The Mentally Ill: 19th Century vs Today

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The Mentally Ill: 19th Century v. Today After initially reading Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s The Yellow Wallpaper, the reader tends to trust the narrator’s judgment. However, when one explores beyond the literal meaning of the text, they find that the narrator’s “temporary nervous depression” has distorted her sense of reality. It is the reader’s duty to separate fact from fiction in the story. Once the reader has separated the two, the story’s underlying message, regarding the issue of mental illness in the 19th century, becomes apparent. By examining this story and various studies pertaining to mental illness, one can conclude that, treatments, living conditions, and perceptions of the mentally ill have improved drastically since the story’s 1892 publication. The story opens with the narrator moving to a new “home.” She initially describes the house as a “mansion”, and continues by describing it as a “haunted house.” These words both come to mind when thinking about insane asylums; as asylums tend to be large in size and are often associated with suffering and death. The narrator describes the estate as having, “hedges and walls and gates that lock, and lots of separate little houses for the gardeners and people” Hedges and shrubbery are often planted to create a natural barrier. Because insane asylums were not widely accepted, it makes sense that they would plant hedges to shield the building/s from society. The walls and gates that lock sound similar to those of a prison. During this time, asylums were essentially that, a prison. The locked gates were used to keep patients from escaping and to create a sense of security in the surrounding communities. The little houses the narrator mentions are likely living quarters for other... ... middle of paper ... ...tical Analysis of a Scottish Insane Asylum." Historical Social Research / Historische Sozialforschung 17.3 (1992): 3-20. JSTOR. Web. 6 Dec. 2013. . Phelan, Jo C., Bruce G. Link, Ann Stueve, and Bernice A. Pescosolido. "Public Conceptions of Mental Illness in 1950 and 1996: What Is Mental Illness and Is It to Be Feared." Journal of Health and Social Behavior 41.2 (2000): 188-207. JSTOR. Web. 6 Dec. 2013. . "Postpartum Depression: What Is It, and What Causes It?" WebMD. N.p., 5 Nov. 2010. Web. 8 Dec. 2013. . "Psychotic Depression: Symptoms, Causes, Treatments, and More." WebMD. Ed. Joseph Goldberg, MD. N.p., 24 July 2012. Web. 8 Dec. 2013. .

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