When Gilman's short story 'The Yellow Wallpaper' was published in 1891, women's rights were just beginning to be discussed. In fact, how women were treated during this era was as unjust as many before it, because women were just beginning to find their voice. After the public had read Gilman's story, many asked her reasoning behind writing. She later explained that the narrator, 'Jane', was actually meant to represent the author whenever she had gone through a mental breakdown earlier in life. Gilman was certainly not the first or last woman to experience this, as it was unknowingly common for a woman in the 1800's to be mentally ill and locked away as a result. From the 1800's to early 1900's, a woman who behaved not as the male figures around her wanted her to would be placed in mental asylums, misdiagnosed, and left confined like a caged animal in an institution for the rest of her life. 

Thus, Gilman's story was published at a time where patriarchal figures had complete power. Her story created awareness for the mistreatment of women who were mentally ill. With Gilman's publishing, along with many other influential women who felt as if women weren't meant to be a piece of property to men. Written language was the fastest method of transferring information from place to place, which is how it gained its popularity. Women who stayed at home all day, to women who were working long hours to support their families, to Women who were currently placed in mental institutions with nothing to do eventually caught wind of these women who were spreading the word about their mistreatment in a misogynous society. These short stories and books were read by women who had either experienced or felt how Gilman did. Women readers began to relate to "Jane", creating a movement that strived for women to receive equality in society. This movement was the spark of the feminist movement, which is still paving its way into modern society. 

Women in history have been given a consistent assignment  --  to be submissive to the male figures they interact with. Being a good wife during this time meant tending to the children and the home, and being content with spending the majority of life inside the home. Naturally, some women were perfectly capable of living in confined spaces year after year, but there was also a fraction of them who couldn't handle being secluded from the outside world. So when these women began developing common mental disorders, such as anxiety or hysteria, the male figure in the household decided how to treat her. Many men during this time believed that a woman developed mental illness when she was bombarded with 'too many activities', and as a result, would only isolate her even more so. This way of thinking is incredibly wrong because society only looked at the surface of illness, and chose to be blind the deeper effect of mental disorders.

This is reflected through Jane's character, who has been pushed into living up to societal standards by her husband. When she tries to communicate with her husband about how she's feeling, he is very quick to dismiss her thoughts because he has also grown in a society where it is customary for men to have complete control over their wives. Jane's husband, John, was also given complete authority of what kinds of treatments his wife would be allowed to. Since he diagnosed her with struggling with 'anxieties', he altered her diet so she was consuming larger amounts of wine and red meat, along with getting plenty of rest and 'relaxation'. In the end, John's treatment he provided for Jane only worsened her mental illness, slowly losing her sense of reality after being trapped in a confined space with nothing to do but rest for the majority of the day. John simply chose to ignore the signs of his wife's mental sanity wilting away because having her at beck and call and forcing her to follow his authority meant more to him than she actually did. Marriage at this time was constructed of what was deemed societally correct and used as a social and economic gain rather than based off of true emotion. This method of thinking proves that the patriarchal society didn't really care about how a woman felt or was in need of, they viewed them as baby making machines that they needed to be martially bound to in order to fit society standards set. Therefore, when this expectation of society wasn't met, the blame was thrown onto the woman and she was placed into an asylum to hide the evidence of associating any wrongdoings of the male figure.

Of course, when this method of treatment did not seem to help alleviate the symptoms of a mentally ill woman, the only option they saw feasible would be to admit her into a psychiatric ward. Admittance was relatively easy, considering ailments such as depression after the loss of a loved one or even irregular menstrual cycles was enough to be considered a proper excuse. Any mental disease was not specified, most were just considered to be mentally insane due to overexertion. Not being able to accurately diagnose a mentally ill patient only results in insuring that they will never be able to improve. Because they were all viewed to be ill the same, they were all treated the same. Little to no improvement would be made for these women, as it is known today that every mental illness is different and should be treated accordingly. Just like a doctor wouldn't prescribe antibiotic to someone with a viral infection, mental health specialists should have never thought that all 'clinically insane' patients would benefit from treatments that were a step below torture.

Getting admitted into a mental institution was the one thing Jane worried about, despite her scattered state of mind. She even went along with John's demands as much as she could not only to avoid being locked away, but because she had become practically brainwashed to never question John's authority. John made it clear that she was not to disobey him, even calling her "little girl" to contradict her. Women were associated as being inferior and less intelligent than a man, so Jane was placed in a situation where she could either follow under John's orders or risk being persecuted or place shame on John. Jane was devoted to him, so like most good wives during the nineteenth century, she stood by his command even if she didn't agree with him. This what was she believed was expected of her as a wife and a new mother.

