The Yellow Wallpaper: A Look Into Women's Mental Health

“The Yellow Wall-Paper”: A Look Into Women’s Mental Health
The “Yellow Wall-paper,” by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, is a short story, written in the late nineteenth century that dives into the concept of women’s mental health. The story opens on a colonial mansion where we learn John has brought his wife for the summer in order for her to get well from a “temporary nervous depression- a slight hysterical tendency” (Gilman 648). The woman is physically isolated, she is not allowed to interact with many people, and she is increasingly isolated from activities that promote productivity and personal identity. The woman’s mental condition worsens throughout the summer due to her isolation from the things that she loves and enjoys.
First, we learn of

She frequently mentions being tired and that everyday tasks exhaust her, which is a common sign of depression. She says, “Nobody would believe what an effort it is to do what little I am able” (Gilman, 649). She often mentions her nervousness which could be a sign of anxiety. Her obsession with the peeling wallpaper could be signs of obsessive compulsive disorder and seeing the woman within the wallpaper could be hallucinations of an unsteady mind. The fact that these emotions have come on right after she has just had a baby points to possible postpartum depression. During this time period however, these mental health conditions had not been studied in depth yet. Doctors did not know how to deal with such conditions and most did not even identify this behavior as a disease. Very little was known about mental health and how to treat mental health conditions, so the woman’s husband did what many would do in such a situation that they did not understand. He isolated her from what she knew and was used to in hopes of her recovery. It is easy to see however, that isolation led to her