




     Isolation from others can take a big toll on people. Whether self-imposed or mandated somehow, isolation can prove to be disastrous for humans, as it deprives them of a very valuable form of stimulus. This lack of social interaction can lead to a multitude of things, including: regression or loss of basic speaking and people skills, lack of effective communication, and, in extreme cases, mental health issues such as clinical depression and insanity. In Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s “The Yellow Wallpaper” and Sherwood Anderson’s “Loneliness”, social isolation can be linked as the cause of the mental health issues experienced by the wife in Gilman’s story and Enoch in Loneliness. 

     While both the Wife and Enoch experience isolation and suffer from mental health issues in their respective stories, it is important to note the similarities and differences of these concepts in both texts. In “Loneliness”, Enoch experienced isolation due to his undeveloped adult social skills. As noted in the story, Enoch was described as having, “…many odd delicate thoughts hidden away in his brain that might have expressed themselves through the brush of a painter, but he was always a child and that was a handicap to his worldly development. He never grew up and of course he couldn’t understand people and he couldn’t make people understand him” (Sherwood 92).  His inability to effectively communicate with anyone hindered any attempt he made at a relationship with real people and led to his eventual isolation. His child-like tendencies show a sign of fixation, meaning that he possibly never achieved one of the stages of social development during his childhood. His lack of social interaction was also self-imposed, as he is noted in the story for having fellow artists in his apartment talk about paintings and wanting to make a comment on a specific work, but was not confident in his ability to say what he wanted to as he trips and stammers over his words (Anderson 93). He chose not to talk due to his lack of confidence in his own abilities, which led him to make imaginary people so he could communicate as he saw fit with them. At this point in the story, readers start to see lack of social interaction start to effect the mental health of Enoch, as he chooses to communicate with imaginary people rather than real people. As stated by Gilman:

” In a half indignant mood he stopped inviting people into his room and presently got into the habit of locking the door. He began to think that enough people had visited him, that he did not need people any more. With quick imagination he began to invent his own people to whom he 

could really talk and to whom he explained the things he had been unable to explain to living people” (Anderson 94).

Enoch also got married in the story, and was happy for a time with his new life of social engagement and fatherhood. He carried himself differently, with purpose, but eventually he felt the need to go back to his self-imposed isolation out of his preference to communicate with imaginary people. After the death of his mother, he received inheritance, and gave the inheritance to his wife before leaving her and their kids for good without any remorse. His wife is noted as thinking of him to be “slightly insane” and “a little afraid of him” (Anderson 95), which is noteworthy as it shows the people around him noticing him having mental health problems. After moving back to New York, Enoch again invents people to interact with and talk to, showing further deterioration of his mental health. The ultimate display of his mental health issues come at the latter part of the story, where Enoch, now in his elder years, mentions his attempt at a relationship with a woman he found intriguing to a young journalist named George Willard. Enoch himself notes how he is unable to let this woman enter his world, stating in the text, “Maybe she had understood all the time. I was furious. I couldn’t stand it. I wanted her to understand but, don’t you see, I couldn’t let her understand. I felt that then she would know everything, that I would be submerged, drowned out, you see. That’s how it is. I don’t know why” (Anderson 97).  After years and years of interacting with imaginary people and keeping to himself, he is unable to communicate with the only person he wants to communicate with. Enoch later states how he made the girl leave and never talked to her again, spending the rest of his life alone to be depressed. The end of the text shows journalist George Willard leaving the room, and hearing the sobs of Enoch crying out at his loneliness. In the end, lack of social interaction led to the eventual depression of Enoch. 

     In Gilman’s “The Yellow Wallpaper” the social isolation of the wife of the physician John is medically mandated by both John and the brother of the wife who is also a physician. In the story, the wife recently gave birth to her baby and was experiencing depression. In the time period this story was written in (the 1890s) the common prescription for post-pregnancy depression (now referred to as post-partum depression, then referred to as female hysteria) was the rest cure. The rest cure was developed by the now infamous Silas Weir Mitchel, which entailed isolation from friends, family, physical activity, and most activity that required thinking usually including reading and writing. Due to the advice of her husband and brother, the wife was forced to be alone, in a nursery no less that featured a distinct yellow wallpaper. While in the nursey, the readers can see her mental health slowly deteriorate day by day as she is writing. In the beginning of the story, she states her disdain for the wallpaper in the nursey, stating, “It is dull enough to confuse the eye in following, pronounced enough to constantly irritate and provoke study, and when you follow the lame uncertain curves for a little distance they suddenly commit suicide-plunge off outrageous angles, destroy themselves in unheard-of contradictions” (Gilman 301). Although initially expressing displeasure with the wallpaper, she slowly changes her mind as she experiences more and more isolation and starts to shows signs of insanity.  The wife complains of being deprived of her baby, explaining, “It is fortunate Mary is good with the baby. Such a dear baby! And yet I cannot be with him, it makes me nervous” (Gilman 302), and also complains of being lonely and being in an odd mood stating, “I cry at nothing, and cry most of the time. Of course I don’t when John is here, or anyone else, but when I’m alone. And I’m alone a good deal now, John is kept in town very often by serious cases, and Jennie is good and lets me alone when I want her to” (Perkins 304).  After such isolation, the wife thinks more and more about the wallpaper and start to personify the paper, claiming there is a womanly figure in the wallpaper and no one but her knows. She swears the paper changes from night and day, and becomes different as sunlight and moonlight hit it. She becomes obsessed with this paper, making it the center of her existence since she has nothing else to put there due to the lack of social interaction. As the story progresses, so do symptoms of the wife’s insanity. Rather than thinking that there is just a womanly figure in the wall pattern, she begins to see the woman move. She exclaims, “I really have discovered something at last. Through watching so much at night, when it changes so, I have finally found out. The front pattern does move-and no wonder! The woman behind shakes it!” (Gilman 309). She goes on to talk about how the woman, who she claims is within the wallpaper, is trying to climb out of the wall and how she sees the woman about the house throughout the day. Her mental health is deteriorating at an alarming rate, and is on the path to insanity. At the end of the story, the wife is ripping off the wallpaper, and tells her husband, that she can no longer be contained by the wallpaper, as the woman that was in the pattern has been her all along. After being set on the rest cure and being isolated from her baby, friends, husband and family, the wife slowly goes insane, which is shown by her revelation that she indeed is the woman in the wallpaper.

     Since both texts have been discussed at length, it is important to highlight similarities and differences in the text. Enoch had self- imposed isolation while the wife’s lack of social interaction was medically mandated by her husband and brother. While both suffered from mental health issues, it is evident that both cases are extreme but in in different ways. Enoch is suffering from depression, as displayed by his encounter with the journalist. The wife is experiencing insanity which is evident in her end of story revelation about her being the figure she claimed to be in the wallpaper. The characters in the story are also vastly different from each other personality wise. Enoch is a loner who lacks confidence to speak his mind and has the mind of a child due to some sort of fixation, the wife in Anderson’s story is yearning to socialize with people outside of their rental home and is very eccentric. They are almost complete opposites, one an introvert, the other, a caged butterfly yearning to escape isolation. There many difference and similarities in both texts, but in the end they both show strong correlation between social isolation and mental health issues.

     Sherwood Anderson and Charlotte Perkins Gilman used their characters to show how isolation and a lack of social interaction can lead to deteriorating mental health, and in extreme cases, insanity. The use of these characters to show such a link calls to attention perceptions of mental health, and is meant to, if you will, “start the conversation” to get help to those who need it. Those experiencing issues should not close themselves off to the world, but be open to outside assistance, and those who are trying to get help should not be denied outside health. 



