Yellow Wallpaper Essay, Research Paper

A Woman s Journey into Insanity Post partum period is one of the most difficult times and emotionally draining experiences anyone can go through. The post partum period can be handled in a relatively short amount of time if the proper support is provided. In the story The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, the narrator describes her experience and her difficulties in her attempt to deal with her emotional disorder. The story takes place in the late eighteen hundreds when psychological disorders were dismissed as temporary nervous conditions, and unless there was something physically wrong with the person, the individual had to be isolated from any stimulating activities. The narrator in the story slowly creeps into a state of emotional insanity for a few reasons. A couple of those reasons are her husband, the doctor who he thinks there is nothing wrong with her, and the narrator herself, whose wild imagination and her inability to stand up for herself eventually drives her insane. One of the main characters whose actions caused the narrator to lose her grasp on reality and become insane was her husband John. John is a physician who believes in illnesses that he can see physically, therefore he does not believe there is anything wrong with his wife: “there is nothing the matter with one but temporary nervous depression” (Gilman 575). He is unwilling or not wanting to admit that there is something really wrong with her. He believes he knows what is best for his wife. He takes her away for the summer and places her in an old house, “A colonial mansion, a hereditary estate, I would say a haunted house” (Gilman 575) which his wife believes is haunted. He isolates her from any stimulating activities and forbids her to work, even though she does not agree with his decisions: ” and am absolutely forbidden to “work” until I am well again” (Gilman 575). Although he loves her, he is obviously a dominant husband: “He is very careful and loving, and hardly lets me stir without special direction” (Gilman 576). He is not happy about living in the country and he lets her know about it: “He said he came here solely on my account” (Gilman 576). These are not signs of a husband who truly cares for the well being of his wife. He constantly tells her what to do and he has taken her ability to control her own life: ” I have a scheduled prescription for each hour in the day; he takes all care from me” (Gilman 576). He does not believe in anything she says and he dismisses her by treating her like a child, a child who does not know what is best for her. He spends less time with her as time goes by, he sometimes even spends his night in the city instead of spending it with his wife and taking care of her. John made his wife a prisoner in her own house and kept everything that could have stimulated her mind. Not knowingly he allowed her to dwell on her problem and sink deeper into her depression by keeping her isolated. John not only believed that there is nothing wrong with her, but he also tried to convince her that there is nothing wrong with her. Isolating her from everyone, dismissing her feelings and not listening to her cries for help was what drove her insane.

The other reason for the narrator’s loss of sanity was her inability to stand up for herself and take care of herself the way she deemed appropriate. She makes a few attempts to tell her husband about how she feels, but for the most part she keeps to herself. She believes the way that she is being treated is normal. Her husband mocks her and she does not know what to do about it: ” John laughs at me, of course, but one expects that” (Gilman 575). Her husband does not believe she is sick, she allows him to believe that too because she does not know what to do: ” he does not believe I am sick! And what can one do?” (Gilman 575). She knows what is best for her, but when she explains herself and gets dismissed, she just gives up. She knows when she is being mistreated by her husband, but when she gets angry at him she dismisses her own feelings and blames it on the sickness: “I get unreasonably angry with John sometimes. I’m sure I never used to be so sensitive. I think it is due to this nervous condition” (Gilman 576). She also has an active imagination, which turns out to be one of the factors in her downward turn toward insanity. As a child her imagination allowed her to entertain and even horrify herself by imagining objects coming into life: ” I used to lie awake as a child and get more entertainment and terror out of blank walls and plain furniture “(Gilman 578). It is her over active imagination that allows her to see a woman trapped in the wallpaper creeping around her bedroom. Her imagination slowly takes control and her sense of what is real becomes distorted. Although she had a dominant husband in her life and the roles of men and women in the society was different back then, one can not help but to blame the narrator for her inability to fend for herself and at least take charge of her own mental well being. The narrator in the story looses her grip on what is real and what is not due to her husband s lack of support and her unwillingness to fight for herself. Post partum period is a trying time for all the members in the family, but some experience a greater sense of loss than others do. The psychological difficulties that the narrator had to endure could have been resolved with care, proper family support, and enough stimulant activities to keep her mind from wondering. However, this information was not present at that time and depression and similar psychological disorders were dismissed as nervous conditions. Although depression is an awful disorder, it does not mean one does not have the right or the mental capacity to express his or her opinion about how he or she should be treated. It also takes an active role on the part of the affected person.