The Importance Of Postpartum Depression In The Yellow Wallpaper

733 Words2 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Postpartum depression abstract

Have you ever been locked in a dark closet? You fumble about trying to feel the door knob, straining to see a thin beam of light coming from underneath the door. As the darkness devours you, you feel as if you will choke to death if not let out immediately. There is a sensation of helplessness and hopelessness. Loneliness, caused by oppression, is like the same darkness that overtakes its victim in the short story written by Charlotte Perkins Gilman 's "The Yellow Wallpaper”, it is about a women battling postpartum depression during the late 19th century. Gilman brings her personal experience to the story through her own battle with this disorder during the same time period. Using her personal experiences to educate the public on the treatment …show more content…

In the article written in Time Magazine titled Mentally Disturbed or just being a new mom weighs the differences between treatment plans today versus the Victorian period (1837-1901) for postpartum depression. The article explains the role that doctors played in treating ladies in society back then who showed symptoms of depression. Doctors would suggest to husbands to give their wife rest and isolation from others. Doctors in today’s time have better knowledge and understanding of the disease and prescribe medicine for the illness that helps treat it.
People have to admit that women in society today play a different role. A women works, takes care of the kids, house and is also a wife/lover to her husband but does this out of love for her role she has chosen in life. In the past husbands had the job, made the money, and had the social society role to play, therefore the only role a women was expected to do was be the homemaker. Therefore when Gilman showed signs of a mental breakdown, her husband John had to hide that immediately from the world. Woman in the 19th century had the stereotype of possession then an individual

Show More
Related

  • Postpartum Depression in The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman

    1141 Words  | 3 Pages

    disorder by taking her away for the summer and placing her in an old house

    Read More

  • Postpartum Depression in "The Yellow Wallpaper"

    1481 Words  | 3 Pages

    In the "The Yellow Wallpaper," Charlotte Perkins Gilman describes her postpartum depression through the character of Jane. Jane was locked up for bed rest and was not able to go outside to help alleviate her nervous condition. Jane develops an attachment to the wallpaper and discovers a woman in the wallpaper. This shows that her physical treatment is only leading her to madness. The background of postpartum depression can be summarized by the symptoms of postpartum depression, the current treatment, and its prevention. Many people ask themselves what happens if postpartum depression gets really bad or what increases their chances. Jane's treatment can show what can happen if it is not treated correctly. If Jane would have had different treatment, then she would not have gone insane.

    Read More

  • The Yellow Wallpaper Postpartum Psychosis

    1217 Words  | 3 Pages

    There are various interpretations of what causes the narrator to go crazy in the short story “The Yellow Wallpaper” by Charlotte Perkins Gilman. These interpretations include suggestions that the narrator is possessed, that she is oppressed by society and is acting out, that she has suffered from a traumatic childbirth, and so on. While all of these ideas hold merit and are supported by evidence in the short story, there is an alternative explanation that fits the story just as well, if not better. That explanation is that the reason the narrator in “The Yellow Wallpaper” acts strangely and sees images in the wallpaper of her room is that she is suffering from the disorder of postpartum psychosis. During this essay I will be going into depth on a psychological analysis of “The Yellow Wallpaper”.

    Read More

  • The Yellow Wall Paper, by Charlotte Perkins Gilman

    987 Words  | 2 Pages

    The “Yellow Wall Paper “ by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, is a chilling study and experiment of mental disorder in nineteenth century. This is a story of a miserable wife, a young woman in anguish, stress surrounding her in the walls of her bedroom and under the control of her husband doctor, who had given her the treatment of isolation and rest. This short story vividly reflects both a woman in torment and oppression as well as a woman struggling for self expression.

    Read More

  • Postpartum Depression

    1249 Words  | 3 Pages

    Having a child can be the happiest moment of a person’s life. A sweet little baby usually gives new parents tremendous joy. That joy can be accompanied with anxiety about the baby and the responsibility the new parents are faced with. The anxiety, in most cases, fades and joy is what remains. For some new mothers, however, the joy is replaced with a condition known as postpartum depression. “Postpartum depression is a serious disorder that until recently was not discussed in public…Women did not recognize their symptoms as those of depression, nor did they discuss their thoughts and fears regarding their symptoms” (Wolf, 2010). As such, postpartum depression is now recognized as a disorder harmful to both mother and infant, but, with early detection, is highly treatable with the use of psychotherapy, antidepressants, breastfeeding, and other natural remedies, including exercise.

