The Role Of Isolation In The Yellow Wallpaper

Though society has improved its treatment of women with mental illnesses, this was not the case in the 1800s and 1900s. The narrator of The Yellow Wallpaper suffers from a type of mental illness, temporary nervous depression, attributed to childbirth during the 1800s. However, her doctor, who is her husband, strongly believes that the rest cure, which consists of isolation from any kind of social and creative activities, will help her overcome her depression. However, this only deteriorates her mental health since she is not able to participate in any activities that will help her feel at ease. On the other hand, Emily, from A Rose for Emily, is severely mentally unstable after the death of her father, who controlled her life during her adolescence.

John isolates the narrator on purpose to “cure her,” while the isolation does the opposite. As a result of being in isolation from the rest of her family, the narrator wanted to ask John to let her visit her cousin Julia and Henry. However, he tells her that she “…wasn’t able to go, nor able to stand it after [she] got there” (Gilman 9). Since the narrator was feeling depressed even before the implementation of the rest cure, isolation is not the right approach for her mental illness. Isolation would only worsen her feelings of anxiety and depression. Rather than noting that his wife looks and feels best when she is socially or creatively engaging, he continues with the rest cure. Therefore, “while the narrator is clearly suffering from some kind of psychological distress at the beginning of the story, her mental state is worsened by her husband's medical opinion that she confine herself to the house” (Witalic). Due to the fact that she was forbidden from leaving the house, she began to find an interest in the wallpaper in her bedroom and detached herself from reality. As the hallucinations begin, it is evident that her mental state is completely unstable as a result of a lack of emotional support from her husband and the rest of her family. On the other hand, in A Rose for Emily, Emily began to isolate herself because of a change in her mentality following the death of her father. When she was young, her father forbade any male suitors. Though she had limited relationships with men, Emily still socialized with the other townspeople ever so often, even holding pottery classes on some days. However, “After her father's death she went out very little” (Faulkner 2). Since her father was a dominant figure in her life, she could not cope with having to live by herself and adjust to life itself. Furthermore, because her father did not let her