Charlotte Perkins Gilman “the Yellow Wallpaper”

In Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s “The Yellow Wallpaper”, the woman is diagnosed with a “temporary nervous depression” (pg. 310) by her husband, who is a physician. According to an article from Wikipedia, as a treatment, the rest cure was a 19th century treatment for many mental disorders, particularly hysteria, which her husband utilizes when he believed that rest and “air” will her well again. She is prescribed medicine to take every hour, to calm her “slight hysterical tendencies” (pg.310). The woman is viewed as very emotional as she says “I cry at nothing and cry most of the time” (pg. 314) due to the fact that nervous condition makes her sensitive and tired. According to the article, patients were secluded from all family contact in order to reduce dependence on others which her husband did not want her to be around others as well. He also does not want her to write but she is defiant to her husband by writing when she is by herself, which is often. At first she sounds level headed and sensible, however, as the story progresses; she began to succumb further into the idea that she just needs more rest and seclusion. According to Wikipedia, the cure as well as its name were created by doctor Silas Weir Mitchell, and it was almost always prescribed to women, many of whom were suffering from depression; especially postpartum depression which can relate to the women in the story because she has a baby but she feels as though she cannot take care of him or be around him because it makes her nervous. Also the article states that this cure was not effective and caused many to go insane or die which is apparent when she began to see the wallpaper come alive and she started to see a woman trapped behind the “bars” of the pattern, as well as comparing the pattern to broken necks and eyes that stare which indicated her unstable mind. “The Yellow Wallpaper” can be viewed as an autobiography of Gilman due to the fact that she battled depression and eventually turned to Dr. S.