Psychological Disorders In The Yellow Wallpaper

The disease that the character suffers in “The Yellow-Wallpaper” by Charlotte Perkins Stetson is exclusively attributed to women. Gender plays an important role on the diagnoses of this “disease” because the time it was written gender dominated stereotypes decided that these psychological illnesses were to be attributed to women, however the similarities with Gregor Samsa in The Metamorphosis implies that men could be subjected to the same or similar “disease”. Later, that same “diseases” would pass on to be called “female hysteria” a misnomer of an all gender inclusive psychological disorder. Often that “disease” would be undiagnosed to men. The thought that men are strong and superior to women led the science field to disassociate mental

“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. Personally, I disagree with their ideas. Personally, I believe that congenial work, with excitement and change, would do me good. But what is one to do? (l.42) The husband decides everything for the protagonist and thinking it’s for her own good, but eventually his methods proves to worsen her illness, she can’t even write. She also has a brother, who is a doctor that doesn’t really help her on her sickness and just orders her to rest. The poor character has two family members that should be helping her, instead they are making her worse, even though that is not their intentions. In the story, she suffers from a mental breakdown after she obsesses over a wallpaper that consumes her every moment. She starts acting paranoid because of the things she is seeing in the yellow wallpaper. The yellow wallpaper represents the paranoia and illness she suffers. The obsession and paranoia she feels towards it reflects the transition of her illness, from bad to