    Read More

  • The Deeper Meaning of The Yellow Wallpaper

    1250 Words  | 3 Pages

    Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s short story, "The Yellow Wallpaper," is the disheartening tale of a woman suffering from postpartum depression. Set during the late 1890s, the story shows the mental and emotional results of the typical "rest cure" prescribed during that era and the narrator’s reaction to this course of treatment. It would appear that Gilman was writing about her own anguish as she herself underwent such a treatment with Dr. Silas Weir Mitchell in 1887, just two years after the birth of her daughter Katherine. The rest cure that the narrator in "The Yellow Wallpaper" describes is very close to what Gilman herself experienced; therefore, the story can be read as reflecting the feelings of women like herself who suffered through such treatments. Because of her experience with the rest cure, it can even be said that Gilman based the narrator in "The Yellow Wallpaper" loosely on herself. But I believe that expressing her negative feelings about the popular rest cure is only half of the message that Gilman wanted to send. Within the subtext of this story lies the theme of oppression: the oppression of the rights of women especially inside of marriage. Gilman was using the woman/women behind the wallpaper to express her personal views on this issue.

    Read More

  • What Is The Symbolism In The Yellow Wallpaper

    1298 Words  | 3 Pages

    “The Yellow Wallpaper:” a Symbol for Women As the narrator presents a dangerous and startling view into the world of depression, Charlotte Perkins Gilman introduces a completely revitalized way of storytelling using the classic elements of fiction. Gilman’s “The Yellow Wallpaper” combines a multitude of story elements that cannot be replicated. Her vast use of adjectives and horrifying descriptions of the wallpaper bring together a story that is both frightening and intensely well told. Using the story’s few characters and remote setting, Charlotte Perkins Gilman presents the wallpaper as both a representation of the narrator and the story’s theme, as well as a symbol for her descent into the abyss of insanity. As the story opens, the suspiciously unnamed narrator and her husband, John, temporarily move into a new home (226).

    Read More

  • How Is Women Inequality In The Late 1800s

    1252 Words  | 3 Pages

    Throughout the late 1800s Americans were workaholics, constantly working in order to make a living for their families at home. Women stayed home and took care of the house as well as the children. The short story “The Yellow Wallpaper” takes place in the late 1800s.The author, Charlotte Perkins Gilman is no stranger to the hysteria that took over women in the 19th century. According to Mary Ellen Snodgrass, after her own postpartum emotional collapse and treatment in 1887, Gilman knew about the situation women were experiencing (“Gilman”). All the pressure of working and raising children affected all Americans, but society blamed the nervous depression mainly on women because they were women. Charlotte Perkins Gilman conveys her own life experience and illness that she went through and how women were treated during the 1800’s.

    Read More

  • Bipolar Disorder In The Yellow Wallpaper

    722 Words  | 2 Pages

    The short story “Yellow Wallpaper, “written by Charlotte Perkins Gilman in 1892, narrates the story in the first person through parts, as if they were entered as a memoir. She is a woman who is going through a type of paranoiac post-partum depression, after the birth of her child. It can also be observed also a type of bipolar disorder in her. The impact of the classic The “Yellow Wallpaper” is huge, the shock of its truth is unpredictable. Gilman’s suffering suffocates everyone around her. She is locked up in a bedroom, as she describes in one of the passages that she writes, seeing “barred windows for children” and “rings and things on the wall.” Clearly it can be seen

    Read More

  • The Narrator of Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s Short Story, The Yellow Wallpaper

    565 Words  | 2 Pages

    In everyday day life we go through changes and sometimes we even break down to the point we do not know what to do with ourselves, but in Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s short story” The Yellow Wallpaper” the narrator is an obsessive person. The story focuses on a woman who is going through postpartum depression and has had a nervous breakdown. Her husband John moves her into a home where he wants her to rest in isolation to recover from her disorder. Throughout her time in the room the narrator discovers new things and finally understands life.

