
During the Victorian time period, women had very little say in anything, including their own health. Completely normal activities and reactions were considered insane just because a woman was expected not to act any differently than exactly how her husband wanted. In the time period of 1850-1900, if a woman did anything other people did not have complete control over, especially her husband, she was considered crazy. This included things as simple as having a mind of her own or even her normal bodily functions (Pouba and Tianen 95). After a woman was suspected of “insanity”, all of her daily activities were considered symptoms of someone who was mentally ill. In “The Yellow Wallpaper,” Charlotte Perkins Gilman depicts a woman who is forced to call her sanity into question because her husbands belittles her, isolates her, and treats her as if she were a child. This is important because it reflects the patriarchal values of society at the time. 

 If a woman acted in a matter in which her husband simply did not agree with, he had the right to send her off to the asylum. Once admitted, it was nearly impossible for these women to prove whether or not they were sane because everything they did was “confirming their diagnosis”. The female role in society greatly influenced this whole process; if a woman strayed from the perfect norm, she was insane. A woman was expected to cook, clean, take care of the children, attend to her husband and be perfectly well mannered. They were considered inferior to men and not able to think for themselves and what they said was rarely taken seriously (Pouba and Tianen 98). 

The narrator in “The Yellow Wallpaper” was evidently belittled by her husband not only by the way he acted toward her but the way he spoke to her after the birth of her child.  He restricts her movements within her own home. Jane’s husband tries to control everything she does “He is very careful and loving, and hardly lets me stir without special direction. I have a schedule prescription for each hour in the day; he takes all care from me,”. The narrators’ level of inferiority is evident when she is referred to as “little girl” by her husband (Gilman 306).  Jane’s husband controls her life and has complete power in diagnosing her as mentally insane The main character in “The Yellow Wallpaper” is suffering from an illness and deep depression, not only is she herself suffering but so is her marriage. She is not being put in an asylum like many other women who were not acting in a matter than met the expectations of females at the time. But the level of belittlement those who work in an asylum is given to her as well but by her husband John. 

At the end of nineteenth/ beginning of the twentieth century, men were considered superior to women and “always right”. Women were sometimes treated as if they were children with their opinions invalid and their every move controlled. These characteristics were apparent in the relationship with the narrator and her husband in “The Yellow Wallpaper, he also treats her like a child as if he knows what is best for her and speaking to her in a condescending manner to not “go walking about like that-you’ll get cold” (Gilman306) The narrator was there for her husband when he needed her but when she needed him he did the opposite of help her. Jane, the narrator of the story was greatly impacted by the effects of childbirth, after that her husband took away her freedom, her passion for writing, her relationship with him and all communication. Almost punishing her as if she were a child for something she could not control and that was not wrong to feel.

Once a woman was suspected in any way of being crazy, she was locked up in the asylum and it was nearly impossible to prove herself not insane. Symptoms of illness like depression were also taken as a sign of insanity, the treatments of isolating someone who already had felt so alone proved how little doctors at the time knew. In addition, women were also admitted for not being obedient enough to the male figure in their lives.  (Crumrin)  Events such as these proved how little evidence people needed to lock someone away for a very long time. The doctors did not know how to handle mental illnesses, so instead of dealing with them appropriately they just threw their patients into the asylums. When admitted most families alienated them, they were malnourished and their living conditions were that of a prison system. Woman at the time were expected to cater to their husbands needs and make sure her home is in order. Cook, clean and care for the children the second a woman did anything that did not fit the norm she was all of a sudden disrespecting her husband and “crazy”. (Crumrin)

Throughout the second portion of the nineteenth century women took up much more of the population in insane asylums than men. Woman were sent to these asylums in result of them not fitting the perfect image society expected of them. Today things like post partum depression, the inability to reproduce or even anxiety are not only common but approached with compassion. But from 1850-1900, things like these were considered symptoms of insanity. In most cases, the woman went through an experience that affected them and the sudden change in character was reasonable. Woman during this time had very little say and the men in their lives had an adequate amount of control on them. Rather then being their partners women were seen as a part of their husbands in most cases. That being said, husbands and older brothers were usually the ones who admitted them into the asylums for “not acting how a woman should”. 

During this time, there was one way that people believed a woman should act. If a woman did not act in a manner that perfectly met the expectations society created, then she was acting out and proclaimed crazy. These norms and expectations made her loved ones freaked out by the slightest out of character act and quickly jump to the conclusion that she is mentally ill and must be “taken care of”. One thing expected out of these women was perfection, whether or not it was something they could control simply did not matter.  For example, having nervous depression is common in modern society and shoving someone in a room will not cure that depression but make it worse. The husband in The Yellow Wallpaper did not know he was being irrational because all the other men in society were “treating” their wives as soon as they stopped fitting the perfect image their husbands had In their heads of what they should be. Today these assumptions would be ridiculous. But in the Victorian age and in The Yellow Wallpaper, woman who are suspected of insanity are automatically isolated and their opinions are invalidated.  

In The Yellow Wallpaper the situation of the narrator losing her baby and her husbands reaction was far too common at the time. Instead of giving her the proper consoling, understanding and help; he thought the best solution would be to lock her up and isolate her. It is obvious that trapping someone in a bed not able to go anyway or communicate their feelings much would eventually make them go crazy. For example, when it comes to conditions such as the one Jane had expressing her feelings would be a great way to do gradually get better.  Even Jane herself knows that writing would help her relieve the thoughts in her mind “I think sometimes that if I were only well enough to write a little it would relieve the press of ideas and rest me.” (Gilman 302) In result, this caused the narrator to see a woman in the yellow wallpaper she had no option but to look at for hours on end. The narrator sees the woman in the wallpaper trapped, which is reflecting her situation of not only being trapped physically but mentally behind her husbands’ ideals.  

