The Yellow Wallpaper, written by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, is autobiographical fiction. Gilman brings to attention the dark nature, in which mental health patients were treated in the nineteenth century. The Victorian Age was a time when social issues started to appear in writings. People were sick of the romantic era and wanted to read things with more substance. The Yellow Wallpaper is a perfect example of Victorian age writings. Mental health treatment was a major topic during the Victorian age. A particularly popular treatment was the rest cure. This “cure” was extreme, and ineffective for a number of patients. Treatments today are more gentle and relaxed. Doctors pay more attention to the patient’s feelings. The Yellow Wallpaper, written by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, is a short story that shows the characteristics of the Victorian Age, and the struggle of how to deal with mental illness. This is important because Gilman wrote this short story to help bring attention to the harsh way patients were treated during her life time.

The Victorian age was marked by social changes. The role of a Victorian women was nothing more than to stay at home, and deal with the domestic things. The only thing women were counted on to do was to be a good wife, and take care of the family issues (Cenicola and Aumann, 4). When women were diagnosed with hysteria, or other mental illnesses, they felt completely useless. Once diagnosed they were usually relocated away from their family and put on the rest cure. They could not do the one, and only thing, they were considered qualified to do. The literature during the Victorian Age appealed more to the middle class. The writings attempted to incorporate struggles the average person could relate to. This is why questions revolving around the role, and treatment of women came about. Authors, such as Gilman, started to write about these issues, which raised concern, thus the short story The Yellow Wallpaper. Family life during the Victorian age become very important. Parents took pride in disciplining their children. The families were rather large, and the father was the head of the household. The mother’s role was to plan activities. Most families, except for extremely poor families, had nannies and house maids (4). The Victorian Age was also a time of scientific progress. Medical advances were on the rise because scientist were discovering the causes of illnesses. Although this was a time of medical progression, there was an increase in the use of isolation for mental patients. Asylums were built outside cities (“Health & Medicine in the 19th Century”, 7). Wealthier families paid for private care of relatives with mental issues (6). In Gilman’s short story, The Yellow Wallpaper, we can see the woman is in a house with a specific nurse and doctor. This alludes to the idea that Gilman’s family was wealthy because she used personal experience to drive this work. Her loved ones sought private treatment for her.

The rest cure was a common practice during the Victorian age. The rest cure was used to treat people diagnosed as hypochondriacs, hysterics, and neurasthenics (“The Rest Cure”, 245). The treatment for patients with mental health issues was severe and drastic. The room the woman, in The Yellow Wallpaper, was confined to had barred windows (Gilman, The Yellow Wallpaper, 301). The patients were isolated and not allowed to do anything on their own. When the woman in the short story wanted to leave the room, she was carried. She was only allowed to leave if the doctor permitted. The idea of the rest cure was to become in balance with one’s emotions (“The Rest Cure”, 250). Learning how to control one’s emotions would relieve pressure and stress, that caused break downs. The treatment was most common for women. Women were thought of as too emotional, and this contributed to their nervous breakdowns. The woman in The Yellow Wallpaper was not allowed to visit her cousins because it would cause stress, which would lead to worsening her illness (Gilman, The Yellow Wallpaper, 305). This matches up with the idea stated above, that seeing family made the patient think about all her responsibilities. When put on the rest cure all the things that involved thought and emotion were detached from their life. The women were told to fight every desire to cry or show excitement (“The Rest Cure”, 249). The problem with the rest cure was it had a reverse effect on a number of patients. The confinement only made them crazier. The isolation was unbearable; or they actually lost their minds. The Yellow Wallpaper is a demonstration of the rest cure destroying a woman mentally and physically. The woman starts to have hallucinations. She sees another woman in the wallpaper. She tears at the wallpaper in an attempt to free the women inside (Gilman, The Yellow Wallpaper, 309). The patient in the story is also the narrator, making her an unreliable narrator, but the actual author, Gilman, was treated with the rest cure. Gilman having had firsthand experience with the rest cure makes the short story semi-factual. The rest cure made Gilman more insane. She only got better after escaping from the rest cure and going back to her normal life (Gilman, “Why I Wrote The Yellow Wallpaper”, 1). The sad thing is that if Gilman lived in today’s world she would not have had to spend three years of her life suffering in confinement.

Present treatments used for people diagnosed with hysteria, or as a hypochondriac are much different than the extreme ways of the early nineteenth century. Some physicians say literature can be a cure. The types of literature a patient should read are still unclear. Some books may be too exciting, and that could “upset the physical balance” (Thorley, 7). Another cure sought by hypochondriacs is the simple idea to think less about themselves, and their symptoms. Hysteria today is thought to be controlled or cured by changing one’s surroundings, rest, and spending time outdoors (Thorley, 1-8). Imaginal Expose is a way to treat hypochondriacs. The patients are to write short stories based on their obsessions This can reduce the obsession, and reduce the sensitivity to the intrusive thoughts. Another treatment in Mindfulness-Based (CBT). The patient is taught to control the uncomfortable thoughts and feelings. They are supposed to allow the sensations in a controlled manner, helping to relive the pressure and anxiety they are causing (“Hypochondria / Health Anxiety”, 2). Today’s patients are helped in a much more hands on way. The patients are lead through the treatment with someone by their side the whole time. This is very contrasting with the way mental illnesses were treated in the early nineteenth century.

When examining The Yellow Wallpaper from the view point of the Victorian Age, it can be seen that the treatment of mental health has progressed. The Victorian Age authors goals, were to bring up social issues. This was also Gilman’s goal when writing The Yellow Wallpaper. She wanted society to know what it was like to be put on the rest cure. Doctors were so freely using this treatment on women, with no real statics that showed its effectiveness. Gilman, writing The Yellow Wallpaper, did cause some physicians to stop and change their methods when treating the mentally ill. People like Gilman, who speak up, are the reasons for better, and improved treatments today. The treatments for hysteria, and other mental illnesses, are treated in much more relaxed way. The physicians take into account the feelings of the patients and listen to what they have to say, instead of telling them to keep everything bundled in no matter what. Although the treatments today are still not perfect they are much easier to try and less extreme.
