Yellow Wallpaper Mental Health

Charlotte Perkins Gilman wrote “The Yellow Wallpaper” in the late 1800’s while being treating by the very trusted Weir Mitchell. During this time women were commonly admitted into the care of doctors by their husbands without their given consent. At this time there was very little research concerning Post- Partum Depression. According to the A.D.A.M Medical Encyclopedia, Post-Partum is moderate to extreme depression women may experience after giving birth. The symptoms include fearfulness,

Can you imagine being a patient in an insane asylum? How about not even being aware that you are a patient in an insane asylum? Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s dramatic short story is about a woman who explains in her journal that she is in a vacation home accompanied by her husband, John, and his sister, Jennie. They are “vacationing” there because she is being treated for a case of a “slight hysterical tendency”, but by the end of the story the narrator has gone completely insane. The information given by the narrator is not completely reliable, due to her condition. In Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s short story, “The Yellow Wallpaper”, the narrator expresses traits of a mental patient, and describes features of the other characters in the story and

The story, "The Yellow Wallpaper", by Charlotte Perkins Gilman reflects society's attitude and treatment of mental health issues in the late 1800s. As the story begins, the narrator chronicles her mental health deterioration after the birth of her baby. Her writings reflect her husband’s attitude about her condition, which represents society’s ignorance of women’s medical issues. As the story progresses, the wallpaper itself becomes personified as a prison warden, who oppresses her freedom. As the narrator peels away the wallpaper, Gilman uses setting and imagery to draw readers into the narrator’s world of confusion, anxiety, and depression to share her experience with what we now know to be post-partum depression (PPD).

Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s short story, "The Yellow Wallpaper," is the disheartening tale of a woman suffering from postpartum depression. Set during the late 1890s, the story shows the mental and emotional results of the typical "rest cure" prescribed during that era and the narrator’s reaction to this course of treatment. It would appear that Gilman was writing about her own anguish as she herself underwent such a treatment with Dr. Silas Weir Mitchell in 1887, just two years after the birth of her daughter Katherine. The rest cure that the narrator in "The Yellow Wallpaper" describes is very close to what Gilman herself experienced; therefore, the story can be read as reflecting the feelings of women like herself who suffered through

Post-partum depression is a very common mental illness that many women face after the birth of their child. This is no different in Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s “The Yellow Wallpaper.” This short story provides an in-depth view of a woman who is clearly suffering from neurosis after her baby is born. But what is now considered post-partum depression was once seen as a form of mania. She thinks she is sick, but others say she has a “slight hysterical tendency.” The narrator of “The Yellow Wallpaper” is a prime example of this. She is a paradox: as she loses touch with the outer world, she comes to a greater understanding of the inner reality of her life. This constant inner/outer battle is crucial to understanding the nature of her suffering. She is faced with many relationships, objects, and situations that may seem innocent and completely natural, but are actually extremely strange and even

Charlotte Perkins Gilman was a feminist and a creative writer who wrote the short story entitled “The Yellow Wallpaper,” first published in The New England Magazine in 1892. The , reveals the effects of restcure treatment for women suffering from mental illness that was prescribed by male doctors (Horowitz, 152). After her marriage with Walter, and birth of a daughter Katherine, Charlotte herself experienced deep depression and rest cure was prescribed to cure (Gilman, 379). Gilman’ mother takes over the baby’ care and Charlotte “broke down entirely and since needed outmost care and tender tretment ” (Horowitz, 96). The nararator’ husband John, who is doctor, prescribes the rest cure and put her into isolation in a haunted house away from

Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s “The Yellow Wallpaper,” though written in 1892, shows how prevalent the challenges of treating mental illness are over 100 years later. It details the account of a woman who is cared for by her husband for her “condition” and the experience she endures as a result. The narrator’s concerns are often dismissed by her superior husband, and she is forced to follow his professional solution that ultimately causes her more harm than good. The story is based off of Gilman’s personal experience with postpartum depression and the subsequent “care” she was given by her male physician, who believed that the best solution was to have Gilman lay in a bed for endless hours with absolutely no activity until the problem resolved itself. Through the story, Gilman addresses how a lack of access to care and the negative stigmas surrounding mental health result in additional pain and suffering.

