Depression in The Yello Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman

Charlotte Perkins Gilman wrought the Yellow Wallpaper during her depression, while she was on bed rest. She was suffering from the depression she wrote the short story to describe her own experiences. The main treatment she was treated with and the character in the short story were treated with was the rest cure. In which it would last about six to eight weeks, which involved isolation from friends and family.

In The Yellow Wallpaper the narrator and her husband John have gone to a secluded estate, which they are renting for the summer. John a Doctor wanted her to rest as much as possible by following Dr. S. Weir Mitchell's “Rest Cure”. He also picked the room, which is an airy room on the top floor; she would have preferred the small pretty room on the ground floor, but he did not take her opinion due to he was the physician and knew best. The narrator does as she is told even if she is not found of the estate and the room she would be staying at. She has to rest all day long and personally disagree with what she has to do; she would rather spend her time writing, but her husband and other family members think it is not a good idea. She also described the house in her journal, as mostly positive, but some disturbing elements such as the wallpaper; she also becomes better at hiding her journal from John to continue writing. She complains about Johns controlling ways and how he discourages her from fantasizing of people walking the walkways. She has a wonderful time during the fourth of July with her family, then here obsession grows with the sub-pattern of the wallpaper; John started to think her conditions is improving, but she is sleeping less and less. The sub-pattern sees a woman creeping around and shaking the bars and sh...

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...ectual activities a day; also to never touch a pen, brush or pencil again (Martin). Gilman started to see the roots causes of her depression and understood them; also divorced her husband and moved to Oakland California with a friend(Beekman). She then published the story which could have her own experiences tied into it with what she may have been feeling during her treatment. The story could be seen as a recollection of her pain and suffering while undergoing this type of treatment and the agony she may have felt. Gilman may have had to bare the pain of her depression through her life and it could cause her pain in the end. She got married for a second time to Charles Houghton Gilman who died in 1934. Charlotte in 1935 found out that she had inoperable breast cancer and took her own life on August 17, 1935 by covering her face with a rag soaked in chloroform.