
Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s The Yellow Wallpaper is a story about a woman who appears to be slowly losing her mind in the room her husband has forced her into. Early in the story she claims to be feeling depressed, but her husband does not recognize her feelings to be legitimate, so instead, he decides to sequester her in a room in their home. Her isolation in this room, and the yellow wall paper that decorates it, contributes to her declining mental health throughout the story, and eventually drives her to complete insanity. This story speaks to the state of mental health care in that time period, and emphasizes the struggles women in particular faced in their efforts to seek mental health care. Ultimately many parallels are able to be drawn from this story to today’s society. 

During this time period, mental health issues were not widely understood. It was common place for individuals with mental health problems to simply be thrown into an asylum and forgotten about. The stigma surrounding mental health is one that carried an enormous weight in this time period. If there was a member of a family with a mental illness, the family would do nearly everything in their power to keep that member out of the public eye and keep them from harming the reputation of the family. It was something that could truly ruin a family’s standing in a time period where that had so much to do with the well-being of the family. This concept is demonstrated in Gilman’s text when the narrator’s husband says: “I beg of you, for my sake and for our child's sake, as well as for your own, that you will never for one instant let that idea enter your mind! There is nothing so dangerous, so fascinating, to a temperament like yours. It is a false and foolish fancy. Can you not trust me as a physician when I tell you so? (Gilman)" He put the reputation of his family ahead of his wife’s issues. The standing of the family in society was more often than not prioritized above the health and well-being of the sick family member. The understanding of mental illnesses would not come for many years, and to this day there is still much stigma surrounding mental health problems. 

Much of the issue regarding women’s mental health in this time period stems from the fact that women had an incredibly small amount of control over aspects of their lives. They had very little autonomy at this point in history, and this was never more apparent than in their struggle for mental health recognition. A woman would often need the consent of her husband before she could seek psychological intervention in this area. As Gillman says in the text: “John is a physician, and PERHAPS…PERHAPS that is one reason I do not get well faster. You see he does not believe I am sick! (Gilman).” The character’s husband did not believe that she truly had a mental health issue, so she was left to go on without care, which eventually led to her descent into psychosis. Without the recognition of her husband, the character was unable to seek mental health care on her own. In this aspect, access to mental health care has vastly improved since Gilman’s time, but this is an area of health care that can always be improved upon. The struggle for mental health recognition is an ongoing battle for those that suffer from disorders of this kind. This idea is discussed further in Beverley Hume’s piece about The Yellow Wallpaper, where she considers this a form of oppression against women (Hume). 

The effort for mental health recognition is something that is still very prevalent in today’s society. Mental health is all too often seen as being “all in the head” or “just feeling down.” Instead of the legitimate disease that it is. Disorders such as depression are caused by an alteration of chemicals in the brain, and legitimate treatment is necessary for the problem to improve. This is not often something that is recognized, even among the health care field. While more natural methods can sometimes work in treating diseases of this nature such as exercise, positive thinking, or being around friends and family, more aggressive methods are often needed such as therapy or medication. People who suffer from disorders of this type often feel marginalized when people say that their disorder can be cured by simply getting outside. If a person has a good support system around them, there is often a smoother path to recognition of their illness. However many people still have a lot of difficulty with the recognition of their conditions. This can make the condition worse, both through the stress of not being recognized, and also the time spent without treatment. It is a struggle that many people face and one that is often discussed in today’s society. This allows us to draw parallels between Gilman’s society and today’s society. We can see that while things may improve to a certain degree, it takes much more than time for these problems to be completely solved. 

Gilman’s work is very influential in the discussion about mental health. She brings up many points that are often forgotten when mental health is being discussed. It provides an invaluable insight into what it is like to be inside the brain of someone who has a mental health issue. Many people do not experience this in their lives, or at least do not experience it in the sense that many people do. It shows people with mental health issues that they are not alone in their struggle, and that there are people that face similar issues, both with the disorder in itself and in the struggle for recognition. This piece did a lot of important work in changing the conversation regarding mental illness. It focuses on the fact that there were, and still are major flaws in the war mental illnesses are treated, and ignoring the problem is not beneficial to anyone. Not only does it hurt the patient but it hurts the relationships they have with the people surrounding them. 

This issue also mirrors the current ongoing struggle that women face today in order to get access to reproductive health care. Many women do not receive access to the care they need because the woman’s body stopped being her own and started being a political view at some point in history. This is a hot topic in politics today and it causes a great deal of struggle from women who are simply trying to take care of their bodies in the best way they see fit and are being prevented from doing so because lawmakers, refuse to acknowledge their need to do so. It goes back to the idea in Gilman’s time that a woman would often not be able to receive health care until her husband or father determined that she needed it. This is an idea that is unacceptable in this day and age. The fact that a large percentage of women in this nation do not have control over matters of this type needs to be addressed. This is discussed further in Ann Oakley’s “Behind the Yellow Wallpaper” where she makes an interesting statement on the inequality of this matter: “The second myth is that inequalities between men and women are surface blemishes only, and may be removed merely by cosmetic attention to the superstructure of social relationships. (Oakley).” She goes on to discuss in detail how deeply rooted the inequalities between men and women are in our society. 

Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s The Yellow Wallpaper, is a very important commentary on the struggles women often face for mental health recognition. It discusses the fact that women in her time period struggled to get mental health care, because such conditions in the time period were heavily stigmatized, and the men in their lives often did not recognize the need for them to seek care. It is a stigma that still lives on today in many ways, but is improving. The struggle of Gilman’s time mirrors the struggle women face today in trying to get access to reproductive health. 
