The Connection Between Creativity and Insanity

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In the short story “The Yellow Wallpaper” by Charlotte Perkins Gilman it takes place in the 19th century where dealing with mental disorders was as similar as dealing with any physical disorder. Paranoia was a very common mental disorder back in the 19th century. In fact, “Under the unerring scrutiny of the two bulbous eyes in the yellow wallpaper, the narrator passes through stages from concern to paranoia and, finally, to madness” (Bak P5). This quote shows her development in to madness by the creative description the narrator gave about the yellow wallpaper. The relationship between creativity and madness are closely tie together because the narrator only thinks about the yellow wallpaper, with what it signifies, which drives her to complete madness.
Back in the 19th century prisons were used to isolate murderers and writers with mental disorders. Zott said “Writer of the early 19th century imagined the prison as a place for the idealized suffering and monastic isolation that were necessary for creativity and growth.” (Zott P6). Writers back then had to be contained in prisons to not harm anyone in the world. Society in the 19th century placed in citizen’s mind that writers and people with mental disorders should be confined. Zott stated “They also acknowledge a certain degree of confinement as a condition of their art” (Zott P5). The article talks about how writers think that because of their art they should be confined. The prisons back then had lots of immovable furniture, which made their madness worse by them being so confined in one area. John S. Bak states again “She is bothered by the immovable bed but gnaws on its leg to free it; and she even remains curiously dispassionate about being shackled with the rings.” (Balk...

... middle of paper ...

...low Wallpaper “: An Autobiography of Emotions.
Gilman, Charlotte Perkins. Thomas L. Erskine, and Connie L. Richards. The Yellow Wallpaper New
Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers UP, 1993. Print.
Korb, Rena. "An overview of 'The Yellow Wallpaper'." Gale Online Encyclopedia. Detroit
Gale, 2014. Literature Resource Center. Web. 13 Mar. 2014.
Stephens, Rebecca. "The Imitation of the Rose: Overview." Reference Guide to Short
Fiction. Ed. Noelle Watson. Detroit: St. James Press, 1994. Literature Resource Center.
Web. 13 Mar. 2014.
Thomas, Deborah. ‘ Charlotte Perkins Gilmans’s “The Yellow Wallpaper” Thesis. Florida Gulf Coast
University, n.d Gilman “The Yellow Wallpaper” Web. 11 Mar 2014
Zott, Lynn M. "The Prison in Nineteenth-Century Literature." Nineteenth-Century Literature Criticism. Ed.
Vol. 116. Detroit: Gale, 2003. Literature Resource Center. Web. 3 Mar. 2014.

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