Yellow Wallpaper" by Charlotte Perkins Gilman through the analysis of how this particular story illustrates attitudes of society towards women in the 19th century, and how historical evidence can give a more in depth interpretation of the text. "The Yellow Wallpaper" had such an impact on society that it eventually became regarded as an important work of early feminist literature. The research done in SWA 3 points out the flaws in society at the time on how the population felt towards women and dealt with mental illnesses. Women with mental illnesses were not taken as seriously as they should have been. Most women in this time period who had depression would be diagnosed with temporary nervous depression and was only treated by not working and keeping a healthy diet. A healthy diet is very good for a person's well being, but is now known to not be enough to cure depression. For example there is a story that recently came up of a girl who ran track in college. This girl had plenty of friends and loved her family yet she committed suicide due to her depression. Depression and mental illnesses have been researched for quite awhile, but it wasn't until the 20th century that progress was actually made. For example the treatments in the 19th century for the narrator in "The Yellow Wallpaper" backfired so badly, because she had nothing to stimulate her mind. She then became so obsessed with the yellow wallpaper in the room that it plunged her deeper into her psychosis.

"The Yellow Wallpaper" by Charlotte Perkins Gilman was written to illustrate the attitudes of society towards women and especially women with mental illnesses. Gilman uses the narrator's situation and insanity to protest against the oppression of women during this time period. Even with all of the crazy and unethical treatments that male doctors were using at this time, they were still regarded as doing theses treatments with their best interests in mind. Women were supposedly weaker and more mentally fragile as opposed to the men in the male dominated society. Gilman created "The Yellow Wallpaper" to as she says, "Not to drive people crazy, but to save people from being driven crazy, and it worked." This implies that "The Yellow Wallpaper" also had some sort of impact on society. Gilman's work was based on her own experience. Gilman obviously didn't experience what the narrator experienced word for word, as "The Yellow Wallpaper" was merely an over exaggeration of what Gilman went through. Gilman who had depression and was treated with the same treatment as the narrator was to mentally rest and was only allowed two hours of mental stimulation a day. Gilman wrote this short story in hopes that her doctor, whose named Dr. Mitchell, would see the error in his ways and stop using mental rest as a cure for depression. Sadly Dr. Mitchell never read the story or simply didn't take his patient seriously because in 1908 he was trying to create entire hospitals devoted to the rest cure treatment for depression. 

In the story the narrator suggests that she should be working, engaged with society and attempting to be a mother to keep her mind occupied and stimulated. Instead she was forced to rest, remain isolated from society, and separated from her child. This big of a change on anyone's life male or female is enough to make someone who is mentally healthy go insane much less someone who is already struggling with mental issues. The narrator's suggestions about her treatment are dismissed entirely because of the stereotypes against women in this time causing the narrator to be unqualified to offer any ideas or information of her own diagnosis and treatment. Other interpretations of the ending of "The Yellow Wallpaper" suggest that the narrator triumphs in the end as an assertion of freedom in a most unhealthy relationship where the narrator feels trapped. 

The fact her husband wouldn't let her write in her own journal caused her to look for other means of escape by reading through the yellow wallpaper until she came across a women trapped in the wallpaper as a figment of her own imagination. She saw this woman as herself in the realization she is trapped in this and very unconventional situation.

"The Yellow Wallpaper" in modern times might seem completely over the top as far as demonstrating the gap between the rights of women and men, but in the 19th century "The Yellow Wallpaper" is actually quite an accurate way of demonstrating the un-equivalence of women's rights to men's rights. "The Yellow Wallpaper" is a response to the medical treatment of mental illnesses and depression of women in the 19th century. This short story did not bring about any immediate tangible effects on the relief of women's rights; rather this specific text along with other works by Gilman paved the way for a more proactive feminist movement. Creating short stories to advertise the struggle of women during the 19th century was ingenious. This is because reading was the most widely used form of relaxation-based entertainment in this time period. This is equivalent to creating a television show in modern times based on making a certain modern atrocity known to the public. Even though the short story was a way of making known to the pubic the struggles of women, it was viewed as more of a horror story to the public. This was probably because no one wanted to admit how badly women were treated. Even if the story was just an over exaggeration, it still made quite a few good points on the oppression of women, which is why by the 1970's this short story would be recognized as a feminist narrative worthy of historical and literacy scholarship.

The research done in SWA 3 allows for a new understanding of the story "The 

Yellow Wallpaper" by Charlotte Perkins Gilman through the analysis of how this particular story illustrates attitudes of society towards women in the 19th century, and how historical evidence can give a more in depth interpretation of the text. Throughout history the oppression of women was surprisingly never a huge issue until the late 19th century, which is when this issue began to resolve. "The Yellow Wallpaper" horrifically and effectively set the standard to pave the road of equal rights for women.

