     There’s nothing quite as frightening as the social conditions of the mentally ill during the turn of the century, especially those of the female persuasion. Mental disorders, originally diagnosed under the term neurasthenia, were often difficult to treat and even harder to categorize due to the variety of symptoms and the lack of information available at the time. A laundry list of disorders that grew longer with every new patient, and little to no concept of how to take care of them, often left the victims of mental health with treatment which tended to do more harm than good.

      Mental health disorders were more prevalent in women over men, or at least, they were diagnosed more often than men. The Industrial Revolution was in full effect, and women often felt trapped in their role as housewife and child bearer for their husbands despite the opportunities now available to them.

      One such woman who felt constricted by these expectations was Charlotte Perkins Gilman, who was diagnosed with neurasthenia. Gilman associated the symptoms with her dissatisfaction with her role as a wife and mother rather than mental illness, nevertheless, her physician ignored her claims and recommended she live ‘as domestic a life as possible,’ forbidding her to pursue her career as a writer. Conflicted by her doctor’s suggestions, Gilman wrote The Yellow Wallpaper: The story follows a young woman suffering from postnatal depression that gradually spirals into a psychotic breakdown after being forced to undergo the rest cure, which Gilman’s physician had originally recommended to her.

      ‘You see he does not believe I am sick!’ The unnamed main character pines, ‘And what can I do? If a physician of high standing, and one’s own husband, assures friends and relatives that there is really nothing the matter with one but temporary nervous depression-a slight hysterical tendency-what is one to do?’ The main character is anxious about having to undergo the rest cure, and in fact believes that a little adventure and change in her life would benefit her more than what her physician has prescribed. Her qualms with the rest cure can easily be translated to the general feeling of discouragement that was residing in a majority of women at the time. As mentioned before, women were often at the mercy of their husbands during Gilman’s time, a factor of life that is also represented in The Yellow Wallpaper by the main character’s husband, John. The main character yearns for an exciting new experience, emulating Gilman’s own wish to become a writer, both of which are shot down by a male authority figure who tells them to conform to the role society expects of them: a doting housewife.

      The main character’s struggle with duality comes up again in the later half of the book. As she stumbles further and further into her insanity, the protagonist begins to hallucinate visions of women crawling inside the wallpaper adorning her room. Slowly, she begins to identify with these figures, seeing herself amongst them as she circles the room, peeling at the wallpaper to release the women trapped beneath it. ‘I’ve got out at last,’ she tells John when he finds her in this state. ‘In spite of you and Jane. And I’ve pulled off most of the paper so you can’t put me back!’ 

      It’s never made clear who she’s referring to as ‘Jane,’ but given the context, the author implies that the room the protagonist has been confined to symbolizes Gilman’s mind, and the protagonist herself represents the doting, soft spoken, restrained figure that society expects her to be, while the women inside the wallpaper are the lifestyle she wishes to achieve in spite of those expectations. Freeing the women symbolizes Gilman freeing herself of the conforming lifestyle of maternity. 

      Gilman relied heavily on the Gothic tradition to tell her story, relying on the sense of unease brought on by the idea that the home was not as safe as most people assumed. Gilman plays with this concept by making the conflict revolve solely around the main character and her mental health. Gilman foreshadows this sense of domestic insecurity in the opening paragraph of the story, where the protagonist describes an unsettling air emanating from the mansion as they approach it. A theory which is almost immediately brushed off by her no-nonsense husband as they settle in properly.        

      Almost the entirety of The Yellow Wallpaper takes place within a single bedroom, and also within the protagonist’s own mind. Her grasp on reality is loose at best, her first description of her new bedroom describing it first as a nursery, then as a playroom, then as a gymnasium. The windows are barred for safety and the bed is restrained for similar reasons, according to her, and various sets of straps and rings adorn the wall for exercise. While never stated in the story, the implication is clear that the main character is not the first person confined to the room for mental illness. The actual status of the house itself is never brought into question, either, implying that perhaps the entire concept of the vacation with her husband was made up by the protagonist in some bizarre attempt at rationalizing caused by her psychotic breakdown.

      Gilman used gothic literature as a platform to discuss the rigid structure of 19th century society and the problems inherent within it. If she had been a man, she would have had no trouble becoming a writer, but instead she was deemed hysterical and told to forgo pursuing a career that was deemed unfit for a woman by a male authority figure.

      During the 19th century, women were expected to be restrained, docile creatures. Relying on their husbands as their sole form of protection. These women were often unprepared for the responsibilities of marriage, much like Gilman was when she began experiencing her bouts of depression, and began to experience similar feelings of uneasiness and dissatisfaction with their lifestyles.

      Gilman wrote this as a way to speak against the rest cure that was a popular treatment for mental duress, and considered writing a much better treatment than anything that she had been prescribed. She felt that meaningful work was important, not just to herself, but to women everywhere who struggled to find a purpose. 
