After reading the semiautobiographical story, "The Yellow Wall-Paper" (1892) by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, an interest was taken in the rest cure. Rest cure was prescribed as a treatment when women had extreme cases of anxiety. It required the patient to be bed ridden for up to a few months. In this particular story, the narrator begins to feel anxiety and depressed after the birth of her baby. John, her husband, supportive of the rest cure, had high hopes that the treatment would be of help to his wife and restore her mental health. If the treatment did not prove beneficial, John would send the narrator to Weir Mitchell, a doctor well known for his work with rest cure. In the story, the confinement to the bed proves to be too much for the narrator, …show more content…
Gilman herself was given this treatment in the spring of 1887 after suffering with a bout of depression after her daughter was born. Although Gilman did not have a terrible experience herself with the rest cure, she did purposefully portray the rest cure and Dr. Mitchell as less than favorable in "The Yellow Wall-Paper". Gilman 's autobiography, "The Living of Charlotte Perkins Gilman (1935), describes a more accurate account of her personal experience:
"I was put to bed, and kept there. I was fed, bathed, rubbed, and responded with vigorous body of twenty-six. As far as he could see there was nothing the matter with me, so after a month of this agreeable treatment he sent me home with this prescription: 'Live as domestic as life as possible. Have your child with you all the time….Lie down an hour after each meal. Have but two hours ' intellectual life a day. And never touch pen, brush, or pencil as long as you live. ' (96)"
Gilman also reminds those of us who have read "The Yellow Wall-Paper" that in it she added "embellishments and additions" and "never had hallucinations or objections to my mural decorations" (86), and due to her own recounting of that time, years later when retelling the story, she exaggerated the details for polemical purposes
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Most women were happy, and just like today, some were not. Women had much to say about the home and their families; their voices were heard. Many of those older women that were so generous to share their own understandings of that era, explained quite matter of factly that those the husband was the head of the home, the woman was considered to be the neck. In addition, just as today there is always room for improvement in any relationship and
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
Gilman wrote this story to describe her experience with her own postpartum depression and the experiences with Dr. Mitchell. In 1886, Dr. Mitchell was "the nation's foremost specialist in the women's `nervous disorders'" (Seymor-Smith 979). After the birth of her daughter, Katherine Beecher Stetson, Gilman was weighed down with an upsetting depression. Gilman started treatment with Dr. Mitchell (979). "The Yellow Wallpaper" was written to criticize Dr. Mitchell's cure for women's depression. After
Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s "The Yellow Wall-Paper," does more than just tell the story of a woman who suffers at the hands of 19th century quack medicine. Gilman created a protagonist with real emotions and a real psych that can be examined and analyzed in the context of modern psychology. In fact, to understand the psychology of the unnamed protagonist is to be well on the way to understanding the story itself. "The Yellow Wall-Paper," written in first-person narrative, charts the psychological state of the protagonist as she slowly deteriorates into schizophrenia (a disintegration of the personality).
Charlotte Perkins Gilman wrought the Yellow Wallpaper during her depression, while she was on bed rest. She was suffering from the depression she wrote the short story to describe her own experiences. The main treatment she was treated with and the character in the short story were treated with was the rest cure. In which it would last about six to eight weeks, which involved isolation from friends and family.
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.
...dvice given to her by her physician and resumed working again, and with that she was feeling some control over her life again. This ordeal she had experienced became her eventual motivation for "The Yellow Wallpaper" and it played a major role in ending the rest cure after her physician had read her work and decided on modifying his treatment for neurasthenia.
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 Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman can be perceived in a few different ways. Greg Johnson wrote an article describing his own perception of what he believed the short story meant. In doing so, it can be noticed that his writing aligns well with what can be perceived from Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s story. The narrator Jane, experiences many things throughout Gilman’s story, which Johnson describes thoroughly. It is because of these descriptive points that allow Johnsons article to be a convincing argument. The main ideas that Johnson depicts that are supported and I agree with from the story include Janes developing imaginative insight, her husband and sister-in-law’s belief on domestic control, and her gained power through unconsciousness.
Charlotte Gilman was a renowned feminist author who published most of her work in the late 1800s and the early 1900s. Her works, of which "The Yellow Wallpaper" is most famous, reflect her feminist views. Gilman used her writings as a way of expressing these views to the public. At the time "The Yellow Wallpaper" was written, the attitude in colonial America towards feminists was not one of tolerance or acceptance. In the mid-1880s, Gilman suffered a nervous breakdown and eventually was referred to a specialist in neurological disorders. The doctor's diagnosis was such: Gilman was perfectly healthy. The doctor ordered Gilman to domesticate her life and to immediately stop her writings. Gilman went by the doctor's orders, and nearly went mad. Now although "Yellow Wallpaper" is a fictional story, it becomes clear that the story was significantly influenced by Gilman's life experiences. Gilman seems to be exploring the depths of mental illness through her writing.
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...
The woman behind this work of literature portrays the role of women in the society during that period of time. "The Yellow Wallpaper" written by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, is a well written story describing a woman who suffers from insanity and how she struggles to express her own thoughts and feelings. The author uses her own experience to criticize male domination of women during the nineteenth century. Although the story was written fifty years ago, "The Yellow Wallpaper" still brings a clear message how powerless women were during that time.
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.
S. Weir Mitchell. The Yellow Wall Paper is a powerful commentary on the attitudes of men and male physicians towards women during this time period. Gilman's personal experience with the rest cure and male domination is reflected in the story's themes of confinement, isolation, and the struggle for freedom. The yellow wall paper is a symbol of the male dominated society that the woman narrator is trapped in, and her descent into madness is a result of this confinement. The story highlights the damaging effects of male dominance and the importance of women's autonomy and agency.