, and personification to show the narrator’s struggle with her slow decline in mental health and the oppressive treatment of women in the 19th century.

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Trapped within her own mind, oppressed by a faithful spouse, a victim of malpractice, and stripped of the rights to be a dutiful wife as well as a loving mother, Charlotte Perkins Gilman depicts a vivid  fictional narrative that symbolizes the entrapment and suffering that many women of the nineteenth century lived through. Charlotte Perkins Gilman, the author of “The Yellow Wallpaper”, creates a narrator who suffers from a mental illness, in a time where clinical psychology, and depression had yet not been explored, nor studied. The narrator’s husband, John, handles her illness terribly. In the narrative “The Yellow Wallpaper” John, as a medical practitioner, as well as a husband, is negligent, controlling, and mentally abuses the narrator.

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Throughout her short story “The Yellow Wallpaper,” Charlotte Perkins Gilman draws her audience into a fascinating story of a woman who is locked away against her will and struggles to make sense of her situation and surroundings. Though the narrator exhibits clear signs of madness and irrationality, it is challenging to not feel remorse and sympathy for her as she describes her situation and draws on the reader's sense of compassion. Gilman makes the narrator a sympathetic character whose madness is understandable because of her controlling husband, isolation from society and what brings her joy, and how she loses touch with reality because of her treatment. From the very beginning of the story, the words and actions of the narrator’s husband,

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In “The Yellow Wallpaper,” Charlotte Perkins-Gilman tells a story through the perspective of a woman with a mental illness, showing

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Woman and Illness in Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s “The Yellow Wall-Paper” The appearance of madness, even when it is unthreatening and does no harm to others, can be terribly frightening. Writers like Edgar Allan Poe and Stephen King have built entire artistic careers out of the terrifying nature of insanity. What makes mental illness fascinating is how difficult it is to tell the difference between actual insanity and external terrors. For example, if a person in a story sees ghosts, it can be impossible to know if the ghosts actually exist or if the person is out of her mind.

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Gilman wrote the short story “The Yellow Wallpaper” in 1890, it’s believed that this short story was an autobiography of her own life. “She was also concerned at a young age with issues of social inequality and the circumscribed role of women” (Mike Lukasik, ed., Literature: Erie Community College En 102-Writing in the Humanities. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2013, copyright). During the course of the story, Gilman identifies several roles for women that serve to the dominance of the male society, and place them in impossible circumstances in which madness is the only possible course of action.

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1290 Words | 6 Pages

In an attempt to avoid such maliciousness, the narrator’s husband in Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s “The Yellow Wallpaper” takes his assumed hysterical wife to a secluded house so she may begin the recovery process. Unfortunately, lack of knowledge about the brain during this time led to a treatment that furthered schizophrenic tendencies in the

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She developed her feminist ideals through her novels, short stories and nonfiction books such as Women and Economics. Charlotte Perkins Gilman is best known for her short story “The Yellow Wallpaper” which is based on her own experiences after being diagnosed as a hysteric and prescribed a “rest cure” which prohibited her from writing. (Beekman) However, “The Yellow Wallpaper” is more than a case study in mental illness or a horror story; it is a story of a dominant/submissive relationship between husband and wife. John, the narrator's husband, never takes her seriously this is evident in the beginning of the story when she says "John laughs at me, of course, but one expects that” (Gilman 345).

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Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s “The Yellow Wallpaper” is set in the 19th century, yet the perception and treatment of mental illness is still very prevalent today. Mental illness is often under reported. and under treated due to the stigma attached to it. The misunderstanding and undereducation of what mental illness entails frequently results in further escalation of the mental disorder. “The Yellow Wallpaper” is a short story written in first person.

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During the 19th century, women were not treated equally by men. Women were not treated like an equal and their mental health was not taken care of. In the short story “The Yellow Wallpaper” by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, the main character is a woman who suffers from depression. Her husband, John, does not listen to her problems and treats her like a child instead.

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