How Being A Woman In The Nineteenth Century Could Literally Drive You Crazy: The Protagonist of Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s “The Yellow Wallpaper” And

Unlike the modern medicine, during the nineteenth century when the story “The yellow wallpaper”, by Charlotte Perkins Gilman takes place postpartum depression was not even considered a viable affliction. As a result Gilman’s unnamed protagonist and narrator, a wife of a doctor named John, suffers unnecessarily with the common illness ultimately plunging into insanity. The lack of understanding in the mental health field at that time is a contributing factor; however it is not the only thing to blame for “Mrs. John’s” downward spiral. Mrs. John herself contributes in her own undoing merely by doing what is expected of her as a subservient woman in that era.

When first introduced to Mrs. John, she is being taken to a colonial mansion her husband John has rented for the summer. Although Mrs. John has been taken there to rest and recover from what seems to be a bout of postpartum depression, she seems to be in relatively high spirits at first. Mrs. John thinks the house is beautiful and delights in imagining that it could be haunted. Mrs. John is confined to a large old nursery that borders on being dilapidated with its gouged floor and the ugly yellow wallpaper peeled off in spots. Mrs. John dislikes the room but seems to feel guilty for complaining about it to John. After John denies Mrs. John her request to fix up the room Mrs. John states, “It is as airy and comfortable a room as anyone need wish, and, I would not be so silly as to make him uncomfortable just for a whim”. (Gilman, 382) Mrs. John loves to write even though it exhausts her. Mrs. John has to hide her writing from John and her sister-in-law Jennie because she is not allowed to write as a condition of her treatment. Mrs. John continues to feel “there is something ...

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...n’s husband seems to almost gain enjoyment from controlling his wife. He chooses what room Mrs. John is to stay in, who she sees, what she eats, and what she is and is not allowed to do. John condescendingly discredits Mrs. John’s ability to perceive what is best for her, because he is the doctor. Through his neglect John gives Mrs. John the time to become obsessed with her delusions, thus adding in her downward spiral. If Mrs. John was a woman of the twenty-first century I believe her outcome would have been much different. Mrs. John would have searched out alternative treatments, not being afraid to stand up to her husband. Mrs. John certainly would not have allowed herself to be held captive in some old grotesque room, and if John didn’t like it Mrs. John could file for divorce.

Works Cited the yellow wallpaper, by charlotte perkinns gilman