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The Yellow Wallpaper By Charlotte Perkins Gilman

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In Charlotte Perkins Gilman's short story, The Yellow Wallpaper (TYWP), the subordination of women comes in many forms. From his treatments to ideas to actions, the character John is the main form of this discrimination. TYWP is the story of Jane, a new mother suffering from post-partum depression, and John her physician husband who prescribes the rest cure to Jane to heal her. The rest cure was invented in the nineteenth century by Neurologist, Silas Weir Mitchell. It was prescribed to overly active and social women suffering from neuroses. The rest cure consisted of six to eight weeks of forced bed rest, isolation, and overfeeding with no creative or intellectual thinking or activities (Science Museum UK, 2019). Despite the name, the Rest …show more content…

When Jane first undergoes the rest cure, she knows isolation is not the best care plan for her however, John makes her feel bad for thinking about her condition or wishes (Gilman p. 648). This makes Jane feel sorry for thinking about her health. Jane despises the wallpaper in her room, and as the story progresses, Jane's fixation on the wallpaper becomes dangerous. Wishing to end the treatment early, Jane expresses her feelings, “I [am] not gaining anything here, I [wish] he would take me away.” (Gilman p. 652) John uses his privilege as a physician to make jane feel bad about standing up for herself, “It is a false and foolish fancy. Can you not trust me as a physician when I tell you so?” (Gilman p.652). Jane also feels bad for not appreciating John’s care she says, “He takes care of me, and so I basely feel ungrateful [to not] value it more.” (Gilman p. 648). As result, Jane stops requesting things and slowly stops sharing information with John. Jane explains that she gets angry with John, but is quick to blame her feelings on her illness as she feels bad because he is taking care of her (Gilman p. 648). John's toll on Jane makes her feel guilty about being sick; she judges and blames herself for her …show more content…

For example, At the beginning, John does not believe Jane is sick. He thinks Jane’s illness is all in her head and she has no reason to suffer (Gilman p. 647, 648). This promotes John to prescribe an improper treatment, the rest cure. Jane disagrees with the idea of the rest cure. She believes that having excitement and spending time with people and her baby is the best medicine she says, “I disagree with [his idea]. Personally, I believe that congenial work, with excitement and change, would do me good.” (Gilman p. 648). John’s actions show that Jane’s needs and health are not in his best interests. When Jane first enters her room, she wishes she had a different one. Jane desires the room downstairs that opens on the piazza and has roses on the window (Gilman p.648). Jane never tells John what she needs because she knows he will ignore her, displaying how John is not interested in any of his wife's needs. As a result, she is given a room on the fifth floor with one bed, one window, and repelling unclean yellow wallpaper (Gilman p. 649). Jane goes on and on about the disgusting wallpaper in the story; it bothers her. When she asks John to replace it, he laughs and tells her that she was letting the paper get to her and, “Nothing [is] worse for a nervous patient than to give away such fancies.” He says, “You know this place is doing you good […] and really […] I don’t care to

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She becomes nervous around the wallpaper. Jane’s condition worsens but she does not tell John. She says, “John does not know how much how much I really suffer, and that satisfies him” (2). If he honestly cared about her he would make the incentive to ask her if she was ok and get the true answer from her.

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I almost wonder if Gilman was trying to speak out facetiously through the story about how mistreatment of the mentally ill is a phenomenon that will continue to take place in the future. Furthermore, Jane was ill, and having been mistreated in her circumstance only made her existing condition and also the unpleasant topic for me worse. Looking at this story with Feminist theory in mind would be fitting, as her husband dismissed her voiced needs because he believed he knew what was best for her and she did not. I interpret this selection of text as sexism; though I’m sure he loved her very much, he was still controlling and believed she couldn’t think for herself for she was a woman.

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In Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s story, “The Yellow Wallpaper,” the narrator is treated for depression by “rest cure,” isolation from society, which affects her mentality causing her to become secretive, withdrawn, and insane. With the treatment

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Him being a physician, he thinks that he is the only one that can help her and it is his job to do so, but a long with that burden he carries another one. That being the inability to cure his wife, watching her be driven to the point of insanity and fainting carries a heavy burden on his soul that he will have to carry with him for the rest of his life. John also carries a burden that is overlooked, yet this plays the biggest part of his personality and is the root of his control complex, that is the burden of death. John is a physician, so he has had many patients in the past and his work consists of him trying to help those who are struggling with diseases. Also, this being in the late 1800’s the medical technology or understanding of diseases is nowhere near the standards of today.

