For the most part, no two people have the same opinion of healthcare workers. Healthcare workers themselves, such as doctors and nurses, have a completely different view on how they should act and what they do. “The Yellow Wallpaper” by Charlotte Perkins Gilman is a perfect example of how a doctor’s view on healthcare workers differs from other peoples. In Gilman’s story John, the narrators husband and doctor, approaches his healthcare practice differently than the narrator, the one who is sick, thinks it should be approached. In Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s “The Yellow Wallpaper” John believes to be a good healthcare provider he needs to focus on the medical side of the case and leave the social aspects out; however, the narrator recognizes …show more content…
Being a doctor John has a different view and insight on what he believes is a good way to care for patients. Many times in “The Yellow Wallpaper” the reader sees John put lots of emphasize on the medical care he is giving to the narrator, but the reader also sees him make sure his wife is not partaking in social actions. At one point in the story the narrator says, “So I take phosphates or phosphites -- whichever it is, and tonics, and journeys, and air, and exercise, and am absolutely forbidden to "work" until I am well again” (Gilman, 1892, p. 648). With this quote, the reader see that John makes sure that the narrator gets her medications and anything that is good for her; however, the reader also sees John make sure his patient, the narrator, does not do any work since that is a social encounter. John holds a strong belief that a good doctor focuses solely on the medical part when treating a patient. Another time in the story when the reader sees this is when the narrator says, “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” (Gilman, 1892, p. 648). Again, readers see John showing what he thinks makes a good doctor by caring only about the medical side and making sure the narrator has no social life that could hinder her …show more content…
In “The Yellow Wallpaper” the narrator acknowledges it is good for a physician to have high standards, but she also mentions how she does not agree with how John goes about his treatment. The narrator infers that she believes a good doctor will not forgo the social side of treatment. The narrator infers that she believes a good doctor would spend more time with their patient making sure they are positively progressing. The narrator tells John, “… my appetite may be better in the evening when you are here, but it is worse in the morning when you are away!" (Gilman, 1892, p. 652). Here the reader sees how the narrator feels as if she is getting better when her doctor and husband are there to comfort her and give her a social interaction and really something to look forward to. Through the narrator, the reader also sees how she does not agree with one of the treatments given to her of no writing; as a matter of fact, she believes this treatment would not be prescribed by a good doctor. Throughout the story the reader continues to write because she feels like it is helping her and not hindering her like John said it would. The narrator begins to obsess over the yellow wallpaper in her room since she is isolated there. If the narrator could write or just interact with more people she would not have to be driven crazy by the pattern in the
The narrator in “The Yellow Wallpaper” knows she is sick, but the men in her life do not think she is seriously ill. Her husband, John, and her brother are both physicians of high standing, so she does not know what to do when they diagnose her as being perfectly healthy. Even though she does not agree with their remedies, she has no say over them. She admits with discomfort, “So I take phosphates or phosphites-whichever it is, and tonics, and journeys, and airs, and exercise, and am absolutely forbidden to “work” until I am well again”(Gilman 956). Although she would know if she was sick and what would make her feel better than anyone else, she is forced to go along with her husband’s elaborate plan for her path to recovery.
Even in the medical field, male doctors were dominate to the hundreds of well educated midwives. “Male physicians are easily identified in town records and even in Martha’s diary, by the title “Doctor.” No local woman can be discovered that way” (Ulrich, 1990, pg.61). Martha was a part of this demoralized group of laborers. Unfortunately for her, “in twentieth-century terms, the ability to prescribe and dispense medicine made Martha a physician, while practical knowledge of gargles, bandages, poultices and clisters, as well as willingness to give extended care, defined her as a nurse” (Ulrich, 1990, pg.58). In her diary she even portrays doctors, not midwives, as inconsequential in a few medical
Charlotte Gilman’s work The Yellow Wallpaper is an incredible scheme that keeps the whole story the author wants to present behind the outer one the story of a demented woman kept in a nursing house. The fundamental idea about the outer surface and the inner essence covered by it is both implemented into the structure and expressed by the message of the story. The recount of the psychological metamorphosis that the character undergoes is hidden behind the matter-of-a-fact story about a mad woman and her visions in a gloomy room with yellow paper on the walls. The understanding of the mental recovery the character experiences is contingent on the reader s ability to distinguish between the cover and the essence below it as applied in the structure of the story.
The short story “The Yellow Wallpaper” by Charlotte Perkins Gilman has a very negative tone towards the treatment of mental patients in the late nineteenth century.
When the only way out of a society based prison is to lose sense of all reality, then losing sense of reality it shall be. In the short story “The Yellow Wall-Paper” by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, Jane (the narrator) becomes obsessed with the wall-paper in her bedroom, which really is a prison that has been forced on her by her husband. Jane is an imaginative young lady who enjoys writing stories, however her husband forbids her to write. Jane is suffering from a nervous condition and her husband, who is also her doctor, feels he knows what is best to keep his wife from going mad. This leaves Jane trapped in a room with no imaginative outlet, surrounded by the god awful wall-paper that begins to close in on her sanity one day at a time.
The narrator, speaking out against her husband states, “He says no one but myself can help me out of it, that I must use my will and self-control and not let any silly fancies run away with me.” This demonstrates how John is not treating his wife for anything. He simply doesn’t believe there is a problem. This is one of her major motivations for keeping a journal; she thinks it helps her because she is afraid to speak out against her husband. Every time she thinks about writing in the journal, she relates how tired it makes her. Throughout the story, John speaks out against her writing, because he feels that it contributes to her depression but she writes anyway, feeling that she is getting away with something. John treats her as if she were ill not depressed. John being a physician, not a psychologist, prescribes her medication that is for someone who is physically ill, not experiencing psychological distress. The journal becomes an outlet for her true feelings that she believes would get her incarcerated if anyone else heard them. When she writes she states, “I think sometimes that if I were only well enough to write a little it would relieve the press of ideas and rest me. But I find I get pretty tired when I try.” Her husband who believes that her writing is contributing to her illness opposes this idea while not radical.
