In literature the question is often asked: How do historical and cultural contexts shape a text? In the case of The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Gilman, it was the text itself that shaped a major civil rights movement. Medical treatments in the 1800's were often extremely sexist: meaning that a man and woman could be prescribed a completely different treatment for the same exact mental health condition. Gilman's essay proved to the general public that the "rest cure" often prescribed to depressed women of the 1890's was more mentally distressing than healing. In a time when women did not yet have the vote, Charlotte Gilman achieved the impossible by demanding her voice be heard. Unfairly, men and women were prescribed different cures for the same symptoms, and while the men's treatment cured them, the women's treatment drove them into madness. The Yellow Wallpaper drew attention to the unethical medical misogyny occurring in the late 1800's, thus sparking the feminist movement. 

In Charlotte Gilman's story, The Yellow Wallpaper, the main character has been put on bed rest to treat her "nervous depression." Her husband insists she cannot move, read, or write and must remain in the same room with yellow wallpaper day after day until she is cured. Her imaginative mind is stifled so much by this treatment that out of boredom she begins to find new patterns within the wallpaper each day. She can eventually "see" a woman trying to escape from behind the wallpaper, symbolizing her inner struggle to escape her mistreatment. She eventually goes mad and tears down all the wallpaper in the middle of the night (230-37). Gilman was able to write her story from firsthand experience, because she herself had suffered from postpartum depression and had received the "rest" treatment (Gilman 3). She even paved the path for other independent women of her time by scandalously abandoning her controlling husband in order to search for her true identity as an independent woman. The Yellow Wallpaper was published in 1892, and after many years of rallying and protesting, women finally gained suffrage in 1919. Prior to this time, society viewed the ideal woman as one who focused solely on their husband, household, and children (Turner1). Women were considered domestic creatures of the household; only fit to be housewives, teachers, and nurses. If women in this time given the opportunity to pursue careers in medicine and law, they would have  had the power to stop the mistreatment of women's depression in it's tracks. 

The Yellow Wallpaper was undoubtedly written in response to a commonly used medical treatment created by Physician Silas Weir Mitchell. The "Rest and West" cure was a clear indicator of Mitchell's sexism within the medical field. It was believed that in women, depression was brought on by too much mental activity and not enough attention to domestic affairs. Mitchell theorized that individuals who overworked their brain were more vulnerable to nervous breakdowns, depression, insomnia, migraines, and anxiety (Stiles 1). According to Mitchell's treatment, men experiencing nervousness should travel to the west and submerge themselves in nature by herding cattle, sleeping on the ground, and mingling with cowboys to reinvigorate their senses and masculinity. Women, on the other hand, were prescribed the "rest" treatment where the ultimate goal of the physician was to break the woman's will. According to the definition of the rest cure by the Wells Library in London, "The rest cure usually lasted six to eight weeks. It involved isolation from friends and family. It also enforced bed rest, and nearly constant feeding on a fatty, milk-based diet. Patients were force-fed if necessary - effectively reduced to the dependency of an infant" (1).  While men would come back from the west rejuvenated and clear-minded, women were driven to the point of madness from their drastically different treatment. Because of the lack of rights women had in the late 1800's, few women were able to refuse the cruel mistreatment and speak up. 

When Charlotte Gillman had the nerve to write about the torturous "cure" in  The Yellow Wallpaper and persist until it was published, she gave many other women the confidence to speak up and demand action. Right in line with the publishing of Gilman's novel, the two largest women's suffrage organizations at the time joined to become the National American Woman Suffrage Association under the leadership of Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B Anthony (Tuner 1). With their newfound strength, the feminist movement catapulted into action to demand equal rights for woman. The misogyny of the medical field was brought to the surface, and the unfairness could not be denied. Charlotte Gillman's bravery paved the way for the rights every woman has in America today.