Not only did being isolated from the world have an impact on women's mental health in the nineteenth century, but the pressures of social statuses were also hard on women. Constantly being expected to be inferior to a patriarchal figure is enough to make anyone go insane because they can't speak their mind, thus all of their thoughts and feelings becoming bottled up. Their image was supposed to be pure, and they were meant to only be married once. Having any sort of relations before or after their one arranged marriage ruined how society looked at them, writing them off as worthless. At the same time, a woman was not supposed to live her life unwed or not be married off at a young age. Single women were viewed as failures to society, because it was believed that she would not amount to much, if anything, without a man by her side. These social statuses were also apparent even in psychiatric wards, women who were unwed were treated even more poorly than those who were, as those who were married would be diagnosed with becoming 'stressed of the daily pressures of being a wife and mother'.

These societal standards are so problematic towards women because it does not fulfill their desire to be considered a human being and give them individual rights. Women were made to believe that their success is basely solely off of whom they marry, and the only success they can provide into the world is bearing children who will grow to be powerful men and feminine, submissive women. Society in the nineteenth century wanted to keep women in their place, teaching them that attempting to be their own person would be 'morally wrong' and dishonorable to the patriarchal figure they look up to. Although many women succumbed to behaving as a man ordered them to, oftentimes there was no stopping women who craved to speak their mind, so labelling them as insane was how they dealt with them. This was also done to show other women what would happen to them if they dared speak against their husbands.

Many women who were admitted into a mental institution generally never saw the light of day again. Fake death certificates and obituaries could be made for the family of an admitted woman, sealing her fate to live the rest of her days being treated like an animal, and even limiting her days of survival. If a husband whose wife was being 'treated' in an asylum wanted to get rid of her without faking a death, it was also relatively easy for the man to get a divorce from his wife once she was admitted. This means that, years later, if that woman was ever released, she would come to a bitter surprise of finding out her husband had remarried, generally to a younger woman. The cycle continues, once a woman in the nineteenth century was deemed clinically insane, she would be viewed as a failure for the rest of her life.

Gilman's character, Jane, would be considered a fulfilled woman from an outsider's view in the nineteenth century. She was married to a successful doctor, had recently given birth to a child, and would soon be living in a new home that the readers presume will be lavish, given her husband's occupation. Jane has a lot going for her when compared to most women of her time, which adds to the reasons why she suppressed her mental illness as long as she could. Not only did she want to please John, but she did not want to leave him because she was aware of how harsh society would be if she were an unmarried lady who resided in an insane asylum. Instead, her illness gnawed away at her sanity, just as she tore away what was left of the cursed wallpaper and bite-mark ridden, bolted bed.

Just like the horror movies predict, oftentimes once a woman stepped foot into a psychiatric ward, there was only a few chances she had to get out. In the late 1800's, a woman named Nellie Bly who worked as a journalist for 'New York World' decided to pretend to be insane so she could experience first-hand how asylum patients live. When she arrived, she tried to plead herself of not being insane, but no doctor or caretaker took her seriously, being a woman who did not know what was best for herself. She noted that even the women who were admitted that probably were not originally insane began to behave like those who were. The women were only fed five prunes and a piece of buttered bread for dinner, and as a result, they would steal each other's food when the opportunity was given. Hygienic supplies were limited, so women had to share used towels and combs just to get by. Bly even quoted herself, saying "...I always made a point of telling the doctors I was sane, and asking to be released, but the more I endeavored to assure them of my sanity, the more they doubted it (Foershner)."

Despite the great medical advancements in the nineteenth century, none of them seemed to travel into the mental health world. One of London's most popular asylum, Bethlem Mental Hospital, cared so little about the care of their patients that they allowed visitors inside to mock the patients, gawk at them and poke them with sticks. Let me remind everyone, this was not a petting zoo, these were people. People who once lived in the community and now are being used for the general publics' sick amusement. 

The only bigger change that came along was the distribution of 'happy pills', which actually were just human tranquilizers in a capsule instead of providing any means of improvement in their illnesses. Hydrotherapy also became a popular treatment among mental institutions, which consisted of constraining the patient in either boiling hot or freezing cold water. It was not uncommon to also hear of patients being treated with leeches, held in restraints during the process. Throughout the nineteenth century, humanist movements in America attempted to side for better treatment in mental institutions, but were often overlooked because very few knew of what actually went on except for the patients.

The unsystematic treatment of mentally ill women was unfortunately not unknown to woman of any background or race, and became a rising problem, especially in Europe and North America. While some women who were admitted truly revealed signs of insanity, such as believing that they were God himself, many were unreasonably diagnosed as insane. Just like Gilman's story, once a person is meant to believe they are insane, their mind will fool them into behaving as such. Treating other human beings like animals will only result in them reverting to their animalistic ways. In order to inflict pain on another living creature as 'specialists' in the nineteenth century is what society should view as clinically insane. Perhaps, it is best if people do not judge the mental stability of one another. The line between sanity and insanity is hard to define, for we are all living in our own reality and will never experience another. For all we know, there could be a 'Jane' inside each and every one of us, waiting for their time to come out.

