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Shar-Lyn Tay
Eng 250
Professor Pacht
10 May 2007
Mental Illnesses and its Contribution to the
Repression of Women
Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s short story “The Yellow Wallpaper” addresses the
serious issue of how women with mental illnesses were treated in the late nineteenth
century. As doctors were still trying to figure out the science behind mental illnesses and
possible a cure for it, these women were usually just prescribed bed rest and advised not
to exert themselves. Women had it worse than men as they were already expected to stay
at home and adhere to the wifely duties society had laid out for them. Based on Gilman’s
true life experiences, women such as Gilman were treated as inferiors in the nineteenth
century and mental illnesses served as a deterrent to women who wanted to become less
dependent on men.
In “The Yellow Wallpaper”, Gilman explores the mind of a young woman
trapped in the clutches of depression. The story was written shortly after Gilman had
suffered her own nervous breakdown and is told in first person narration. The first person
aspect of “The Yellow Wallpaper” gives it a more personal feel, both to the author and
the reader. Gilman probably felt a deeper connection to the story by writing in a journallike style, while readers were given a glimpse into the mind of the title character.
Just like the narrator in “The Yellow Wallpaper”, Gilman suffered a nervous
breakdown after the birth of her baby and was treated by a physician. In Gilman’s case,
the physician was a nerve specialist known as Dr S. Weir Mitchell. He prescribed her
“the rest cure”, which consisted of the following instructions:
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Live as domestic a life as possible. Have your child with you all the
time…Lie down an hour after each meal. Have but two hours’ intellectual
life a day. And never touch pen, brush, or pencil as long as you live.
(Gilman, “Undergoing”, 870)
Dr. Mitchell was basically sentencing her to a life of solidity. Gilman was
supposed to play her role as the faithful wife even more now that she was deemed
mentally ill. Only domesticated activities were allowed. Intellectual interaction with other
people was severely limited. She was not even granted the freedom to express her
innermost thoughts via writing or painting. Gilman was not only forbidden from doing so
during her rest period, but for the rest of her life, as seen in the quote above. Since the
doctors of that time were not exactly certain what to prescribe patients if their illnesses
were not physical, keeping them imprisoned was considered the best cure.
Gilman showed that this was not the case, as she quotes, “I went home, followed
those directions rigidly for months, and came perilously near to losing my mind”
(“Undergoing”, 871). The extent of her mental torment during her supposed rest period
was extreme. She started playing with a rag baby that she made, and crawled into closets
and under beds to escape the pressure (Gilman, “Undergoing”, 871). Her mental state was
deteriorating as the doctor’s prescription appeared to be of no help.
The fact that she was a woman relegated her to typical motherly duties. Not once
is the husband mentioned throughout this entire healing process. In fact, Gilman only
managed to regain her sanity when she initiated the divorce with her husband. She only
felt it was fair to her family because it would be “…better for that dear child to have
separated parents than a lunatic mother” (Gilman, “Undergoing”, 871).
In an effort to help women who were suffering from mental illnesses overcome
their stifling sickness, Gilman decided to write “The Yellow Wallpaper”. She even sent a
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copy of the story “…to the physician who so nearly drove me mad”, but “he never
acknowledged it” (Gilman, “Why”, 873). Misogyny could have played a role here, where
Dr. Mitchell was unwilling to accept the opinions of his former patient.
When comparing what the narrator in “The Yellow Wallpaper” and Gilman went
through during their bout of depression, many similarities are noted as Gilman based
most of the story on her own experiences. The narrator is whisked off to an ancestral
home for the summer shortly after the birth of her baby. Her husband John is a
“…physician of high standing” (Gilman, “Yellow”, 313). She seems to adore her baby,
calling him “dear”, yet resents him at the same time. She absolutely cannot be in the
presence of the baby as he makes her very nervous (Gilman, “Yellow”, 315).
John, being a stubborn physician, refuses to diagnose the narrator with an actual
disease, insisting to friends and family that she was fine except for a temporary bout of
nervous depression. She is then prescribed some “…phosphates or phosphites…tonics,
and journeys, and air, and exercise…” (Gilman, “Yellow”, 313). She is also prohibited
from doing any form of work until she is well again. She mentions several times that
John did not approve of her writing habits. It exhausted her, “…having to be so sly about
it, or else meet with heavy opposition” (Gilman, “Yellow”, 313). She sneaks her writing
into periods when John is away, as he hates her having to write a word (Gilman,
“Yellow”, 314).
