Analysis of The Yellow Wallpaper Essay

Prescription for Madness

The Yellow Wallpaper is a short story written by Charlotte Perkins Gilman that portrays the plight of a woman in the late 1800s and early 1900s trying to find her sense of self and breaking the mold that society has created for middle class white women. The story is about Jane, the protagonist, who is on the verge of madness after being misdiagnosed and prescribed the rest cure for her suffering from postpartum depression. Her husband John, who is a physician, is treating her according to the fashion of the famous nerve specialist, S. Weir Mitchell, which includes total bed rest, isolation from family and limiting intellectual activities such as reading and writing. This story of mental health was written by Gilman, who herself was prescribed the rest cure, to demonstrate how this cure was used by patriarchs of the society to keep women in line, that is, intellectually deprived and submissive so that they can be easily controlled but which could backfire and lead to psychosis.

In the Victorian age, women were perceived as physically and emotionally inferior to the male-dominated society and this was illustrated by the rest cure. Famed nerve specialist Dr. S. Weir Mitchell developed the rest cure to treat neurasthenia, or nervous exhaustion in both men and women. However, the causes and treatment of neurasthenia depended on gender. Author Suzanne Poirier states that men suffered from nervous exhaustion because they were overworked while women suffered from it if they studied school lessons too intently during a time of important hormonal activity, overworked from nursing a sick relative or stayed out too late too often at social events (17-18). The women who were placed on the rest cure were not allowed to engage in any form of intellectual work and were asked to readapt to the domestic life. In The Yellow Wallpaper, Gilman is attempting to portray the inequality suffered by women in a time where passive housewives are favored by using the rest cure. Jane is not allowed to make simple decisions such as picking out her room; instead, she is confined to a room which she does not fancy, where the horrid, yellow wallpaper shroud the walls, the windows are barred and the bed nailed to the floor. Even her care and how she spends her day are dictated by her physician husband: I have a schedule prescription for each hour in the day; he takes all care from me, and so I feel basely ungrateful not to value it more (425). As well as controlling every aspect of her life, he also uses his authority as a male physician, who has the upper hand in society, into frightening her to become better, for instance, John says if I dont pick up faster he shall send me to Weir Mitchell in the fall (428). Furthermore he deprives her of anything that could stimulate her mind such as using her imagination and writing and this, coupled with his lack of understanding about his wifes creative nature and brushing aside her opinions leads to her obsessive curiosity of the horrid wallpaper which ultimately drives her to insanity.

Consequently, because of the lack of mental stimulation imposed on her by her husband, Jane spirals into madness. She focuses her attention towards and begins having spirited fantasies about the garish, yellow wallpaper and these fantasies serves as her escape and armor against her husbands substantial control over her condition. As Jane becomes more detached from her surroundings, she begins to have hallucinations of women creeping and the form of a woman imprisoned behind bars in the yellow wallpaper. The woman is most alive when there is moonlight; an indication that Johns authoritarian treatment has no effect on Jane because she is free to do as she pleases at night when he sleeps and her tendency to creep suggests that she must be cautious after she escapes, since society will not accept her freedom from her respective duties as a woman. The more she stares at the patterns in the wallpaper, the more convinced she is that the woman wants to escape, for example, The faint figure behind seemed to shake the pattern, just as if she wanted to get out (430). The wallpaper in which she is trapped in symbolizes the rest cure which operates as a cage, confining her to a room and a treatment until she altered herself to societys image of the ideal woman. Moreover, Jane begins to identify with the woman behind the wallpaper who symbolizes female captivity within a domestic, closed minded society that wants her to tend to the house and be a good mother and wife. At the very end of the story we see that Janes madness climaxed as she no longer identifies with the woman but becomes the woman and is desperate to help her escape by tearing off the patriarchic and domesticated prison of the wallpaper Ive got out at lastAnd Ive pulled off most of the paper, so you cant put me back! (435). Although Jane succeeded in breaking the bonds of society she lost herself and her sanity in the process.

In writing The Yellow Wallpaper, Charlotte Perkins Gilman is able to successfully reveal a crucial struggle that women in the Victorian age faced in a patriarchal society. This male dominated society demanded that women should not indulge in any form of intellectual, imaginative or creative interests and should be contended with being a wife, mother and homemaker. She has brought to light the suffering of a woman at the hands of the rest cure and has said herself that the purpose of writing this story was not intended to drive people crazy, but to save people from being driven crazy (436).

Works Cited

Gilman, Charlotte Perkins. The Yellow Wallpaper. Literature: An Introduction to Fiction, Poetry, Drama, and Writing. Ed. X.J. Kennedy and Dana Gioia 10th ed. New York: Pearson Longman, 2007.425-436.

Poirier, Suzanne. "The Weir Mitchell Rest Cure: Doctor and Patients." Women's Studies 10.1 (Jan. 1983): 17-18. Academic Search Complete. EBSCO. Lake Sumter Community College, Clermont, FL. 27 Jan. 2009 .