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Early history of mental illness
The yellow wallpaper
Yellow wallpaper point of view
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Recommended: Early history of mental illness
The Expressions of Being Trapped
In the early ages of medical practices in North America there were many issues with doctor’s inability to properly treat the conditions of mentally troubled individuals. One of the many conditions to be considered wrongfully treated is an example of mental disorders, depression. Many people back in the early days believed if you were too imaginative and creative it was a sign of a mental condition they did not further understand and feared it could affect your overall health. The most common use of treatment for this condition was a “rest cure” a simple procedure of completing routine cycles of day to day life with no extra stress or work remaining bedridden all day. In the example of TheYellowThe Yellow Wallpaper written by Charlotte Perkins Gilman a story of a husband who worries for his wife’s health and mental wellbeing, he tries to administer this cure for her to help with mental depression plaguing her life. In the story, the author describes the different methods of being trapped mentally, physically, and socially from this procedure. The many methods used to symbolize these examples are as simple as being unable to leave your living environment, being hidden away from the people she once socialized with, and then there is the situation of mentally breaking down from the confining life of never being able to express yourself.
Yellow wallpaper is a story written by Charlotte Perkins Gilman about a wife and husband who go on a “retreat” to a small colonial mansion retreated from the village around it. Jane and her husband pull up to a mansion with signs of age, while approaching the house Jane finds herself questioning the house itself and what it is used for. She believes this house to be a ...
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The manor of which Charlotte uses elements of the sickness to show the traumatic experience to follow the use of a “rest cure” is simply scary. To think that when someone suffered from issues of depression and mental anxiety doctors even ones that are significant others would administer this “cure” to solve their issues, it instead caused more harm than good. Many of the individuals that suffered mental illnesses that experienced this “cure” went to mentally insane asylums where they were then locked away unable to cope with functioning in the real world as the side effects ranging from physical, mental, and social anxiety leading to a feeling of being trapped. Charlotte could use past experiences with this certain topic to help increase the detail of these key points hoping it would create more awareness to the issues surrounding this shadowed medical procedure.
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
The Yellow Wallpaper The story, ‘The Yellow Wallpaper,’ is one of intrigue and wonder. The story was written by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, and it happens to be the story under analytical scrutiny, hence the title as well as the first sentence. The characters in the story consist of the narrator, Jennie, the wet nurse, the narrator's husband John, and the women in the wallpaper. In the story, the narrator and her husband, as well as her newly born daughter and the nanny for the daughter, take a summer trip to a house away from the city.
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.
Gilman, Charlotte Perkins. "The Yellow Wall-Paper." Fiction 100: An Anthology of Short Stories. 4th ed. ed. James H. Pickering. New York: MacMillan, 1985. 426-34.
An additional factor that further proves the rest cure as a misogynistic medical practice is Mitchell’s prescription for male neurasthenic patients. While women were being forced into confinement and denied intellectual exercises, men were prescribed to go West and have an invigorating experience that refreshed both their mental and physical health. Though men were diagnosed with nervousness, it was regarded as a result of his superior intellect and an overtaxing of his highly evolved brain. Unlike women, men were meant to enter the professions and therefore needed to be invigorated both mentally and physically so that they could refresh the nervous system and return to work. Because Mitchell believed that under nervous stress “the strong man becomes like the average woman” he prescribed that his patients find
She valued self-expression in which inspired her story, The Yellow Wallpaper, it is said to be a “…painful episode in Gilman’s own life,” (Spark Notes). It is important to take into account the background of the author. Gilman, was once a married woman with a newborn child. Gilman suffered from “…severe and continuous nervous breakdowns tending to melancholia—and beyond,” (258). In her, Why I Wrote “The Yellow Wallpaper”, Gilman, goes into depth about her experience with the rest cure invented by, Weir Mitchell. Gilman claims she, “…went home and obeyed [the treatment] for some three months, and [she] came so near the border line of utter mental ruin…” (258). With this being said Gilman, writes her short story to aid women in similar situations and even to prevent women from falling into the same demise. Our main character, Jane moves into an ancestral hall for the summer under the care of her physician who is also her husband. Jane is diagnosed with “…temporary nervous depression [and] a slight hysterical tendency…” (Gilman 648) although she realizes there is more to her illness than temporary nervous, her husband time after time ignores her wishes claiming to know best for her. Throughout the story despite her husband’s orders for limited mental activity, Jane writes in a journal and keeps written accounts of her time in the
"If a physician of high standing, and one's own husband, assures friends and relatives that there is really nothing the matter with one but temporary nervous depression -- a slight hysterical tendency -- what is one to do?" (Gilman 1). Many women in the 1800's and 1900's faced hardship when it came to standing up for themselves to their fathers, brothers and then husbands. Charlotte Perkins Gilman, the narrator of the story, "The Yellow Wallpaper", is married to a physician, who rented a colonial house for the summer to nurse her back to health after her husband thinks she has neurasthenia, but actually suffers from postpartum depression. He suggested the 'rest cure'. She should not be doing any sort of mental or major physical activity, her only job was to relax and not worry about anything. Charlotte was a writer and missed writing. "The Yellow Wallpaper" is significant to literature in the sense that, the author addresses the issues of the rest cure that Dr. S. Weir Mitchell prescribed for his patients, especially to women with neurasthenia, is ineffective and leads to severe depression. This paper includes the life of Charlotte Perkins Gilman in relation to women rights and her contribution to literature as one of her best short story writings.
Back in the 19th and early 20th centuries, not much was known about how to treat mental illnesses. At the time, many doctors felt that an appropriate way to handle such a thing was something known as the “resting cure,” which called for doing little more than “resting” by oneself. In Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s epistolary short story “The Yellow Wallpaper,” the main speaker writes of her reclusive treatment for her own mental illness. Throughout the passage, Gilman criticizes the practice of the resting cure by showing the harmful effects of isolation and the reduction of a person to an infantile state.
Wagner-Martin, Linda. "The Yellow Wallpaper." Reference Guide to Short Fiction. Ed. Noelle Watson. Detroit: St. James Press, 1994. 981- 982.
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” written by Charlotte Perkins-Gilman explores the oppression of women in the nineteenth century and the constant limitation of their freedom, which many times led to their confinement. The short story illustrates male superiority and the restriction of a woman’s choice regarding her own life. The author’s diction created a horrific and creepy tone to illustrate the supernatural elements that serve as metaphors to disguise the true meaning of the story. Through the use of imagery, the reader can see that the narrator is living within a social class, so even though the author is trying to create a universal voice for all women that have been similar situations, it is not possible. This is not possible because there are many
Gilman, Charlotte Perkins. “The Yellow Wallpaper”. The Story and Its Writer. Ann Charters. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2011. 462-473. Print.
Gilman, Charlotte P. "The Yellow Wallpaper." The story and its writer: An introduction to short fiction. Ed. Ann Charters. Compact 8th ed. Boston: Bedford/St. Martins, 2011. 340-351.
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.
Gilman, Charlotte Perkins. “The Yellow Wallpaper.” The Yellow Wallpaper and Other Stories. Mineola: Dover, 1997. Print.