The Use Of Rest Cure In The Yellow Wallpaper

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The story, “The Yellow Wallpaper” was published in 1892 by a prominent American feminist, author and sociologist Charlotte Perkins Gilman. The basic plot of this story was about a woman - the narrator - that was locked in a summer home by her supportive yet misunderstood husband, John who thought she had an issue and had to resolve it using rest cure. Rest cure is a recovery procedure that forces a person to be inactive physically and mentally without stimulations. She got intrigued by a yellow wallpaper that cover the entire room. The narrator begins to see various different patterns as she stated in l. 148 “This wall-paper has a kind of sub-pattern in a, different shade, a particularly irritating one…” and was able to see another figure in this wallpaper explained in l. 234 “The faint figure behind seemed to…show more content…
“...She was treated by a famous Philadelphia nerve specialist, Dr. S. Weir Mitchell, who prescribed a rest cure”. Probably this method of cure she had never heard of might have side effects. Gilman wanted to direct doctors or nerve specialists not to use this detrimental method of cure. This next proof can show that the rest cure does have after-effects. Gilman does say that while she was prescribed with the rest cure, over the three months she strongly expresses the point “... For some three months and came so near the border of utter mental ruin that could see over…” This just means that if you do accept the method of rest cure, there is a high possibility that you might have a similar or more dramatic effect than Charlotte had. The narrator protested against the fact that rest cure is being used. She believes it should be eradicated. “The Yellow Wallpaper” was written, published and sparked women’s knowledge and making Dr. Mitchell change his ways of treatment for upcoming or current
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