The Rest Cure: A False Practice “I’m calm, I’m swell, I’m not screaming, I’m resting” (Mueller). Around the turn of the 19th century, many patients were treated for depression and anxiety with Dr. Weir Mitchell’s “Rest Cure” which promoted weeks of bed rest, a fatty diet, and minimal amounts of interactions. An article by Julia Mueller published in 1936 by the Alumnae Association of the Lenox Hill Hospital School of Nursing exploits the issues of this practice as it contains the narrative of a Rest Cure patient who has undergone the treatment. An earlier and highly-regarded piece of literature known as “The Yellow Wallpaper” by Charlotte Perkins Gilman was published in The New England Magazine in 1892, and told the story of a woman experiencing …show more content…
Mitchell’s rest cure. The reader follows the chronological, first-person accounts of the narrator as she goes through her treatment, and although it only contains traces of autobiography from the author, the story gives an inventive and complex look at the inefficiencies and the opposite effects the treatment had on its patients. Through a lack of self-trust, a gradual increase in paranoia, and the personal relationship developed with the ominous figure in the wallpaper, Gilman’s narrator displays the ineffectiveness of the Rest Cure’s sedentary lifestyle. The Rest Cure had the intentions of curing their patients of their nervousness, but the narrator of “The Yellow Wallpaper” displays a lack of self-trust that leads readers to see the truth about its imperfections. From the beginning of the story, the treatment the narrator has been receiving is a week or two under way, and the first of her written accounts tells us how she gets “unreasonably angry with John sometimes. I’m sure I never used to be so sensitive. I think it is due to this nervous condition” (Gilman). John is her physician husband who facilitates her treatment, and she has …show more content…
The narrator identifies the figure to be a woman, and realizes “at night, in any kind of light…it becomes bars! The outside pattern I mean, and the woman behind it is as plain as can be” (). At this point, she can create a relationship to the “woman” based off the similarities they share with each other, such as how they both are trapped by this wallpaper. They are both forcibly immobilized, and the lack of movement and interaction is driving the narrator past her breaking point to where she can connect to a person in the wallpaper that surrounds the room. The author uses the growing relationship to uncover her opinion about the rest cure which is that the choice of leaving the patient to lay and rest for such long periods of time will create a feeling of being trapped, and when trapped, the mind can go to rot just by baking in its own thoughts and fantasies. It is a remedy for insanity, and an outcome such as that would hold contrary to the expectations of this treatment. At the final moment of the story, just as the treatment comes to a close, we see the narrator reach her breaking point. She rips down the wallpaper and exclaims “I’ve got out at last” to her terrified husband as she “creeps” around the room (). The trapped
Nevertheless, her attempts are futile as he dismisses her once more, putting his supposed medical opinion above his wife’s feelings. The story takes a shocking turn as she finally discerns what that figure is: a woman. As the story progresses, she believes the sole reason for her recovery is the wallpaper. She tells no one of this because she foresees they may be incredulous, so she again feels the need to repress her thoughts and feelings. On the last night of their stay, she is determined to free the woman trapped behind bars.
In the short story, The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, the narrator of the story is a woman who is struggling with her mental health. Throughout the story, she progressively gets worse in her condition, due to the lack of mental health awareness, and her treatment plan. To start off, she is given the “rest” method of treatment.This is a treatment that focuses on letting the brain rest due to the thought that mental health issues were just a matter of an overactive or overstimulated mind. The narrator’s husband is the reason why her condition continued to get slowly worse, his main concerns were making her normal again, even if he hurt her in the process. Although this story can be interpreted many ways, through symbolism and
She was placed in this treatment called the “rest cure” that made her somewhat like a prisoner. She started to slowly decrease into psychosis due to her husband’s treatment, the environment, and the way society has treated her illness. The love the husband felt for his wife and the fear he had of losing her lead him to treat her in questionable ways. He placed her in environment that made her feel trapped and aided to her reduction in sanity. Ann Oakley in her article, “Beyond the Yellow Wallpaper” discusses how important this story truly is. Oakley talks about the gender differences and the harm that it can bring to a society. This treatment was acceptable and normal for the situation because society has taught him and her that it was normal. Even if the protagonist’s husband meant well the treatment she was placed in for depression lead her to have more psychological damage, increasing her insanity more each
Gilman tries to show that according to her husband, the narrator continually brings her great depression upon herself. The author, Charlotte Perkins Gilman also attempts to show that the lack of social exposure, physical repression, and ugly wallpaper cause the treatment to be extremely ineffective and detrimental. The disorder which is being treated is actually strengthened to the point of a serious mental illness. Similarly in today’s society, medical and psychological advice may have the same effect. Medical technology and practice have progressed considerably since the time of the “Yellow Wallpaper.” This is not to say that today’s physicians are infallible. Perhaps some of today’s treatments are the “Yellow Wallpaper” of the future .
