
The late 19th century was a challenging time, especially for women. Their rights were minimal and anything they did outside of their “realm” was a legitimate reason for being labeled insane. In Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s, “The Yellow Wallpaper,” these ideals of powerless women are explored. Additionally, the protagonist’s mental illness is brought to life, but ignored by her husband, John. Through his rejection of her mental illness and his course of thinking that he knows what’s best for his wife, John Gilman helps to exemplify the 19th century power struggle and sexist society. In “The Yellow Wallpaper” by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, the protagonist’s gender is the reason behind much of the mistreatment she gets from her undiagnosed mental illness. The lack of power women had over their lives in the late 19th century is exemplified through Gilman’s little control over her daily life.

Throughout the 1800s, women were confined within spheres of domesticity. Their ideal roles included cooking, cleaning, birthing and mothering children, and most importantly, being attentive to their husbands. If they were to step outside of these spheres, they were often deemed insane and even placed into mental institutions. The basis of their diagnoses were often untrue, or unrealistic and the so-called “cures” for these illnesses were illogical. In “The Yellow Wallpaper,” Charlotte Perkins Gilman explores the mental illness of her protagonist, which is ignored by her husband. He has an underlying knowledge that something is wrong with his wife, but refuses to diagnose her as sick, all while controlling every aspect of her life in an attempt to cure her. His disapproval of her want to read and write leads to her confinement within her bedroom, which eventually results in making her mental illness even more severe.

In this story, a woman clearly struggling with mental illness and her relationship with her husband exemplify the late 1920s relationship dynamic. We are introduced to her overbearing, controlling husband, John, who claims his wife is simply “nervous.” Through the protagonist’s storytelling, we are exposed to the power struggle between the two spouses, which was common in marriages at the time. Women, because of their gender, were confined to their realms of domesticity which included cleaning, cooking, raising children, and pleasing their husbands. John tries many tactics to “cure” his wife of her mental illness, such as confining her to one room in hopes of it healing her. Architecture has previously been thought of a cure for mental illness, so with this in mind, John expects that this confinement will help his wife. Additionally, he takes control of her daily schedule, diet and routine, leaving her with no control of her own life, whatsoever. The overbearingness of John gives us insight into the extremely minimal rights that women had in the 19th century and how their gender was the reason for much of their mistreatment.

In the late 19th century, architecture was often seen as a cure to mental illness. John Gilman confines his wife to the upstairs room of their house because he claims it is what is best for her health. She opposes his demand to stay in the room with yellow wallpaper, but due to her lack of power, John succeeds and the protagonist obeys. She states, “I don’t like our room one bit. I wanted one downstairs that opened on the piazza and had roses all over the window, and such pretty old-fashioned chintz hangings! But John would not hear of it” (Gilman 300). Despite the protagonist’s want for a room downstairs, John takes control of the situation and assigns her to the room he sees fit. There was emphasis placed on the structure and architectural look of insane asylums in order to “cure” the patients living inside. Carla Yanni writes, “While such large psychiatric hospitals have little to no medical credibility, the edifices (or their ruins) remain, witnesses to the history of medicine and testaments to a once-common faith in a partly architectural cure for insanity” (Yanni 46). As we read on in Gilman’s piece, we see that the architecture of the room is actually harming the protagonist’s mental state more than it is helping. The room includes windows with bars on them, and ripped, decaying wallpaper. The protagonist states, “The paint and paper look as if a boys’ school had used it. It is stripped off- the paper- in great patches all around the head of my bed…” (Oliver 301). She starts to see a woman within the wallpaper in her room, and refuses to tell John about it, so he assumes his “cure” for her sickness is working. Gilman writes, “I had no intention of telling him it was because of the wallpaper- he would make fun of me. He might even want to take me away” (308). She knows her husband’s course of action against her mental illness is not working, so she hides it from him in an attempt to get what she wants. John’s attempt to use the architecture of a room in their house to cure his wife’s illness backfires, without him knowing. Her condition worsens due to her living conditions that she has been placed in by her husband.  The unaccredited thought that architecture is a cure to mental illness is disproven in “The Yellow Wallpaper.”