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Notably, the treatment was popular in the late 1800’s. The patient’s are isolated from friends and family lasting up to 6-8 weeks. The treatment could have been considered inhumane due to the lack of compassion during the treatment process. Patients were not aloud to talk, write or even read. Additionally, the patients were forced to stay in bed and eat a fatty, rich diet, those who refused would be force-fed.

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Similarly many doctor’s of the time believed strongly in the rest cure for women and if John to go against this common practice he would be questioned by many physicians. This is not to say that John shouldn’t

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John is Jane’s husband who is trying to control every aspect of Jane’s life. Jane states, “There comes John, and I must put this away-he hates to have me write a word.” (Gilman) This is just one of numerous situations and statements that the narrator shares with the audience. John’s influence also plays a big part in his dysfunctional marriage with Jane.

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John’s career as a physician however prevents him from being at home with her during the day. He doesn’t allow her to go anywhere, and strongly encourages her to stay upstairs in bed all day to

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Furthermore, John insists that in addition to the rest-cure treatment, she needs to refrain from activities that require mental or physical stimulation. Even though the narrator told him she would feel

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As her doctor John has the ability to make his own assessments of what he believes will help her, and as her husband, he has the power to fully enforce these recommendations within the home. The narrator has been given “a schedule prescription for each hour in the day; he takes all care from me” (Gilman, “The Yellow Wallpaper” 832). She is not allowed to make decisions for herself regarding when she wants to do certain activities as every decision has been made for her and every minute of her day has been accounted for. Additionally, the narrator notes that John is very careful and loving, and hardly lets [her] stir without special direction” (Gilman, “The Yellow Wallpaper” 832). While the narrator portrays this positively it is likely that she is trying to convince herself that John’s control is not simply a way for him to exercise his authority over her and that he truly wants to care for her.

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Jane tells John, her husband, what she is feeling, but he does not listen to her and assumes everything is fine ( Gilman 527). John decides to ignore her feelings instead of trying to help her; this suggests that their relationship is not healthy. According to Suess, Jane also has an unhealthy relationship with the medical language. One of the reasons she feels this way is because according to doctors, there is nothing wrong with her health. Mental problems, such as depression, are issues men in the nineteenth century do not seem to be aware of (Suess).

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He places her in the nursery of the colonial mansion, despite her requests to be placed otherwise, “I don 't like our room a bit. I wanted one downstairs... but John would not hear of it” (Gilman, 2). The narrator’s husband dictates all aspects of her life to the point where she internalizes her husband 's authority, accepting his dominance over her, “I sometimes fancy that in my condition if I had less opposition and more society and stimulus—but John says the very worst thing I can do is think about my condition, and I confess it always makes me feel bad,” (Gilman, 2). Even though the narrator knows what she needs is to be active surrounded by people instead of cooped up alone in a house out in the countryside, she abruptly stops her train of thought as she remembers John’s instructions to not think about her condition.

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The worst part of was that in there was the 1882 Married Property Act that when a women gets married she has to pass on all her wealth, and virtually there life to their husband (Women and the Law in Early 19th Century.) In the case the sacrifice of Jane is to “relive the press of [writing],” the only thing that seem to keep her at rest. However, the real reason for the downfall of the narrator is that her condition becomes worse due to the fact that there is a mysterious room that keeps calling her, and she will not stop thinking this place as this room symbolizes her isolation that she from society. The cause of the down fall of Jane is really the fault of John because he for the most part wants the narrator to stop thinking about her episodes, but in reality that only makes her think of her depression even more she is “nervous weakness.”

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Throughout the story, Jane completely disagrees with John’s prognosis and form of treatment. This is shown when Jane says, “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.” (page ) As the story continues Jane makes suggestions to John about what she thinks would improve her health.

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When Jane expressed her apprehensions about the wallpaper, John disregarded her feelings and basically told her to ignore the wallpaper. John downplays her condition and thinks of him as superior to Jane because she is a woman and he is a male physician who knows best. Gilman uses John to explain how America’s patriarchal society ignores the needs of women and focuses on male dominance over women.

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