Behind the Yellow Wallpaper Revision 1 PDF

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Analytical essay on the short story - The Yellow Wallpaper....

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Wehner 1 Alyssa Wehner English 102 Jacoby 28 February 2019 Behind the Yellow Wallpaper In the nineteenth century, postpartum depression didn’t exist, or more accurate, there wasn’t a name for it yet. It was simply called a nervous illness, assumed to be just a temporary nervous depression. The most common treatment was developed by neurologist Silas Weir Mitchell which he named the rest cure. Essentially, the rest cure was to “live as domestic a life as far as possible” and to “have but two hours’ intellectual life a day” (Gilman 480). This treatment was only prescribed to women and, more often than not, led to a nervous breakdown. The narrator of Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s “The Yellow Wallpaper” was no exception. Gilman’s story depicts the deteriorating sanity of a woman who has just given birth and prescribed the rest cure. Since the beginning of time the role of a mother has been idealized. And in 1892, “domesticity and motherhood were portrayed as sufficient emotional fulfilment for women” (Abrams). The women were kept in the private sphere, maintaining the home and children, while the public sphere of business and politics were left to the men. Back then it wasn’t seen as blind adherence to certain values but more as a way of living based on the importance of family, constancy of marriage, and a woman’s moral goodness. The home was seen as a haven away from the public sphere and most thought of it as a vacation. And women’s clothes started to reflect their position. 19th century fashion became more sexual with clothing that emphasized the hips, breasts and buttocks by use of hoopskirts and corsets. By wearing dresses that resembled

Wehner 2 their homes, women became walking symbols of their position – wife, mother, domestic. Their job was to keep things tidy, bear children, and look presentable (Abrams). But one thing they weren’t supposed to do was talk about their feelings. There were many explanations for depression back then. From aggression to internal conflict and everything in between. However, this was all in relation to men. Common treatment for males included exercise, music, drugs, and diet. Depression in women was kept a secret and never talked about. Most women who presented signs of melancholia were sent to sanitariums and subjected to absurd treatments. Therapies such as water immersion in which they kept people under water for as long as possible without drowning them, a special spinning stool to induce dizziness to rearrange the contents of the brain into correct positions, electroshock therapy, lobotomies, and vomiting were all recommended (Nemade). It is safe to say, treatments during this century were highly inadequate for people with severe depression. However, most didn’t even know they had depression. It was common for women to be told there was nothing wrong with them and all they had to do was rest in order to get back to normal. The rest cure was developed in the late 1800s by Silas Weir Mitchell to treat those with hysteria. It was prescribed predominately for women and mainly just kept them out of asylums. The cure lasted roughly six to eight weeks and involved intense isolation from both family and friends. It also enforced bed rest and a diet than consisted of fatty, milk-based foods. Mitchell believed that this cure increased patient blood flow and weight gain while removing them from a potentially toxic social atmosphere. But the main point was to break a woman’s will and spirit; to unquestioningly submit to a male’s authority (Rest Cure). When one is told by a doctor that there is no reason for them to feel the way they do, that is what they believe. The narrator of “The Yellow Wallpaper” feels this exact way; “If a physician of high standing, and one’s own husband,

Wehner 3 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 468). However, there is overwhelming evidence in the story that she doesn’t just have a temporary nervous depression, but instead, is suffering from undiagnosed postpartum depression. Postpartum depression is a mood disorder that can affect women after childbirth. It does not have a single cause, more of a combined result of both physical and emotional factors. After childbirth, levels of hormones in a woman’s body drop quickly which leads to chemical changes in her brain that may trigger mood swings (Postpartum Depression Facts). The narrator describes feeling constantly fatigued; “Nobody would believe what an effort it is to do what little I am able, -- to dress and entertain, and order things” (Gilman 470). She also worries about not being able to be with her child and how often she cries now; “I cry at nothing, and cry most of the time” (Gilman 472). And she loses the will and want to write, something she used to be quite passionate about. All of these are direct symptoms of postpartum depression, which often if untreated, leads to hysteria. In the nineteenth century, they just called it temporary nervous depression because they had no other name for it. They didn’t believe, or didn’t care to believe, that it was a true condition, so it always went untreated. Our narrator, who was prescribed the rest cure carried out in a single room, began to hallucinate. She became fixated on the horrid yellow wallpaper in the room and stared at it, night and day. At first, she just saw a formless figure behind the design and before long that figure became a woman. A woman who creeped about and mocked her. She recalls that the figure behind the wallpaper “seemed to shake the pattern, just as if she wanted to get out” (Gilman 473). And no matter how many times she attempts to talk to John, her husband, about her case, he refuses to give it any merit. Simply stating, he is a doctor and he knows best. So, her condition worsens,

Wehner 4 and she begins to see the woman escaping the wallpaper during the day. However, she keeps this to herself now because she doesn’t want to tell John. By the last night, the narrator is all but insane. Peeling off yards of wallpaper at a time and hiding rope in the room. She now associates herself and the woman in the wallpaper as one, desperately trying to get free; “I am getting angry enough to do something desperate” (Gilman 478). In the end, it is assumed the poor woman hangs herself stating, “I’ve got out at last… And I’ve pulled off most of the paper, so you can’t put me back” (Gilman 478). The only way to escape the hysteria that was induced out of pure neglect, was to end her life. The wallpaper she was trapped under represents the ways of the nineteenth century that silenced the women of the time. The way nothing of substance was talked about, the way women had to put on a façade for society, and the way women were treated in general. The only way to write a story with such vivid detail of insanity, it that have been through it yourself. Gilman struggled for many years with a severe and unrelenting nervous breakdown and was personally prescribed the rest cure by Silas Weir Mitchell. She followed the doctor’s instructions for nearly three months and came close to ending her life. However, she rebelled against the ways of the time and disregarded the male’s opinion. She began working again and socializing with the world. Her downfall and recovery are what pushed her to write “The Yellow Wallpaper”. To help others in the same situation feel seen and heard. To help those on the outside understand what happens on the inside. To prove that just because everything appears to be healthy on the outside, doesn’t mean they are healthy on the inside too. In today’s world, mental illnesses are still widely misunderstood. Only recently was postpartum depression actually recognized as a true illness. Of course, society got rid of the lobotomies and immersion therapies more in favor of psychiatrists and certain medications to

Wehner 5 help. But there is a constant stigma around mental illness that makes it incredibly difficult to discuss. Gilman’s work was “not intended to drive people crazy, but to save people from being driven crazy, and it worked” (Gilman 480). But Charlotte Perkins Gilman, having been through it herself, did an outstanding job of portraying what happens to a woman when their health isn’t taken seriously.

Wehner 6 Works Cited Abrams, Lynn. “Ideals of Womanhood in Victorian Britain.” British Broadcasting Corporation. BBC History, 9 August 2001. Gilman, Charlotte Perkins. “The Yellow Wallpaper.” Literature: An Introduction to Fiction, Poetry, Drama, and Writing. 13th Ed. Edited by X.J. Kennedy and Dana Gioia. Pearson, 2016, pp. 468-478. Gilman, Charlotte Perkins. “Why I Wrote ‘The Yellow Wallpaper’.” Literature: An Introduction to Fiction, Poetry, Drama, and Writing. 13th Ed. Edited by X.J. Kennedy and Dana Gioia. Pearson, 2016, pp. 479-480. Nemade, Rashmi, et al. “Historical Understandings of Depression.” Mental Help. “Postpartum Depression Facts.” National Institute of Mental Health, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. “Rest Cure.” Brought to Life, Science Museum....