John’s approach appears to be logical as he decided it would be better for his wife to escape her depression by moving temporary to an isolated estate where air, water, greenery, and calmness should be the uplifting factors in his wife’s journey towards gaining strength and getting better. The narrator disagrees with her husband’s decisions on how she should stay and do what he decided for her in this retreat, but follows his orders regardless. John’s treatment of his wife consists of medical prescriptions, “I take phosphates or phosphites-whichever it is-and tonics,...
“My brother is also a physician, and also of high standing, and he says the same thing” (Gilman 655). “Personally, I disagree with their ideas.” “Personally, I believe that congenial work, with excitement and change, would do me good” (Gilman 655). In the story, the narrator’s husband and brother are both physicians. They both agreed should giving narrator the “rest treatment” is the best for the temporary depression, but narrator herself knows that is not the best for herself, and even she disagrees there is nothing she can say or do to help avoid the pointless treatment.
As the story begins, the unnamed doctor is introduced as one who appears to be strictly professional. “Aas often, in such cases, they weren’t telling me more than they had to, it was up to me to tell them; that’s why they were spending three dollars on me.” (par. 3) The doctor leaves the first impression that he is one that keeps his attention about the job and nothing out of the ordinary besides stating his impressions on the mother, father and the patient, Mathilda. Though he does manage to note that Mathilda has a fever. The doctor takes what he considers a “trial shot” and “point of departure” by inquiring what he suspects is a sore throat (par. 6). This point in the story, nothing remains out of the ordinary or questionable about the doctor’s methods, until the story further develops.
The narrator admits she “disagrees with their ideas” (129), She believes that “congenial work, with excitement and change” (129) would help her feel better. In the story, she starts to admits that sometimes, she thinks that if she had “more society and stimulus…” and abruptly digresses and stops herself from finishing her sentence as if john knew what she is writing, she suddenly agrees that John often tells her the worst thing she can do is be thinking in her condition; this, is just another illustration of how even in her mind she is scared to break John’s rules by expressing her opinions. Barbara A. Suess in her article, the writings on the wall, remarks how in the story, it is evident the “unhealthy relationship between woman and medical language” (80). It is clear how there was not enough comprehension nor advancement on women’s health as it is
In the very beginning of the short story, it starts off by slowly introducing the main protagonists, the narrator and her husband John. The husband and narrator took a summer vacation to a house that the narrator describes as an aristocrat estate and somewhat of a haunted mansion. (Norton) As the story goes on the narrator starts to feel curious about the house and what is all in it. As this situation goes on, it leads into the conversation of her illness. The narrator mentions that she has a nervous depression because she feels as if there is complications in her marriage with her husband John.
" Dear John! He loves me very dearly, and hates to have me sick. I tried to have a real earnest talk with him the other day, and tell him how I wished he would let me go and make a visit to Cousin Henry and Julia. But he said I wasn't able to go, nor able to stand it after I got there" (474). John doesn't know how his wife
He (as it is stated in The Yellow Wallpaper), an acclaimed physician, attributes his wife, the main character’s illness to her hormones as a women; “You see he does not believe I am sick… If a physician of high standing... assures 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” (Gilman 1, 2)? This lack of care for a mental illness and it’s treatment highlights the absence of knowledge in relation to the care needed to retain good mental health. In an article by Sammi Messina on mental health in the 1890s, she explains the blatant lack of understanding that physicians and doctors, the main character’s husband for example, had regarding the treatment of mental illnesses. “ The continual degradation of the main character’s mental state...despite... best efforts as certified medical professionals to help her highlights the lack of understanding regarding...general treatment and understanding of the mentally ill in the 19th century”
The narrator is ordered by her husband, who is serving as her physician as well, that she is “absolutely forbidden to work” and instead get “perfect rest,” and “all the air” the narrator can get (Gilman, 549). The narrator is confined to spend her time in a room which is playing tricks on her mind until she can no longer identify reality from her imagination. Another cause of the narrator’s loneliness is her husband’s rare presence at home due to his work as a physician, “away all day, and even some nights when his cases are serious,” leaving the narrator with his sister, who even then also leaves the narrator alone most of the time (Gilman, 550). The narrator falls into a state of insanity because she hardly had anyone with her to normally interact with. The only interaction she did have was that of the yellow wallpaper which constantly plagued her mind.
"If a physician of high standing, and one's own husband, assures 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?" (Gilman 1). Many women in the 1800's and 1900's faced hardship when it came to standing up for themselves to their fathers, brothers and then husbands. Charlotte Perkins Gilman, the narrator of the story, "The Yellow Wallpaper", is married to a physician, who rented a colonial house for the summer to nurse her back to health after her husband thinks she has neurasthenia, but actually suffers from postpartum depression. He suggested the 'rest cure'. She should not be doing any sort of mental or major physical activity, her only job was to relax and not worry about anything. Charlotte was a writer and missed writing. "The Yellow Wallpaper" is significant to literature in the sense that, the author addresses the issues of the rest cure that Dr. S. Weir Mitchell prescribed for his patients, especially to women with neurasthenia, is ineffective and leads to severe depression. This paper includes the life of Charlotte Perkins Gilman in relation to women rights and her contribution to literature as one of her best short story writings.