    Read More

  • Theme Of Delusion In The Yellow Wallpaper

    1140 Words  | 3 Pages

    Throughout “The Yellow Wallpaper,” Charlotte Perkins Gilman tells her readers the story of a woman desperate to be free. Gilman’s use of symbolism is nothing short of brilliant in telling the story of a new mother suffering from postpartum depression and fighting her way through societies ideas of what a woman should be. When her husband, John, also known as her physician, tells her nothing is wrong with her mind, at first she believes him because she knows that society tells her she should. However, with her husband’s misdiagnosis, or attempt to keep his wife sane for the sake of their reputation, comes a short journey into madness for his wife, Jane. Jane’s downward spiral, as one may call it, turns out to be not so downward when the reader

    Read More

  • Compare And Contrast The Yellow Wallpaper And To Room Nineteen

    730 Words  | 2 Pages

    Depression is an illness oftentimes misunderstood by the individual and their family. One symptom of depression is isolation and in Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s short story, “The Yellow Wallpaper” and Doris Lessing’s short story, “To Room Nineteen,” the protagonists feel trapped and unfulfilled in their ordinary lives causing them to become depressed. The battle both these characters undergo reveal many compelling similarities, despite the origin and breaking points of their disturbing thoughts and actions. In “The Yellow Wallpaper” and “To Room Nineteen,” the two protagonists experience isolation from the world and people around them.

    Read More

  • The Yellow Wallpaper from the Point of View of a Doctor's Wife

    992 Words  | 2 Pages

    Throughout the story, the reader is called to trust the narrator although it is clear she is going crazy, for she is the only telling the story. Gilman is able to develop the theme through this character’s point of view by showing that the narrator has no choice in the world in which she lives-- she must obey the men in her life above all else. If Gilman chose any other perspective, the story would not have been able to portray the woman’s oppression as well, because the reader would not have been able to see into her mind as it slipped away well into insanity.

    Read More

  • How Is The Narrator Trapped In The Yellow Wallpaper

    725 Words  | 2 Pages

    The Yellow Wallpaper is a very astonishing story written by Charlotte Perkins Gilman that daringly reaches out to explore the mental state of a woman whose mind eventually begins to be broken down to a state of insanity by the appearance of a creeping woman who is trapped behind a revolting yellow wallpaper. This short story takes a look at the causes of the narrator’s insanity by how she was confined in a house alone, trapped with only her mind and a dull wallpaper; while dealing with depression and consuming strong

    Read More

  • The Theme Of Mental Health Care In The Yellow Wallpaper By Charlotte Gilman

    991 Words  | 2 Pages

    However, it is important to first fully understand the act of prescribing the resting cure and its intentions and mannerisms. The story states that the husband is a physician, and that he doesn’t believe that his wife is truly sick, only sick with a “temporary nervous depression”, and therefore she must rest for the majority of the day (Gilman 237). This was a common diagnosis of the time period, first given by a physician called Dr. Silas Mitchell (Feluga). The administration of this treatment began with Dr. Mitchell’s time as a contract surgeon during the Civil War where he gave men who were injured and suffering from signs of hysteria a strict regimen of rest and nutrition, involving “rest, a fattening diet, massage, and electricity”(Feluga). This led to him to taking this treatment to his patients, who were typically…”nervous women, who as a rule [were] thin, and lack[ed] blood” (Mitchell 9). The treatment received by his patients was forceful, sometimes involving force-feeding through other orifices if they refused to comply with the heavy diet (Poirier). Judging by the nature of the treatment and the number of first-hand accounts about the horrors of the treatments, it can be inferred that the resting cure was not only a falsely believed treatment, but also a method of controlling those diagnosed with ‘hysteria’, or any number of nervous diseases. Having to lay in

    Read More

More about The Importance Of Postpartum Depression In The Yellow Wallpaper

Open Document