The protagonist’s and her husband’s is relationship dynamic is exemplary of a 19th century marriage. The women were confined within their realms of domesticity, which included cooking, cleaning, and bearing children. When the protagonist started to behave in ways that John did not agree with he ignores the fact that something else might be going on with her mentally. During this time, women were often placed in mental institutions for doing things that men did not agree with, such as being “overly interested with sex with males” (Pouba, Tianen 100). Although the protagonist is not placed in an institution, John’s treatment of her is similar to what she would receive in one. For example, women’s needs were often overlooked in asylums and they were treated as crazy outcasts in society, rather than actually being cared for. In an article discussing women’s admissions into asylums in the 19th century, Katherine Pouba and Ashley Tianen write, “Women during this time period had minimal rights, even concerning their own mental health. Research concluded that many women were admitted for reasons that could be questionable” (Pouda, Tianen 95). These reasons include heredity (if someone in that woman’s family was found insane), epilepsy, and suppressed menstruation. John takes complete control over his wife’s life because he can tell she is not mentally stable. He takes control despite the fact that he refuses to diagnose her with a more severe claim than that she is simply “nervous.” The protagonist states, “So I take phosphates and phosphites- whichever it is, and tonics, and journeys, and air, and exercise, and am absolutely forbidden to ‘work’ until I am well again” (Gilman 300). John implements all of these rules onto his wife. Through John’s attempt to treat his “nervous” wife, we are able to see the role of women and their lack of power in the 19th century.

 The protagonist’s mental illness goes undiagnosed, which ultimately leads to it getting worse. From the beginning of the story, we know that there is an underlying knowledge among the characters that the protagonist is mentally unstable, but no one explicitly states it. Her husband claims that she is sick and ignores the fact that there might be something more going on than simply a sickness. In Katherine Pouba and Ashley Tianen’s research, questions of the eligibility of diagnoses were brought up. The co-authors write, “Did these women truly need to be admitted to asylums, or was their admittance an example of their lack of power to control their own lives?” (Pouba, Tianan 95). We can question the protagonist’s lack of diagnosis, but we can also question her need for diagnosis. At the beginning of the story it does not seem like she has a mental illness, it simply seems like she has lack of control over her life. This can bring us to question that if she were given more control, would she even go through the experiences of seeing a women in the wallpaper? Women were diagnosed as insane for doing things that men did not agree with, but the protagonist seemed to do everything her husband wanted her to. The expectation that she should be seen as someone with a mental illness comes from the roles of women within the 19th century. She stepped outside of her sphere by wanting to read and write, and John considers this a basis for calling her sick. Overall, the expectation and need for a diagnosis of the protagonist’s mental state proves that women were often stripped of their sanity by the diagnosis of mental illnesses.

       The elements in “The Yellow Wallpaper” exemplify the ways of society in the 19th century. Women were confined within spheres of domesticity and if they stepped outside of those boundaries, they were punished and often deemed as crazy, or insane. The protagonist of the story, is completely controlled by her husband. He chooses her diet, daily schedule, and living quarters. Because of her lack of power and control, she follows his rules and lives her life in a confined room that eventually perpetuates her mental illness. The architecture of her room, specifically the wallpaper, barred windows and gates, causes her mentally stability to decrease. The protagonist describes the wallpaper, “You think you have mastered it, but just as you get well underway in following, it turns a back-somersault and there you are. It slaps you in the face, knocks you down, and tramples upon you. It is like a bad dream” (Oliver 307). She focuses on the elements in her room that tap into that mental instability, and allow them to consume her mind. The spousal relationship between John and his wife gives insight into the roles women were expected to have and how their husbands enforced them. Overall, the protagonist’s gender was the root of her mistreatment. Because she was a woman in a time where women had little power, she was deemed “nervous” and had to follow whatever her husband told her to do. Today, we still see the harsh expectations of women in society. Although we have more control over our daily lives and less of a need to obey men’s needs, we are still working towards an equal society.
