
Mental illness in the 19th century was a subject that was approached by many scholars with an air of hesitation. Diseases of the mind were impossible to see, and thus much harder to comprehend than diseases of the flesh. Like many treatments in the early stages of other branches of medicine, mental illnesses were treated with remedies that were rarely based in scientific fact. One of such treatments was the rest-cure, developed by Silas Weir Mitchell. In The Yellow Wallpaper, Charlotte Perkins Gilman created a short story that illustrates the reality of the rest cure’s effect on the human psyche. The rest-cure and other remedies not based in scientific reason were detrimental to the mental health of the patients exposed to them, especially women, as the social environment of the time expected female submission to authority in all its various forms.

 As a sufferer of “nervous depression” (Gilman 2), the narrator of The Yellow Wallpaper is prescribed the rest-cure to improve her mental health, however, she is vehemently opposed to this method of treatment. She states, “So I take phosphates or phosphites — whichever it is, and tonics, and journeys, and air, and exercise, and am absolutely forbidden to "work" until I am well again. Personally, I disagree with their ideas. Personally, I believe that congenial work, with excitement and change, would do me good. But what is one to do” (Gilman 2)? The belief that the use of the rest-cure was beneficial to the mind and body was a popular belief at the time The Yellow Wallpaper was written. Silas Weir Mitchell was the creator and a dedicated supporter of the rest-cure, and in his manuscript, Fat and Blood: and How to Make Them, demonstrated the effects the rest-cure had on his patients. Many of his patients were returned to a healthy weight and a renewed positive attitude, but, as seen in The Yellow Wallpaper, the treatment’s effect on mental health was neglected. “‘I am a doctor, dear, and I know. You are gaining flesh and color, your appetite is better, I feel really much easier about you’” (Gilman 8). John, the narrator’s husband and physician, was oblivious to the psychological consequence the rest-cure had on the narrator, relying on the physical benefits of the treatment as validation for implementation of the cure. He viewed the rest-cure as the only proper cure for women suffering from nervous disorders.

Women suffering from neurological conditions during this period were generally dealt with in a dismissive and simplified manner. “‘She was emotional and ashamed of her tears, and honestly hated the whole matter of sickness. You will see such hysterical women. You will see others whose minds are like the back of a piece of needle-work with a baffling absence of pattern’” (Blackie 57).  In this quote from Mitchell, he attributes mental distress in women to hysterics, and describes the mind of a woman as sporadic. Mitchell was opposed to women’s suffrage and female university training, claiming this distracted woman from their primary purpose as wives and mothers. Nowhere are these ideas better illustrated than in his theories regarding the female mind. Gilman directly responds to this in The Yellow Wallpaper. When looking at the wallpaper adorning her room, the narrator states, “The color is hideous enough, and unreliable enough, and infuriating enough, but the pattern is torturing. You think you have mastered it, but just as you get well underway in following, it turns a back-somersault and there you are” (Gilman 8-9). The narrator sees no clear intent in the pattern of the wallpaper. It sprawled across the wall without a clear reason. The disorganized pattern of the wall is a symbol for the view held by people like Mitchell, in regards to the structure of the female psyche. Later in the story, the narrator views the irregular pattern as a prison for the woman she visualizes behind its bars. This view of women restricted them from receiving suitable treatment. The rest-cure was viewed as the only possible solution to subduing the erratic female mind. 

The authority the narrator encounters in The Yellow Wallpaper treats her as if she was an infant. She is restricted from leaving her room and is barred from creative writing.  “He says no one but myself can help me out of it, that I must use my will and self-control and not let any silly fancies run away with me” (Gilman 7). John explains to the narrator that she can overcome through self-motivation alone, and that allowing her fantasies to dominate her thoughts could be detrimental to overcoming her sickness. He attempts to restrict her creativity, and her freedom of thought as well. John speaks to the narrator in a condescending manner, the way a parent would address a child. He attempts to police every action and thought the narrator undertakes. The restrictions and their effects on the mind of the narrator culminate at the end of The Yellow Wallpaper when the narrator crawls across her room on all fours. After being treated like a child, the narrator is reduced to a literal infantile state. “But I forgot I could not reach far without anything to stand on ! This bed will not move! I tried to lift and push it until I was lame, and then I got so angry I bit off a little piece at one corner - but it hurt my teeth” (Gilman 13). The bed is also an important symbol. When the narrator attempts to move the bed to assist her in the removal of the wallpaper, she finds the bed to be impossible to shift. This resistance to change is akin to the futility of the narrator’s attempt to change her standing in regards to those in authority.

Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s The Yellow Wallpaper serves as an excellent critique on the practice of rest-cure. Many rest-cure practitioners at the time were ignorant to the effect rest-cure had on the mind, instead relying only on physical evidence to form their conclusions on the effectiveness of the rest-cure. Gilman demonstrated the devastating consequence the treatment could have on a patient, leading the narrator to a state of insanity. The rest-cure was also seen as way to deal with “hysterical” women and their sporadic mental processes. The Yellow Wallpaper regards this style of thinking as a figurative prison to the advancement of women, represented by the woman imprisoned by the irregular pattern of the wallpaper. Women during this period were also referred to in condescending and infantile fashions. In the story, this leads the narrator to a literal infantile state. In The Yellow Wallpaper, Gilman crafted a short story that redefined the way people of the nineteenth century viewed the rest-cure, even resulting in Mitchell’s eventual abandonment of the practice. 
