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Jessica Lawrence

Ms. Jacobs

Freshman Comp 1322

26 September 2017

Put Your Mind at Rest.

Imagine going through a post-partum depression and the only treatment is to do nothing.

Can you imagine being a post-pregnant woman in the Victorian Era? This is In the Victoria

era,the era wherewere the modern medicine we are familiar with, are still in the experimental

phase. Where the study of psychology and mental illness was bornjust began to flourish during

these timesthis period. An an americanAmerican physician named Silas Weir Mitchell, and the

onethe man who made The Rest Cure popular. A cure where the patients treatment consisted

of limited physical movements as well as limited mental activity. . Limited physical and no

mental activity are the baseline for treatment with this cure . In the YellowThe Yellow

Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, a short story a story written as a hidden journal entry ,

is aboutis about a young, married woman who recently gave birth, , and diagnosed as illand has

temporarily moved into this beautiful grand treatment home with her husband and child, but is

sentenced to an big, open airy old children's play room turnt nursery where she must remain as

she undergoes her treatment.

As. Her husband, also her physician, transferred the family to a home where she

undergoes the Rest Cure treatment. The effects of the rest cure on the young womans mind

becomes crazed as she is sentenced to rest in an old play room with ugly yellow wallpaper. the

story continues, you will see what crazing effect the rest cure has on the young woman's mind ,
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how her husband does not help her situation, but in fact makes things worse, and how the yellow

wallpaper ends up saving herself.

Practical in the extreme is hHow our heroine, the narrator, describes her husband., who

is also her physician, as practical in the extreme. John has nono patience with faith, and

intense horror of superstition ,superstition , Hhe scoffs openly at any talk of things not to be

felt and seen and put down in figures. Johns belief in his own superior knowledge and

maturity lead him to patronize his wife often, telling friends and relatives that there is really

nothing the matter with one but temporary nervous depression - a slight hysterical tendency-

what is one to do? and underestimate the true strength of her mind, John laughs at me, of

course, but one expects that in marriage. Even though, you may want to make John the villain in

this story, it is apparent that he simply believes that because he is a doctor as well as her loving

husband he knows whatswhats ultimately best for her. He restricts her behavior as part of her

treatment, but being the logical man that he is, he wouldnt understand his wifes imagination to

begin with and will underestimate the true strength of her mind, which shocks him so much in

the end he does something completely against his perceived character, he faints..faints.

It's clear that our narrator is highly imaginative and is a natural writer as she records her

thoughts as her obsession with the wallpaper grows. This story is set in the time period where

women already barely had a say so in anything that wasnt evolving the feminine side of

homemaking, and with John being our heroine's husband as well as doctor, , He is very careful

and loving, and hardly let me stir without special direction. what can one do? but to be

accepting. The pink elephant in the story is how there is little mention to no on the narrator's

baby. Since our narrator has been diagnosed with depression, and been forced into inactivity and

kept from healthy work she is also kept away from her baby, but the narrator believes that is
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what is best because she does believe that she is sick. Such a dear baby! Any yet i cannot be

with him, it makes me so nervous.. Its no surprise how this woman was brought to the brink of

insanity. She was Absolutely forbidden to work to exercise her mind freely, treated like she

was just a child herself, hadherself, had no say in even the smallest details, and away from her

baby. Deep down she knew the treatment wasnt right. Personally, I disagreeI disagree with

their ideas. Personally, i believe that congenial work, with excitement and change would do me

good. . SoSo, in spite, She starts writing in secret and as the entries continue you can see how

being repressed is the cause of herof her going insane at the end when she locked herself from

the room and then proceeds to rip off the yellow wallpaper to free the women within. It isnt

until the end of the entries when we are finally given the name to our heroine. Ive got out at

last. said I, in spite of you and Jane. and i'veIve pulled off most of the paper, so you cant put

me back! Jane talking to her husband John, referred to herself in third person in that line,

insinuating the woman who was trapped within the yellow wallpaper has now taken over and is

now free. Free from all the repression that was forced upon her.

The yellow wallpaper plays a symbolic part in this piece of work. The wallpaper

represents the ugly side of family, social tradition and medical practices and the treatment of

women during this time periodperiod. The way Jane initially perceives the wallpaper in the

beginning tobeginning to how she saw the same paper she had to ripped down at the end, also

showcases the condition of her mind. At first, she had a normal response to the wall just simply

describing how she couldnt stand it. Not only was the room she was placed in barred, but had

flamboyant patterns that committed every artistic sin, color was repellant, almost

revolting...unclean yellow.Thenyellow. , HerThen, Her imaginative mind starts to give the

wallpaper more human like characteristics the pattern lolls like a brokebroken neck and two
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bulbous eyes stare at you upside down to eventually she starts seeing a woman within the

walls At night in any kind of light,.. Worst of all by moonlight, it becomes bars! The outside

pattern..andpattern. And the woman behind it is as plain as can be Once Jane starts seeing this

woman in the wallpaper, she put it upon herself to free the trapped womantrapped woman,

which coincidentally is freeing herself.

CONCLUSION

The Yellow Wallpaper is a great and relatable piece of work. The way Gilman portrays

the characters gives the reader an emotional connection and deep understanding into their world.

John truly cared for the wellbeing of Jane but his ignorance and his dominant role in life, worsen

her condition, causing her obsession to the wallpaper to manifest into an insanity, whichinsanity,

which eventually led to her mental breakthrough and her newfound inner strength. This story is a

great example on how sometimes you have tomust go to some extremes in order to break free

from the things that hold you back.

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Works Cited

Gilman, Charlotte Perkins. The Yellow Wallpaper. The Norton Introduction to

Literature, 12th ed., pp. 316330.