
What is anxiety? And who is to say there is a cure? In “The Yellow Wallpaper” by Charlotte Perkins Gilman writes about a woman with extreme anxiety and nervousness and is therefore made subject to Weir Mitchell’s “rest cure.” Weir Mitchell, a famous physician, who came up with a cure for nervousness, which was known as the rest cure. “It is pretty much self-explanatory, you rest and you should be cured, or so he thought” (Mitchell). If you know anything about the rest cure you know that it did more harm than good. The woman in “The Yellow Wallpaper” was a victim of this cure. Being shacked up in a room with the “horrid” yellow wallpaper caused her to think too much and imagine things that were never there. The rest she was meant to receive ironically made her more restless and drove her into a psychotic meltdown. Through identifying the harmful effects of the rest cure, and taking a closer look into the mental state that women were thought to have during the 1800’s and the toll it took on the woman in the story, we can look deeper to see the damage that was caused by a remedy that was meant to cure. 

Weir Mitchell was a world renowned physician from Philadelphia who majored in neurasthenia, a label for mechanical weakness, which is, the weakness of actual nerves inside the body. Mitchell started out practicing Neurology, writing poems and writing fiction throughout the Victorian era. However, he is most famously associated with the rest cure for women. Weir Mitchell was infatuated with strong intellectual women and would often take them on as patients by discrediting their accomplishments and intelligence. Furthermore, women during this time period had little authority in the health care that they would receive alongside many other social circumstances. Women were thought of as delicate, unstable creatures who needed to be guided by men to appear strong. Women were blamed for having emotion and being too “sickly” were thought to be unfit and powerless. Mitchells Rest Cure was first established in 1873 and was said to be able to treat locomotor ataxia, a nervous disease. His “cure” consisted of “perfect” rest. The patient was not supposed to read, write, move excessively, eat irregularly or be lazy. A typical diet during the rest cure consisted of fatty and milk-based foods. Many patients had to be force fed.  Mitchell believed that the key to mental health is physical health. The five major components to his treatment were: rest, seclusion, food, massage and electricity. Rest was never varied. His treatment was in its “purest” form when no energy was exerted. Through many accounts, like Gilman’s example, women became increasingly more insane by subject of the rest cure not better. Many women started to realize the devastating toll this so called “cure” was taking on their mind and body. They knew a stop was just ahead. Gilman took a public approach by bashing this practice in the “Yellow Wallpaper.”

In relation to Mitchell and the rest cure, Charlotte Perkins Gilman wrote “The Yellow Wallpaper” to accurately depict the inevitable insanity that crept upon the patient as the rest cure unraveled. Gilman understood better than anyone the sinister effects the cure had on its victims because she herself fell subject to Weir Mitchells remedy. The woman in the story is restricted by her husband, whom is a doctor and prescribes the cure, is a yellow papered nursery room where she is meant to stay and rest to cure her nervousness. The isolation takes an adverse effect making her paranoid and gradually insane as time passes. She begins to see “a broken neck and two bulbous eyes” (Gilman 302) staring at her from inside the paper. If this woman was never secluded to only the one room then the constant obsession of staring at the “repellent, almost revolting” (Gilman 301) wallpaper would never have been a factor and her insanity would have been measurable. Gilman knew that this cure was a mere attempt to further oppress woman making them submissive to male direction because it was supposedly good for their health. In today’s society we now know that men do not always know what is best for women. Today more and more female physicians are excelling in their field without the aid of men and their beliefs. 

On the same note, gender roles in the 19th century were extremely strict and expected by everyone in society. Anyone who was to go against the social norm was punished or shunned due their abnormality. In the beginning women worked alongside men in small family businesses, but as time progressed factory jobs became available and that was no job for a woman. Women were never expected to exert much effort and hard grueling work, was always left for the men. Therefore, women were expected to stay home all day and oversee domestic duties. “A new term evolved from this called “separate spheres,” which meant that men and women would only come together for breakfast and dinner. Women were best fitted for the domestic sphere because it was believed during this time that they were physically weaker but mentally stronger than men. Men on the other hand were best suited for the work place where physical labor was prevalent” (Hughes). With the evolution of the separate sphere mindset created even more segregation between the sexes. Having men superior to women during this time furthered the need to oppress women and their values in terms of individuality and creativity. With oppression came women who wanted to speak out, like Gilman. Consequently, with women speaking literature was created, which called men out for their wrong doings and the inequality they endorsed. Women were to only be educated on literacy, music, dance, domestication etc. to ensure that they were refined and well behaved. Men went to work. Women stayed home. There was no room for any diversity from these roles during this time.

Respectively, Gilman painted the woman in “The Yellow Wallpaper” as a foil to the typical Victorian woman. Although the woman did listen to her husband, the physician, by taking “phosphates or phosphites-whichever it is, and tonics, and journeys, and air, and exercise and absolutely forbidden to work…” (Gilman 300) she was revolting in her private time. She kept a journal disagreeing with everything he thought was good for her. A journal was forbidden during the rest cure but this woman devoted all of her energy and became fixated on the paper. Because her husband, John was the head of the house and commanded her to be subject to the cure she went insane. John did not listen to her and he was ultimately responsible for her insanity. Men during this time and in “The Yellow Wallpaper” only listened to themselves and their colleagues. They simply dismissed the opinion and concern of their wives. Women were there to clean the home and tend to the children. Although the woman in “The Yellow Wallpaper” was the polar opposite of the typical Victorian Woman, she was similarly oppressed by the scrutiny of her husband and the burden of society.

On the whole, Gilman took an enormous issue of the time period and brought it to light. She took a stand for women’s oppression and made it known that what was happening was not going to stand any longer. The degradation that came to Mitchell after the release of “The Yellow Wallpaper” was well deserved. By depicting her own story through the woman in “The Yellow Wallpaper” Gilman was able to identify the devastating effects of the rest cure and truly show the mental well-being of women during this time period. She was able to once and for all justify that women were not frail and useless on their own account, but were merely suppressed by the male super power during the Victorian Era.
