Although the words feminism and mental illness were not popular terms during the nineteenth century, many women believed the way they were thought of and treated needed to change. Women knew an adjustment needed to be made in the way they were perceived, whether it was the right to vote or the awareness and proper treatment of a woman's mental illness. A fundamental core issue was that because women and mental illnesses were not taken seriously, the disease a woman could have had at the time would not be cured. During the nineteenth century there were many cultural texts about mental disorders that explained two very different sides to the controversies. "Rest in the Treatment of Nervous Disease" by Dr. Mitchell helps one interpret "The Yellow Wallpaper" (Charlotte Perkins Gilman).  "The Yellow Wallpaper" was written to help people understand that women in society, especially with mental illnesses, need to be treated properly and respectfully, which is evident when the short story is read in conjunction with "Rest in the Treatment of Nervous Disease", a medical text from 1870.

The main character in "The Yellow Wallpaper" is a woman who has a mental illness. The woman's husband had a difficult time comprehending her mental illness. However, her husband did what was socially acceptable, sending her to bed to rest. Being a male physician in the nineteenth century made it much harder on the woman in "The Yellow Wallpaper" to recover because she did not get treated properly. Her husband forces her to rest for a few months in order to improve her mental well-being. The husband reflects Dr. Mitchell, when Dr. Mitchell writes in "Rest in the Treatment of Nervous Disease", "when you propose to anyone, man or woman to go to bed for a month or two, you must be able to make him or her feel sure that it is the best or only way towards cure" (2). Men, husbands, and physicians during the nineteenth century mainly had the authority to make decisions for their wives and or patients. With that being said, the woman in "The Yellow Wallpaper" and patients in real life did not have much of a choice but to adhere to the orders of men. This is the major issue that Gilman strived to change. Being a feminist and a writer, she wrote about her own experiences and stories hoping to bring about awareness of feminism and mental illness. From reading what Dr. Mitchel writes in "Rest in the Treatment of Nervous Disease", it helps one understand why the husband in "The Yellow Wallpaper" treated his wife in such hindering ways.  Sending a woman with mental illness to rest was what he was taught and experienced in society throughout his whole life. The husband went along with cultural morals to put her to rest although his wife ends up going insane from her illness, because her brain was not cured.

Mental illness occurs from an imbalance of chemicals in one's brain. By simply having women rest instead of proper treatment such as medication, the chemicals in the brain will not realign and cure her problem. Gilman did not believe that men and woman had physically different brains; she believed that whether man or female people had the same brain. This was hard for physicians, such as Dr. Weir to comprehend at the time. He and other male physicians had not read studies about men's mental weaknesses, only women, which is why womens' illnesses were not treated a seriously. Dr. Weir proves he knows that simply ridding someone to bed rest is not entirely good for them by stating; "When we put the entire body at rest we create certain evils while doing some share of good, and it is therefore our part to use such means as shall, in every case, lessen and limit the ills we cannot wholly avoid" (4). Although he admits to evils happen to the body from lying in bed, he knows that not all illnesses are avoidable. Harm to the body may come from sending people to bed rest, but Dr. Weir prescribed bed rest anyways. This is the beginning of the acknowledgement of mental illness in both genders, women included. Dr. Weir's writing can aid one in understanding why the woman's husband in "The Yellow Wallpaper" was not completely confident in bed rest as an only option, yet still did it.

By the end of "The Yellow Wallpaper," the woman clearly becomes insane. The months of rest ordered by her physician husband did not cure her illness. Dr. Weir Mitchell treated Gilman, who wrote "The Yellow Wallpaper" for her mental illness, by having her rest. Gilman incorporates her own personal stories into "The Yellow Wallpaper". Her own struggle is mirrored when the woman in the story cannot leave her house and has to rest; Gilman was sentenced to bed rest by Dr. Weir himself.  Dr. Weir in "Rest in the Treatment of Nervous Disease" writes, "It seems to the young physician easy to say to a woman who has been in bed for a month : 'Now the time has come for you to leave your bed ' the woman has gained a set belief that she cannot get up,  the assurance of her ableness to walk is no light or ready task" (2). Patients, Gilman for example, would of course have a difficult time resuming daily life activities after being 'treated' for their illness. Dr. Weir knew that it is very hard to persuade a patient to get up from rest because they were being improperly treated for their illness, and were not cured.  Just as Gilman had a difficult time resuming back to normal life activities because she was not cured, the woman in "The Yellow Wallpaper" is not able to overcome her illness either. Both "The Yellow Wallpaper" and "Rest in the Case of Nervous Disease" can relate to each other from the prescribed treatment used, which was resting. Gilman, a woman who seeks suffrage for all woman, is inspired by her own experiences which is learned from in "Rest in the Case of Nervous Disease".

One in every five adults will be diagnosed with a mental illness in their lifetime; without awareness of this issue in that time period, this problem could not be solved (Bedirhan and Sartorius). Gilman was sent to rest and her experience did not completely cure her illness. Dr. Weir sends his patients to rest, but knows that it is beginning of the era where resting is not a complete way to recovery. He writes, "I should remind you that rest is a relative term, and that we cannot, or, at least, that we can rarely get entire repose, and that, in fact, arrest is not what we want. VI/e can only slow the works, and not stop them" (6). Dr. Weir seems to understand that no matter what, it is very difficult to have a patient be at peace with themselves and completely cured from being bed ridden. It now easy to understand why the husband in "The Yellow Wallpaper" put the woman to rest, because at the time there were no other known cures besides rest. 

The woman in "The Yellow Wallpaper" becomes so tired from resting that she was afraid to tell her husband how serious her case was; "John does not know how much I really suffer. He knows there is no reason to suffer and that satisfies him" (210).  Men during the nineteenth century, mostly, only listened to what other men had to say.  Because such a small percent other men had complained about their own mental illness, her husband saw no reason for her to have one.  Also, the woman's husband believed she had a good life, so she had no reason to be upset about anything, or so he assumed. The woman's husband and Dr. Weir both expected women to obey male commands and rest when they thought it was necessary. This is a major reason why the husband and Dr. Mitchell treated people the way they did.  Dr. Mitchell writes, "As to women, for some reason they take more kindly to rest than do men, and will stay in bed, when once there, as long as you wish, and longer sometimes" (2).  This is one idea that feminist Gilman really wanted to change. She did not respect that men could tell women to do whatever they pleased to tell them. It can be understood that this is why Gilman wrote the previous quote in "The Yellow Wallpaper".  Dr. Weir assigned Gilman to rest in bed, and she understood that he knew she would listen.  Gilman wrote that the woman will downplay the severity of the illness and not tell her husband how sick she really is because she knows what he will make her do.  This is what happened to Gilman when she went to Dr. Weir. Through her writings, Gilman wanted for people to understand how bullied women were at the time.

Women in the nineteenth century did not have sufficient quantity of rights. Gilman attempted to spread the message of women's rights and mental illness through her writing. In "The Yellow Wallpaper", Gilman conveys her opinions in a useful way to validate the ideas of women's rights and that mental diseases need to be diagnosed and treated correctly to fix the illness. Dr. Weir wrote "Rest in the Case of Nervous Disease" in order to show examples of handling people who are prescribed to rest in bed. It also helps to interpret how "The Yellow Wallpaper" is written and why Gilman is rooting for woman's rights and for the awareness of mental health disease.

