The Yellow Wallpaper; book review (Mental Health in Literature)

Psychology

1 Sept

I wrote this essay for my Access to University course in 2021- 2022. I found this short story a fascinating read about mental health. I recommend it for a quick and easy read.

Please do not plagiarise my work.

Human-written, AI-free!

The Yellow Wallpaper; the descent into Madness by C. Perkins Gilmore

The writer
Charlotte Perkins Gilmore was a feminist intellectual who advocated for women to gain their own independence. Her short story was based on her own experience with her first husband, Charles Stetson, with whom she had a daughter, Kathrine. Unfortunately, Charlotte suffered from mental health difficulties after her daughter was born, for which she endured ‘treatment’, which is the basis of the novel (TAG, 2014).

Suffering from depression for 3 years, she sought help from a highly ranked specialist in the country, in the hope of recovering. He prescribed her rest with only a couple of hours of intellectual stimulation a day in 1887; she obeyed this for 3 months, during which it almost destroyed her. She recovered by returning to writing and living life with the support of a friend and writing her experience the ‘Yellow Wallpaper’, This publication has helped alienists (Psychiatrists) understand and alter their treatment to avoid driving people insane (Charlotte Perkins Gilmore, 1913).

The narrator

The story The Yellow Wallpaper (TYW) is written in diary style with an unnamed narrator. The narrator sneakingly writes instalments in her diary, because her husband John, and also her physician forbids her to, because it ‘overexcites’ her. Within her diary, she writes about her experience and treatment for her ‘nervous’ disorder, which leads to madness, through her oppression and isolation. The reader is given an insight to male’s attitudes to mental health towards women during the time of publication in 1892.

The narrator speaks about gender inequality within her diary and the gender roles that were common in the 18th century. However, she rebels against this in her own feminist way by writing in her diary, despite being told not to. The narrator is against her treatment and diagnosis she has been given, although she understands she does not have any control or power because her husband has threatened to take her to a mental institution. Moreover, she is not listened to when she brings up her concerns to her husband and is brushed off in a condescending way, even laughing at her and is ignored. Mental health was treated differently in the 18th Century; women had less autonomy and freedom in general from men, as they were seen as ‘weaker’ and more ‘emotional’. Women were seen as ‘Hysterical’ if they expressed their emotions or pain. The narrator even goes on to say that she does not cry in front of John, because he believes that this is her conditioning worsening. Besides, John does not believe that she is sick and that she lives in a fantasy world. The gender roles are defined in a way that the narrator feels like a burden to her husband and that she should be taking care of him and doing her wifely duties, yet he is left to care for her. This leads to the power dynamic, where her husband infantilises her by controlling every aspect of her day, calls her a ‘Little girl’ and makes all of her decisions; because, of course, he is a man and he knows more than her and is in charge. This Patriarchy of America, with the narrator’s husband and brother, are both of ‘High standing’, so the narrator is to passively let it happen, trapped within her life without any power, leading to devastating effects with the poor attitude to mental health and maltreatment of the mentally sick. Moreover, the ending is where it is John who faints due to the effects of his treatment, causing the narrator to go into psychosis, where women are seen as ‘weak’; John faints instead.

The ‘cure’ for her nervous condition is to ‘rest’ and be in isolation; prescribed to her by one of the leading Dr’s in the country, Dr Weir Mitchell. Charlotte sent a copy of her story to him once it was published. She received no reply back; it was said that he changed his treatment methods thereafter, due to its impact.

History:

The Yellow Wallpaper was written in the 1800’s in the Victorian age, when women were oppressed. Males and females often had very different roles; women only worked for their families and within feminine-based roles. Most women were expected to look after their homes and the children because they were seen as weaker than men, who were ‘superior’, and ambitious women were labelled as ‘Blue Stockings’. Doctors believed that being educated was harmful for women’s ovaries (Kathryn Hughes, 2014).

Mental health was seen very differently back then, with women being labelled as ‘Nervous exhaustion and hysteria’ because women were seen as weak due to their reproductive cycles. Treatment was to rest, not work, alongside fresh air, walking, and a lack of socialising, teamed with a range of tonics.

Women who gave birth would sometimes struggle with ‘perpetual insanity’ with the strain of childbirth, because of the mental and physical labour. Treatment for this would be to rest the nervous system to regain one’s strength. ‘
Nervous exhaustion’ was given to women who were ambitious and suffered from burnout due to the demand, equal to men, because women were vulnerable (Hillary Maryland, 2018. This oppression and struggle with mental health, including the attitude towards treatment, can be seen through the TYW main character.

Charlotte Perkins Gilmore was American, growing up in the late 1800’s, and TYW was written and published in 1892. Life in America during that time was a rapidly developing country, and the growing industrial economy meant that many jobs were found in factories and farms, with the all-American dream. This period included women’s suffrage, technological advances such as electricity, setting working hours, mass media and public transport. However, women were socially accepted to be domesticated mothers, with the adaptation of fashion and recreation for wealthy women; if they had servants and cleaners, they were free to be educated and ladies of leisure. Women who worked had feminine jobs such as teachers, nurses and secretaries, with Bicycles allowing for freedom. Women participated in sports and advocated for women’s suffrage and independence (R. J. Verhaeghe,2014). This independence and feminism can be seen in Charlotte’s work and within the narrator character in TYW.