Written by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, “The Yellow WallPaper” is a short story that unfolds the story of a woman who is most probably struggling with a kind of depression called “postpartum depression” according to Suess (79) which is “a mood disorder that can affect women after childbirth” (par. 2) with regard to the definition of National Institute of Mental Health. The narrator’s husband is a physician who forbids her to work until she gets better which can be called as the “rest cure” (Gilman, “Why I Wrote” par. 4) and this cure had been prescribed to Gilman as well; but it had made her situation gone from bad to worse. The story is a part from the narrator’s diary being written secretly; hence, this makes the narrator unreliable one especially

Charlotte Perkins Gilman published “The Yellow Wallpaper” in 1892, in hopes of doctor’s abandoning S. Weir Mitchell’s “rest cure.” It was based on her first marriage at the age of twenty-four after she had a baby and became extremely depressed. After being prescribed the “rest cure,” Gilman slowly went insane as depicted in the story. Finally, she left her husband, took her baby, and moved away to become a writer (Gilman 150). Despite “The Yellow Wallpaper” being written so long ago it is still a relevant piece of literature composed richly of symbolism.

The short story The Yellow Wallpaper, was used by the author Charlotte Perkins Gilman to bring awareness of the experiences of depression and the rest cure both mentally, physically, and socially in the 1800s and early 1900s. Suffering from post-partum depression herself, Gilman also went under treatment of the rest cure. As a result, her experiences and struggles are very similar to the ones of her main character in the story. While narrating The Yellow Paper, the main character and Gilman herself identify numerous reasons why the rest cure has numerous faults and isn’t the best method for this crippling mental disease.

In the short story The Yellow Wallpaper, Charlotte Perkins Gilman used her personal experiences with depression to create a powerful short story. Gilman indirectly wrote about her postpartum depression treatment. She used her personal experiences to write a story so disturbing that it can even make you feel like you are a losing it just reading it. Gilman’s and the wife’s life are so similar that it makes the story even more thrilling.

There are many ways to view the composition of Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s The Yellow Wallpaper. These approaches includes looking at this piece’s psychological, and sociological aspects. Much of which influences the story’s focal points. Although most of the story can be seen as tackling a psychological disorder, the story also carries an underlying perspective in addition to what the main character which happen to also be the narrator, is battling. This perspective became more recognized as the story progressed, where the reader as well as the narrator herself comes to the conclusion as to what the leading stimulus was that intensified the conditions of the character’s disorder.

After learning of Gilman’s personal story, it becomes apparent that “The Yellow Wallpaper,” and the struggle of its narrator, carries a distinct message. Gilman grew up in an unhappy and impoverished family with a brother, a single mother, and no father figure. She later went on to marry Charles Stetson (whom she later divorced) and had a daughter with him. After the birth of her daughter, Gilman fell into a deeply depressed state, indicating the relevance of postpartum depression. When she consulted Dr. Weir Mitchell about it, she was prescribed a “rest cure.” It was this event that inspired Gilman to write “The Yellow Wallpaper,” and many similarities can be drawn between

  "The Yellow Wallpaper," written by Charlotte Perkins Gilman in the late nineteenth century, explores the dark forbidding world of one woman's plunge into a severe post-partum depressive state. The story presents a theme of the search for self-identity. Through interacting with human beings and the environment, the protagonist creates for herself a life of her own.

The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman is a story set in a 19th century colonial mansion, in which the narrator and her husband stay for the summer. The narrator, who is unnamed, is undergoing a rest cure for some kind of mental illness after giving birth. This mental illness is now known as postpartum depression. Rest cure involves doing absolutely nothing and this triggered the further deterioration of the narrator’s mental health. Her husband, John, monitors her condition while they stay in the mansion. She is confined in a room— supposedly a nursery room— with barred windows and scratches on the floor. The most noticeable feature of the room by the narrator is the yellow wallpaper. Each day, her description of the yellow wallpaper becomes more disturbing; from being just plain wallpaper to being a prison cell for trapped women, shaking the bars, wanting to be free from it. Instead of getting well from the rest cure, the narrator’s mental state worsened as what is depicted in her journal entries. She eventually goes mad and her husband fainted from the sight of her condition.