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Mass hysteria in today's society
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Nineteenth Century Hysteria: The Yellow Wallpaper
Early nineteenth century hysteria in women was extremely common. It was the first mental disorders attributed only to women. However, there was a grave misconception; the symptoms of hysteria at the time were seen as nervousness, hallucinations, emotional outbursts, various urges of sexual variety, sexual thoughts, fainting, sexual desire or frustration and irritability (Pearson). Although there were many symptoms they were not limited to this list. Many of these symptoms were just signs of expression that women had; however, society immediately decided that these women had hysteria with no real proof. These women then had a label, holding them back from their normal everyday lives that they were unable to fix because they were not allowed to. Because most doctors were men, they relayed the cure to these symptoms with sexual acts which were masked by portraying them as a cure such as “hysterical paroxysm” (Pearson). These so called “treatments” carried on for centuries after but are no longer used as a cure to hysteria. Charlotte Perkins Gilman, the author of The Yellow Wallpaper was a feminist who at one point in her life was said to be labeled as hysteric. She then began expressing these feelings that she had through her writings. Most of these writings were based on her personal experiences with the disease. She believed that if she wrote about her situations and how she was able to push away from society to better herself that it could help other women with hysteria or the symptoms of it. Her representation of hysteria in The Yellow Wallpaper does not really differ from what women at the time expressed about themselves. Gilman’s representation and first hand experiences wit...
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Pearson, Catherine. "Female Hysteria: 7 Crazy Things People Used To Believe About The Ladies' Disease." The Huffington Post. TheHuffingtonPost.com, 21 Nov. 2013. Web. 30 Apr. 2014. .
Tasca, Cecilia , Mariangela Rapetti, Mauro Giovanni Carta, and Bianca Fadda. "Women and Hysteria In The History of Mental Health." U.S. National Library of Medicine National Institutes of Health. N.p., 1 Oct. 2012. Web. 19 Apr. 2014. .
"hysteria." Oxford English Dictionary . Oxford University Press, n.d. Web. 6 Apr. 2014. .
Throughout history people have always seemed to follow what notions that were considered "cool". Though I doubt that "cool" was the word used to describe these notions they were still there in some form or another. One of the greatest farces ever committed in the name of these popular perceptions was medicine. At that time, medicine that was on the cutting edge seem to have always involved some sort of noxious chemical or a typically atrocious diet. Not to mention the fact that ninety-nine percent of the doctors were men. Women's notions were immediately discounted on the bases of the preconception that women were not meant for such enlightened thoughts. No, men really knew what was best and women were meant to stand by what their husbands' said. This brings one particular husband to mind and how he was responsible for his wife going completely and utterly insane. His name is John and he is the husband to a woman who was diagnosed with a temporary nervous depression, meaning a slight hysterical tendency.
After reading Charlotte Perkins Gillman's "The Yellow Wallpaper" I have come to think that the narrator does not suffer from hysteria. I have reached this idea from comparing the research I have done on hysteria to her symptoms in the story. In this paper I will discuss why I feel the narrator does not suffer from hysteria but may be suffering from postpartum depression.
Nervousness was a condition described, according to Dr. George M. Beard, “strictly deficiency or lack of nerve-force” (American Nervousness, vi) in the 19th century. Nervousness at the time, was commonly acknowledged and accepted, so much so that it was written into literature, such as many of Jane Austen’s works. Many doctors considered nervousness to be a “woman’s disease” meaning that women were the most afflicted by this condition. Doctors of the 19th century have found excuses to restrict, restrain, objectify and metaphorically and literally lock women away, more specifically with the diagnosis of nervousness and other diseases that branch out from “the nerves”.
Schizophrenia in The Yellow Wallpaper. 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, understanding the psychology of the unnamed protagonist is 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).
There are various interpretations of what causes the narrator to go crazy in the short story “The Yellow Wallpaper” by Charlotte Perkins Gilman. These interpretations include suggestions that the narrator is possessed, that she is oppressed by society and is acting out, that she has suffered from a traumatic childbirth, and so on. While all of these ideas hold merit and are supported by evidence in the short story, there is an alternative explanation that fits the story just as well, if not better. That explanation is that the reason the narrator in “The Yellow Wallpaper” acts strangely and sees images in the wallpaper of her room is that she is suffering from the disorder of postpartum psychosis. During this essay I will be going into depth on a psychological analysis of “The Yellow Wallpaper”.
