Depression In Ernest Hemingway's The Yellow Wallpaper

The author uses internal conflict to show a woman’s struggle to overcome depression. One struggle that the narrator faces personally is the way she feels towards her husband. She blames her mental illness for the way she feels about John who now makes her mad. The narrator writes, “I get unreasonably angry with John sometimes. I’m sure I never used to be so sensitive. I think it’s due to this nervousness condition” (222). Readers see how she now resents her husband because he doesn’t understand her. She feels misunderstood and belittled by him. This lowers her self- esteem which can causes her to struggle with depression. Another conflict the narrator struggles with personally is her wanting to be around her baby. She seems to distance herself from her baby due to her mental state. She states that. “It is fortunate Mary is so good with the baby. Such a dear baby! And yet I cannot be with him, it makes me so nervous” (222). Readers see how the narrator may be struggling with postpartum depression; therefore, she doesn’t

seem to care much for the baby. She is probably thinks that it’s best to keep him with someone else while she battles with depression.
First person limited omniscient point of view is used to explain a woman’s struggle to overcome depression.

The narrator’s thoughts are seen in the story. During her stay at the house she fights the urge to write because her husband claims it is not good for her. She sometimes thinks that if she is “only well enough to write a little it would relieve the press ideas and rest me” (223). The narrator recognizes that if she writes in her journal, it will help her break through this depression. The narrator loves to write and believes it will help her relieve her negative thoughts which can be cause by depression. In the end, she locks herself in her room and writes, “I don’t want to go out, and I don’t want to have anybody come in, until john comes. I want to astonish him” (228). Readers see how she is no longer herself but a complete insane person. She forgets who she is and begins acting as a child. This can be a result of her giving into

depression.
An emotional setting supports a woman’s struggle to overcome depression. For example, the story takes place in a mansion that is rented for the summer. When the couple first arrive, the wife describes the mansion as a “hunted house” that is, “quite alone, standing well back from the road, quite three miles from the village” (221). She thinks the house is strange and is frightened by it. Readers see how she is afraid of being isolated from the rest of the world. She feels if she stays in alone in this scary house, she may lose her mind. So she pleads with her husband to leave the house, but he completely ignores her. This shows how John thinks she is fine when she is actually struggling with her depression alone.
The author uses symbolism to generate an oppressive tone and prove a woman’s struggle to overcome depression. For example readers see the wallpaper symbolizes her feeling trap. She mentions how she sees, “a women stooping down and creeping about behind that pattern” (225). Readers see how she is giving into her depression by hallucinating of a woman being trap behind the wallpaper. This woman she sees is a reflection of herself. She feels misunderstood and in her mind she feels like she is trap battling with depression. For example, readers begin seeing her defeat to depression when she mentions how the woman in the wallpaper seems to move by night. She writes, “By moonlight- the moon shines in all night when there is a moon- I wouldn’t know it was the same paper. Moonlight symbolizes light to giving into her depression. It also brings light to her insanity when she finally knows what that figure is on the wallpaper. The figure seems to be a woman who, by day is still, and, by night, the pattern begins to move.
Gillman also uses personification to generate an oppressive tone and proves a woman’s struggle to overcome depression. When the narrator begins to describe the wall, she gives it a human like quality. For example she writes how “the lame uncertain curves for a little distance they suddenly commit suicide- plunge off at outrageous angles, destroy themselves in unheard –of contraction” (222) This personifies the way she feels, which is death, and, cast that feeling onto the wall. This shows readers how depression has clouded thoughts by her thinking of death. Her depression is now oppressing her thoughts. She also mentions that the paper is “One of those sprawling, flamboyant patterns committing every artistic sin” (222). She gives it a human like quality to describe how she feels within her mind with chaos. As chaos begins to manifest in her mind she begins to give into depression.

Gillman makes this story seem very interesting. Reader sees how the only way to cure depression in the late eighteen hundreds was through the “Rest Cure”. These days, there are many people who take medication to relieve them from depression. For instance, when I was diagnosed with severe anxiety disorder, I was immediately given medication to keep me from having panic attacks. I always felt nervous like the narrator and had negative thoughts. What got me out of depression was finding time to do things I like to do. Overall I liked the story because it reminded me how many women including myself are dealing with depression.