The medical profession’s godlike attitude in “The Yellow Wallpaper” demonstrates this arrogance. The Rest cure that Dr. Weir Mitchell prescribed, which is mentioned in Gilman’s work, reflects men’s disparaging attitudes. His Rest cure calls for complete rest, coerced feeding and isolation. Mitchell, a neurosurgeon specializing in women’s nervous ailments, expounded upon his belief for women’s nervous conditions when he said,
After the birth of her daughter Katharine, she developed postpartum depression which usually arises as a result of hormonal changes, psychological adjustment to motherhood, and fatigue. For years, she battled with this disorder suffering from “a severe and continuous nervous breakdown tending to melancholia - and beyond” until going to an infamous neurologist by the name of Silas Weir Mitchell. Weir advised Gilman to abide by his rest cure, forbidding her from working another day in her life. “..He concluded there was nothing much the matter with me and he sent me home with solemn advice to ‘live as domestic life as far as possible (245)”. Like the narrator in “The Yellow Wallpaper” this did not make Gilman better but worsened her distress. She obeyed the doctor’s directions only for over three months before she came “so near the border line of utter mental ruin that [she] could see over” (245). Then she abandoned the rest cure and moved to California, divorced her husband, remarried, and dedicated herself to the world of literature and politics (232). Unlike Gilman, the narrator succumbs to insanity at the end of the story. Gilman uses this alternative ending to her story to alert national attention to the problem of the resting cure and not “drive people crazy, but to people from being crazy” (246). And it worked. By 1850, postpartum depression was nationally acknowledged by medical professionals as a disorder
The Yellow-Wallpaper is a short story written by Charlotte Perkins Gilman. It narrates the story of an unnamed woman that is subjected to the famous “rest cure” in order to cure her from her mental illness. This story shows
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 such treatments. Because of her experience with the rest cure, it can even be said that Gilman based the narrator in "The Yellow Wallpaper" loosely on herself. But I believe that expressing her negative feelings about the popular rest cure is only half of the message that Gilman wanted to send. Within the subtext of this story lies the theme of oppression: the oppression of the rights of women especially inside of marriage. Gilman was using the woman/women behind the wallpaper to express her personal views on this issue.
“The Yellow Wallpaper” is the story of a woman descending into psychosis in a creepy tale which depicts the harm of an old therapy called “rest cure.” This therapy was used to treat women who had “slight hysterical tendencies” and depression, and basically it consisted of the inhibition of the mental processes. The label “slight hysterical tendency” indicates that it is not seen as a very important issue, and it is taken rather lightly. It is also ironic because her illness is obviously not “slight” by any means, especially towards the end when the images painted of her are reminiscent of a psychotic, maniacal person, while she aggressively tears off wallpaper and confuses the real world with her alternative world she has fabricated that includes a woman trapped in the wallpaper. The narrator of this story grows obsessed with the wallpaper in her room because her husband minimizes her exposure to the outside world and maximizes her rest. Academic essayists such as Susan M. Gilbert, Susan Gubar, and Elaine Showalter have a feminist reading of the story, however, this is not the most important reading. The author experienced the turmoil of the rest cure personally, which means that the story is most likely a comment on the great mistreatment of depression, hysteria and mental disorders in general. Despite the claims of Gilbert, Gubar, and Showalter that “The Yellow Wallpaper” is solely feminist propaganda, their analysis is often unnecessarily deep and their claims are often unwarranted, resulting in an inaccurate description of a story that is most importantly about the general mistreatment of psychosis and the descent into insanity regardless of gender.
Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s tantalizing short story, “The Yellow Wallpaper,” tells the horrifying tale of a nineteenth century woman whose husband condemns her to a rest cure, a popular approach during the era to treat post-partum depression. Although John, the unnamed narrator’s husband, does not truly believe his wife is ill, he ultimately condemns her to mental insanity through his treatment. The story somewhat resembles Gilman’s shocking personal biography, namely the rest cure she underwent under the watchful eye of Dr. Silas Weir Mitchell in 1887, two years after the birth of her daughter, Katherine. Superficially, the rest cure the narrator in "The Yellow Wallpaper" endures loosely replicates Gilman’s personal anguish as she underwent such a treatment. More complexly, however, the story both accentuates and indirectly criticizes the oppression women faced in both marriage and motherhood.
The narrator claims that John loves her, “He loves me very dearly, and hates to have me sick” (651). The narrator believes that John loves her and wants to get her better. If the narrator is correct, then John would provide the best treatment for his wife; especially, because he is a “…physician of high standing…” (648). John provides rest as a recommended treatment, “I lie down ever so much now. John says it is good for me, and to sleep all I can” (653). In this quote, the narrator is saying that he is offering advice that he thinks is best for her. “The Yellow Wallpaper” has a historical setting that occurs during a time in medicine where any physician can treat a patient’s physical body or their physiological well-being. In today’s health profession, there are now doctors who treat the physical body and doctors who work solely on the physiological part of the body. Since there isn’t any specialist on the mental part of health, a common treatment for depression is “rest cure”. When one is treated with the “rest cure”, a part of the treatment is to get a lot of rest, so John is simply giving her what treatment is available in her time period. In addition to John’s affection and professional opinion of the narrator’s mental health, the narrator declares, “John says if I don 't pick up faster
The narrator has been prescribed the rest cure as a treatment for her hysteria, which in reality is probably postpartum depression. She is not allowed to have any physical stimulation and, as such, only observes details of her environment. The wallpaper, in the beginning of the story, is described as "flamboyant" and "the color revolting" (793). This is little more than a minute detail in the narrator's description of the home in which the family is vacationing.
Charlotte Perkins Gilman experienced a relatively similar life story to the life of the narrator in “The Yellow Wallpaper”. She was prescribed the same “rest cure” as the narrator that subsequently led to a mental breakdown. The prescribed “rest cure” entails minimal human contact, repressed imagination, and female confinement. Comparatively, persistently being told that you are insane especially if you’re not, may drive someone to actually become psychotic.
"The Yellow Wallpaper" became significant not only in literature, but also socially, it was a current issue that Gilman was relating to at the time. Gilman sought medical help from the famous neurologist S. W. Mitchell for her slight depression. Mitchell, who prescribed his famous "rest cure", that restricted women from doing anything that labored and taxed their minds, and for Gilman, her writing. More than just a psychological study of postpartum depression, Gilman's "The Yellow...
Charlotte Perkins Gilman wrote The Yellow Wallpaper in 1890 about her experience in a psychiatric hospital. The doctor she had prescribed her “the rest cure” to get over her condition (Beekman). Gilman included the name of the sanitarium she stayed at in the piece as well which was named after the doctor that “treated” her. The short story was a more exaggerated version of her month long stay at Weir Mitchell and is about a woman whose name is never revealed and she slowly goes insane under the watch of her doctor husband and his sister (The Yellow Wallpaper 745). Many elements of fiction were utilized by Gilman in this piece to emphasize the theme freedom and confinement. Three of the most important elements are symbolism, setting and character.