"The Yellow Wallpaper" by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, is a story told from the first person point of view of a doctor's wife who has nervous condition. The first person standpoint gives the reader access only to the woman’s thoughts, and thus, is limited. The limited viewpoint of this story helps the reader to experience a feeling of isolation, just as the wife feels throughout the story. The point of view is also limited in that the story takes places in the present, and as a result the wife has no benefit of hindsight, and is never able to actually see that the men in her life are part of the reason she never gets well. This paper will discuss how Gilman’s choice of point of view helps communicate the central theme of the story- that women of the time were viewed as being subordinate to men. Also, the paper will discuss how ignoring oneself and one’s desires is self-destructive, as seen throughout the story as the woman’s condition worsens while she is in isolation, in the room with the yellow wallpaper, and her at the same time as her thoughts are being oppressed by her husband and brother.
Poe, Edgar Allan. "The Tell-Tale Heart." Literature: An Introduction to Fiction, Poetry, and Drama. Ed. X. J. Kennedy and Dana Gioia. 7th ed. New York: Longman, 1999. 33-37.
Leupo, Kimberly. "The History of Mental Illness." The History of Mental Illness. N.p., n.d. Web. 13 Nov. 2013.
In a female oppressive story about a woman driven from postpartum depression to insanity, Charlotte Gilman uses great elements of literature in her short story, The Yellow Wallpaper. Her use of feminism and realism demonstrates how woman's thoughts and opinions were considered in the early 1900?s.
In Charlotte Perkins Gilman's short story "The Yellow Wallpaper," the reader is treated to an intimate portrait of developing insanity. At the same time, the story's first person narrator provides insight into the social attitudes of the story's late Victorian time period. The story sets up a sense of gradually increasing distrust between the narrator and her husband, John, a doctor, which suggests that gender roles were strictly defined; however, as the story is just one representation of the time period, the examination of other sources is necessary to better understand the nature of American attitudes in the late 1800s. Specifically, this essay will analyze the representation of women's roles in "The Yellow Wallpaper" alongside two other texts produced during this time period, in the effort to discover whether Gilman's depiction of women accurately reflects the society that produced it.
Throughout “The Yellow Wallpaper,” Charlotte Perkins Gilman tells her readers the story of a woman desperate to be free. Gilman’s use of symbolism is nothing short of brilliant in telling the story of a new mother suffering from postpartum depression and fighting her way through societies ideas of what a woman should be. When her husband, John, also known as her physician, tells her nothing is wrong with her mind, at first she believes him because she knows that society tells her she should. However, with her husband’s misdiagnosis, or attempt to keep his wife sane for the sake of their reputation, comes a short journey into madness for his wife, Jane. Jane’s downward spiral, as one may call it, turns out to be not so downward when the reader
In Charlotte Perkins Gillman’s short story “The Yellow Wallpaper”, the author takes the reader through the terrors of a woman’s psychosis. The story convey to understatements pertaining to feminism and individuality that at the time was only idealized. Gillman illustrates her chronological descent into insanity. The narrators husband John, who is also her physician diagnosed her with “nervous depression” and therefore ordered her to isolate until she recuperates. She is not only deprived of outside contact but also of her passion to write, since it could deteriorate her condition. The central conflict of the story is person versus society; the healthy part of her, in touch with herself clashing with her internalized thoughts of her society’s expectations. In a feminist point of view the central idea pertains to the social confinement that woman undergo due to their society.
Charlotte Perkins Gilman was a 19th century, journalist from Connecticut. She was also a feminist. Gilman was not conservative when it came to expressing her views publically. Many of her published works openly expressed her thoughts on woman’s rights. She also broke through social norms when she chose to write her short story, “The Yellow Wallpaper” in 1892, which described her battle with mental illness. These literary breakthroughs, made by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, help us see that the 19th century was a time of change for women.
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 of the 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. When things are stretched too thin, they become less sturdy and less reliable; the same is true for arguments in writing.... ... middle of paper ...
In 1887 Charlotte Perkins Gilman had melancholia, meaning she was suffering from a severe and continuous nervous breakdown. During about the third year of this trouble she went, in devout faith and some faint stir of hope, to a noted specialist in nervous diseases, the best known in the country. She of course went to the physician, he put her to bed and applied the rest cure, to which a good physique, told me so promptly that he concluded there was nothing much the matter with me. He sent me home with solemn advice to “live as domestic a life far as possible” to “have but two hours intellectual life a day”.She went home and obeyed those directions for some three months, She became almost border