Literary Analysis: The Yellow Wallpaper

In 1892, the rights for women were only beginning to be recognized, but to a very small extent. The women’s movement had not come into full effect at that time, and Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s short story “the Yellow Wallpaper” sought to bring attention to the unfair treatment of women that had been in effect for hundreds of years. Although many critics focus on the women’s rights aspect of the short story, there comes to part a key element that people seem to look over. Gilman seemed to suggest in her text that the fault that caused the narrator her delve into insanity was actually due to her seclusion, as well as her disability to resort to creativity as a means for coping with her severe depression.

The narrator that Gilman depicted did make reference to her husband John keeping her from her writing on several occasions. He also frowned upon her ideas of remaining social and not remaining in seclusion. Examples of this are seen in the text; in paragraph 37 she explains her husband’s disdain for her to write. “There comes John, and I must put this away, he hates to have me write a word.” In paragraph 63 the narrator also insinuates John’s wishes for her to remain alone. “When I get really well, John says we will ask Cousin Henry and Julia down for a long visit; but he says he would as soon put fireworks in my pillow case as to let me have those stimulating people about now...”

These paragraphs depicted her suffocating situation well. Her husband would not give her the satisfaction of being around “stimulating people” which would not have beneficial at all, but in fact would result in being detrimental to her mental well being. A stimulant, or the help or companionship of friends most definitely can help relieve a person from depression or at least uplift them for a little while. The implications that her husband was forcing her against her will were very unsubtle, and the narrator was even disapproving towards his thoughts as well as wishes at some times.

In an article written by Lauren Spiro, the director of the National Coalition for Mental Health Recovery, she recounts her tale of her own experience in an environment that secluded her from society for the purposes of mental health treatment.  “What remains very painful was the personal devastation of being locked up in a mental institution, away from friends and family, at the age of 16 – a time in my life when I so desperately needed to feel that I belonged, that I mattered, that I was good. Hospitalization itself is seclusion. The agony, the torment, the torture that I experienced is something I will never forget.” Spiro continues to make the statement that the seclusion she was forced to endure actually made her condition worse. In Gilman’s story, the same went for the unnamed narrator of “The Yellow Wallpaper.”

Cases like Spiro’s were not unheard of in the 1800s as well as into the 1900s. Although the time of her treatment was nearly a hundred years after the writing of “The Yellow Wallpaper,” the tortuous methods to restrain women from society were prevalent. The “Rest Cure,” developed by Silas Weir Mitchell, was a treatment designed to deal with nervous illnesses. This cure was most often prescribed to women rather than men, and even Gilman was subjected to the treatment.

The elements of the treatment basically turned the patient into a being similar to that of an infant, completely incapacitated and unable to speak or even feed themselves. Often patients were force fed and in order to maintain some muscle mass were given electroshock therapy treatments. These treatments were later described as a means to subject women to male authority, and were thought to make the patient worse rather than better by many patients as well as doctors.

The narrator in “The Yellow Wallpaper” was subjected to a form of the Rest Cure treatment, and the effects were exaggerated by her utter insanity. Gilman used this work to speak out strongly against the oppressive nature of the Rest Cure; perhaps mainly due to the suffering that she had endured herself due to the “cure.”

However, because of the narrator’s obviously creative mind, the seclusion gave her the time to let her imagination get away with her. Perhaps, she developed over time a mental disorder similar to that of schizophrenia or Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID). Many of these disorders were not as popular or heard of during that time however so it is possible that Gilman did not have either of these in mind during the writing of the story.

Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s story “The Yellow Wallpaper” addressed the cruelties towards women which they were subjected to during the late nineteenth century into the early twenty-first. She made the statement that the treatments that women were forced to endure were in fact, not beneficial but detrimental to their health and well being. Her short story continues to remain an important piece of work in literature that advocates women’s rights.

Works Cited

Spiro, Lauren. "The Human Impact of Seclusion and Restraint." Http://ncmhr.org. N.p., 31 Mar. 2010. Web. 20 Nov. 2012. <http://ncmhr.org/downloads/HumanImpactOfSeclusionAndRestraint.pdf>.

"Rest Cure." Http://www.sciencemuseum.org.uk. N.p., 2009. Web. 22 Nov. 2012. <http://www.sciencemuseum.org.uk/broughttolife/techniques/restcure.aspx>.