The narrator is constantly kept in a room known as the “nursery”. That was how
she thought of the room, as a nursery turned playroom and gymnasium. The windows
were barred, possibly for keeping little children from falling out, and the walls were full
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of rings and things (Gilman, “Yellow”, 314). However, the thing that intrigued her the
most was the wallpaper in the room. This is how she describes it:
It is dull enough to confuse the eye in the following, pronounced enough
to constantly irritate and provoke study, and when you follow the lame
uncertain curves for a little distance they suddenly commit suicide –
plunge off at outrageous angles, destroy themselves in unheard of
contradictions. (Gilman, “Yellow”, 314)
The language used in this entire quote is very emblematic of how the narrator
really felt at the time. It reflected how unfulfilling her life was, hence its dullness; yet the
color was bright enough to mirror how it irritated her and forced her to concentrate on it.
Terms like “commit suicide” could show that the narrator had thoughts of suicide running
through her head. The “outrageous angles” and “unheard of contradictions” could mean
that she had plans to just drop everything she was doing and destroy herself in a
shocking, unsuspected way.
The narrator was obviously not getting better despite her prescribed rest. John did
not help matters by infantilizing the narrator. Calling her a “blessed little goose” (Gilman,
“Yellow”, 315) and “little girl” (Gilman, “Yellow”, 319) was a patronizing act and
showed that he thought of her as a helpless child. Had the sex of the narrator been
different, it would be unlikely that the narrator would be called such condescending
names.
It becomes clear that the narrator has totally lost her mind when she begins
envisioning the wallpaper turning into bars at night in any kind of light and that there is a
woman trapped behind it (Gilman, “Yellow”, 320). In Sandra M. Gilbert and Susan
Gubar’s article “A Feminist Reading of Gilman’s ‘The Yellow Wallpaper’”, they
acknowledge that “…the figure creeping through and behind the wallpaper is both the
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narrator and the narrator’s double” (869). This part of the story is very similar to
Gilman’s rendition of crawling into closets and under beds when she was depressed
herself. Both the narrator and Gilman were obviously trying to escape their troubles
through the only way they knew – crawling away from them.
Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s gothic style of writing helped convey her message
more effectively. The setting of “The Yellow Wallpaper” was in “a colonial mansion, a
hereditary estate…” (Gilman, 313). A domineering romantic male figure constantly
hovering over her helpless self also added to the dark feel of the story. Readers would
tend to believe such a setting considering the mood and theme of the story.
Today, Gilman and the narrator would have been diagnosed with “…severe
postpartum psychosis” (Gilbert and Gubar, 868). Back when nobody knew how to treat
such an illness, women were forced to rest by isolating themselves and doing as little as
possible. Seeing that women in the nineteenth century were already repressed, those who
were afflicted with mental illnesses were even worse off. They had no choice but to
adhere to society’s dictation of a woman’s role. An independent woman was a rare find,
as many of these women were unable to function without a male figure in their lives,
such as how the narrator in “The Yellow Wallpaper” had to rely on John for almost
everything. Gilman tried to break free from this rein society held on her and attempted to
make a difference through her writing. “The Yellow Wallpaper” made women realize
that they too could be free and healthy like Gilman.
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Works Cited
Gilbert, Sandra M. and Susan Gubar. “A Feminist Reading of Gilman’s ‘The Yellow
Wallpaper’”. The Story and its Writer: An Introduction to Short Fiction. Boston:
Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2007.
Gilman, Charlotte Perkins. “The Yellow Wallpaper”. The Story and its Writer:
An Introduction to Short Fiction. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2007.
Gilman, Charlotte Perkins. “Undergoing the Cure for Nervous Prostration”. The Story
and its Writer: An Introduction to Short Fiction. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin’s,
2007.
Gilman, Charlotte Perkins. “Why I Wrote “The Yellow Wallpaper”. The Story
and its Writer: An Introduction to Short Fiction. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin’s,
2007.