Postpartum Depression In The Yellow Wallpaper

The psychological maltreatment is one of the most important subjects for women in every culture, and there is no difference regarding to what their social class, educational level or income is. The majority of wives experience psychological abandonment caused by their spouses and other relatives where mental suffering or even death is a frequent result (Emotional Neglect). The story “The Yellow Wallpaper” by Charlotte Gilman is about a young mother who is affected by an illness, supposedly postpartum depression, and whose breakdown results in her awareness and understanding of her own role in a marriage and society in general. In the nineteen century, the typical medical care of such depression is a complete separation from others, work and

Under her “rest cure,” she is prohibited from any activities involving mental or physical efforts, and she is principally required to stay away from writing. In contrast, the narrator believes that some busy action, engaging work, and right to act, speak or think is the best treatment; therefore, she secretly starts her diary to help “relieve her mind” (book). From the beginning, the reader gets an impression of a very natural, creative and extremely imaginative narrator. First, in a mostly enthusiastic was, she describes the house rented by her husband John for the three months of time off and her treatment. However, the storyteller protests that John, who is at the same time her husband and physician, does not take seriously both her depression, anxieties, and her own opinion regarding the treatment. Nevertheless, family doctors, as competent experts, should owe a duty of emotional as well as medical care to anybody who seek their help (medical Malpractice). John cares for his wife very much, however, he does not realize the opposite result of his therapy. Next, upsetting things such as the “rings and things” in the bedroom walls and the bars on the window appear in the narrator’s diary. She especially gets interrupted by the yellow wallpaper in the bedroom, with its strange, formless pattern. In the first place, the yellow wallpaper is

For example, after being told about the disturbing wallpaper, John fails to remove the wallpaper because he truly believes that the yellow wallpaper lets his wife to get better. John sincerely tries to make it easier for his wife, however, his ignorant behavior worsens the illness. John is so competent about his own good judgement, and, thus, by paying no attention to the narrator’s own viewpoint of the depression’s treatment, he forces and pushes his wife to secrete her real emotional state. In addition, John constantly treats his wife with an apparent kindness that betrays a feeling of his superiority. In fact, the last thing he would like is to ruin his wife emotionally and spiritually, however, he refuses to treat her as an individual with her own desires and thoughts. In “The Yellow Wallpaper,” Charlotte Gilman give the reader an effective evidence that spouse’s failure to pay the proper emotional attention is one feature of passive force which hurts and damages wives. In every society, whether it is one hundred years ago or at present time, there are some husbands who intentionally disregard the existence of women as well as they do not encourage wives’ individual and unique growth. Furthermore, because marriage is assumed to be a union of equal spouses, particular ignorance of wives’ personal position usually leads to women’ depression