The yellow wallpaper & To room nineteen

The yellow wallpaper

In Charlotte Gilman's "The Yellow Wallpaper" the main character is a woman who might have been slowly slipping into a state of insanity, but her husband caused the process to escalate as quickly as it did. Gilman's insanity was not inflicted maliciously or intentionally, but grew out of erroneous ideas. She was forced to listen and accept the diagnosis of men without the ability to express what she felt her condition was. Women of that time were oppressed by men and by society, and yet no matter how much of her freedom was removed by them, Charlotte continued to write and keep her own secret thoughts on everything around her. She refused to completely give up her spirit and freedom. The result of being in complete solitude created an environment that left the main character no chance to maintain her sanity.

Gilman's insanity was a result of an uneducated diagnosis. Her husband, and brother, had believed in the treatment of "rest cure" which was developed by S. Weir Mitchell, a Philadelphia physician. This treatment required confining the patient to a hospital or remote residence in complete isolation, putting them on bed rest, increasing their food intake, iron supplements, and exercise. When Gilman's husband, John, moved them into the new house he immediately took to the "rest cure" treatment. Charlotte was put in a room upstairs, away from everyone.

There was no significant research to back up the "rest cure" method so John never knew what to look for when trying to tell if Charlotte was make progression or not. “Not once during the whole story did he do any type of physical examination, such as, checking her weight or actually keep a written log of what and how much she ate.” (Charlotte 1997) The ...