Rula Quawas The Yellow Wallpaper

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

background knowledge, you can come to the conclusion that the narrator’s illness and treatment plan are based on both gender roles and lack of overall knowledge.
In "Managing Madness in Gilman's 'The Yellow Wall-Paper.'." by Beverly A Hume, she addresses how through the story The Yellow Wallpaper, the narrator makes her “attempts at liberation by reinforcing the gender stereotypes of her society and turning away from the natural world.” She addresses how the narrator feels in the big scheme regarding The Yellow Wallpaper. Hume discusses how even though the narrator can seem cramped and uncomfortable with her mental illness, she also recognizes that the narrator often regards her child or her husband as such a “normal” woman of that time would. The narrator mentions how her “‘blessed child’ doesn't have to ‘live in such a room’" while the piece can be taken as an empowering tale of the inequalities faced by women at the time, it can also be looked at as just a story about how due to the inability of modern day knowledge of mental health was the downfall of the narrator. The narrator does not seem particularly disgusted by her husband tending to her every need as some other articles or essays suggest, rather objectively speaking, she is telling her story of how lack of knowledge let her down. The narrator even writes that her husband John does not let her stir without tending to her. The narrator’s feelings for John remain the same throughout the story, suggesting that she feels similarly about him, even after she goes crazy, ripping off the wallpaper in the end. The narrator provides disgust for the wallpaper and for the room in general because she was stuck in there. While this could be a possibility, there are so many examples as to why it points to other things.
On the contrary, Paula A. Treichler wrote an article about the way gender roles at the time, massively impacted the story and how it was written. In the nineteenth century, women were reduced to mere housewives and were to be kept in check by the man of the house. Through symbolism such as the narrator confiding in her secret journal to spill her deepest thoughts and feelings to, you can draw that she did not feel comfortable telling her husband about everything she was writing down. She was quarantined to a nursery room and kept in there for hours at a time. She writes down her true thoughts and feelings because she is isolated in her journey to recovery. The gender roles are brought into play whenever the narrator brings up things like the wallpaper, a feminine thing to discuss since it is home decor. By the way the narrator is contained specifically in “the room with the yellow wallpaper”, it becomes apparent that her husband is trying to conceal her rather than help her. Treichler explains how the narrator’s condition is very real and serious but is concealed and hidden away, rather than given the proper attention and help she needs.
In a similar way, Rula Quawas, in her essay "A New Woman's Journey into Insanity: Descent and Return in The Yellow Wallpaper." discusses how womanhood is a big factor in The Yellow Wallpaper.

Quawas tells how there is a “sharp contrast between male and female nature.” Quawas reveals that Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s true purpose is to fight for women’s rights and equality, instead of being seen as just an object to nurture the children and do the chores at home. Quawas suggests that since Charlotte Perkins Gilman cares so deeply about presenting the deeply hurtful ways women can be treated like because she lived through the era of the women being the stay-at-home-smiling-trophy-wives and got to witness the incline of women’s rights movements and the empowerment of women. Quawas says that “The Yellow Wallpaper is a particularly interesting and rich example of her audacious and defiant writing.” she says this because The Yellow Wallpaper explores the feminine rebellion against the “rest cure”. Though the narrator’s doctor husband believes in the “rest cure”, the narrator steadily makes efforts to express herself in private, such as through her journal entries. Historically the author of the yellow wallpaper went through the oppression of women and the rise of empowerment of women. She got to witness both, which allows for the inference of women empowerment being hidden throughout the yellow

wallpaper.
Another large factor in The Yellow Wallpaper is how the marital relationship between the narrator and her husband John. To the average reader in the twentieth century, it seems quite bizzare to lock your wife in a room and leave her for hours, while she is suffering from mental illness. In "Reading Marital Relationships: The Wallpaper in A Room of One's Own." by Marjean D Purinton, It uncovers and searches for the small details sprinkled through The Yellow Wallpaper to see how the narrator’s relationship with her husband. Purinton says that during the time period, many women felt trapped in their marriages, good or bad, they were stuck in them. Purinton uncovers how the author of The Yellow Wallpaper, Charlotte Perkins Gilman, was in an abusive marriage that posed issues in itself in her personal life. While this does not directly relate to the story The Yellow Wallpaper, it provides needed context for a story such as itself. Purinton says that at the time, historically, women were viewed as heterosexual objects, and were meant to be “kept in check”. While Gilman’s personal marital issues were not directly in the story, Gilman did provide a typical relationship between a husband and wife, in the nineteenth century.
Furthermore, “Environment as Psychopathological Symbolism in ‘The Yellow Wallpaper.’” by Loralee MacPike, analyzes even smaller details such as the room the narrator is stuck in. MacPike says that the room could symbolize how the narrator is trapped in her own mind. MacPike analyzes how the narrator is put in the nursery room of the big summer home, rather than the big open room with a beautiful garden view that she wanted. MacPike suggests that the reason that the narrator is put in the nursery room, is because it symbolizes her status in society. The narrator is reduced to a child since at the time, a woman is thought of as children and that they need instruction and care from the men in their lives. MacPike also asserts that the rooms windows are barred and while it is a nursery, it also serves as a personal prison cell for the narrator.
Finally, it can be concluded that behind symbolism and small details, as well as plain history for the time, that the narrator’s husband is the cause for the downfall of the narrator when she could have been helped. It is not completely John’s fault however, it is the in the fault of gender roles and lack of equality. At the time, the narrator was treated as any normal husband would try to treat their wife, this, in turn, is the reason for her downfall.