"The Yellow Wallpaper" “The Yellow Wallpaper’ is a short story written by Charlotte Perkins Gilman in 1892. The plot of the story is the medical treatment of a woman with a nervous disorder, a.k.a. depression (including postpartum depression). The protagonist is an unnamed woman with a submissive, almost child-like faith and obedience to the supremacy of her husband, John. John is a renowned doctor and is treating her illness. This paper will focus on feminism in three areas; the medical diagnosis
In Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s “The Yellow Wallpaper”, the story shows how doctors of the time period did not know the proper way to treat depression. The idea of taking a person that is suffering from depression and isolating them from everyone they know and love seems very counter productive. Although, it is not clear that physicians even knew what depression actually was. It is clear that they had absolutely no understanding of how to treat individuals suffering from these types of mental issues
“THE YELLOW WALLPAPER”: MENTAL ILLNESS AND ITS TREATMENTS Postpartum depression is defined as, “a mood disorder that can affect women after childbirth… [and can cause] feelings of extreme sadness, anxiety, and exhaustion that may make it difficult for them to complete daily care activities for themselves or for others.” Today postpartum depression is a mental illness that is widely known, but in the late 1800’s when Charlotte Perkins Gilman wrote “The Yellow Wallpaper,” postpartum depression was
author's emotions and past. One such story that shares those feelings in a personal way is the The Yellow Wallpaper. Charlotte Gilman's The Yellow Wallpaper is her emotional account of having postpartum depression in the late 1800's. This will be proven in the four following paragraphs. One paragraph will summarize The Yellow Wallpaper and then will give a definition of this postpartum depression. The next paragraph will contain a short biography of Charlotte Gilman and what the scientists in the
Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s, “The Yellow Wallpaper,” is a clear vision of how women in the 1800’s to early 1900’s were treated and misdiagnosed before the discovery and acknowledgment of postpartum depression. Jane, the narrator, wife of John, and sister-in-law to Jennie, battles postpartum depression and mental illness isolated and alone. The psychological outbursts take place during a three week stay at a hereditary estate that is meant to serve as a place for Jane to rest and get well, but also
postpartum depression. She was dismissed as faking an illness since at that time they were not able to recognize postpartum depression as a serious illness. During 1888 she separated from her husband and later on committed suicide since she was diagnosed with terminally ill cancer. Setting: this story took place in an american city during the late nineteenth century. They were settled in a house that was leased for the summer. The couple did not occupy the whole house they were settled in a yellow wallpapered
Katie Wesson Professor Festus Ndeh English 1102-TEAB 9 September 2014 The True Confinement of a Nineteenth Century Woman In “The Yellow Wallpaper” by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, she uses the setting to explain the development of the narrator’s insanity through the actions of the narrator. The nameless narrator suffers from postpartum disease which causes depression, and lack of joy in life. Throughout the story, the narrator’s condition worsens, because of the isolation and lack of power due to
being driven crazy, and it worked” (Gilman P). Charlotte Perkins Gilman said this as to why she wrote “The Yellow Wallpaper.” There has been debate among scholars whether Gilman should be considered a feminist or not. The definition of feminism is the advocacy of women’s rights on the basis of the equality of the sexes. Whether Charlotte Perkins Gilman intended to or not, “The Yellow Wallpaper” is a feminist piece of literature because of its message regarding women’s healthcare, the issue with women’s
to treat it. In the short story, “The Yellow Wallpaper” author Charlotte Perkins Gilman shows us a woman’s descent into complete madness. The narrator of this story is suffering from post-partum depression and her husband, who happens to also be a doctor, prescribes a rest cure that only worsens her condition as she becomes fixated on the hideous yellow wallpaper in her room. She imagines and becomes obsessed with a woman trapped within the yellow wallpaper. Her husband’s unfortunate cure places
husband's death. Charlotte Perkins Gilman wrote "The Yellow Wallpaper" about a woman, Jane, who was confined to bed because of depression. She begins to see a woman underneath the wallpaper of her rented mansion. By the end of the story, Jane believes that she could be the woman under the wallpaper. Both women in both stories undoubtedly have mental issues. The main character from the “The Story of an Hour” and the narrator of “The Yellow Wallpaper” are described as being sick but they are sick in different