
In the Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Gillman she is diagnosed with hysteria. The only treatment for this back then was the “rest cure”. The “rest cure” is when a doctor or care taker treats a mental illness like hysteria, insanity, or depression. During the rest cure no one could leave their rooms for weeks or months at a time and must do no work. Citation? where does this research come from? This literally can cause someone to go crazy just like Gillman. In the Yellow Wallpaper the rest cure makes Gilman’s condition worse because all she did was stair at the wall all day and couldn’t focus on her work, which was writing. Since this book the rest cure has been on a slow decline because of the way it destroys peoples mind and was a way to suppress the minds of women. The rest cure was just another way for men to gain power over women. This intro is full of grammatical and spelling/punctuation errors, and includes a great deal of generalizations and assumptions. Your thesis is driven by an assumption without evidence or research to back it up. You need to introduce the social issue and the time period before making these generalizations. 

In the first article, Putting the Rest Cure to Rest by Michael Sharpe and Simon Wessely, it talks about how the resting cure has been proved to be an ineffective method of curing psychological related diseases. do not state it as "the first article" - you must use the source to make your own claim about the rest cure. This makes it appear like an answer to a question rather than an originally constructed argument. The topic should tell me how the paragraph will defend your thesis and in what way, rather than only referring to an article. Also, you need an in-text citation here. The main problem with the rest cure is that it can cause prolonged physiological effects. Some of these effects from the rest cure include chronic fatigue syndrome, loss of sleep, poor sleep, postural hypotension, and fatigue. This therapy also warps one’s mind and destroys your physical health as well. Studies show that controlled exercise is highly recommended when on the rest cure. The main reason why exercise is so good in this case is because it is really a morale booster. It is a major confidence booster and reduces the fear of the consequences of exercise. How is this relevant to your thesis about male domination? The last people to stop using the rest cure as an actual diagnosis was the Victorians. They were also among the first to use it as well. They used it because it was easy to diagnose. This cure was more of a last resort type thing when there was nothing else to do. There are no citations here.

The “The Yellow Wallpaper” relates to the first article because it shows how bad the rest cure is not effective in the slightest and how it is so bad for a person and that it put women down and raised men up. You do not present this information when you present the article in the first place. This analysis seems to come without grounded evidence. you must present the article as demonstrating this idea if you want to use it for your argument.  As the article described the rest cure can create or make one have psychological problems like Gilman had in her book. Another thing that Gilman displayed was since she got forced into inactivity for a long period time she developed anxiety, where maybe if she would have been doing work she could have kept her mind off the depression. Gilman says, “Personally, I believe that congenial work, with excitement and change, would do me good” (300). If she could have done work or exercise like the article said and she said, then her depression could have been cured. This is an ineffective way of incorporating the article. you assume the article's truth is universal and applies to all aspects of Gilman's text. You must show me how you are applying the article. Your language assumes Gilman had access to your article. Another example of this is, “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 300). Instead she was stuck in bed all day thinking about her depression. One of the reasons why this cure can be so dangerous. Lying in bed all day every day is the reason she actually The reason behind this was because her husband did not want to have to deal with it so he isolated her. Being in isolation for a long enough time can make a person go insane. This is assumption.  Especially if the one who is resting cannot do anything for an extended period of time. is insane rather than her depression. This rest cure almost ruined Gilman’s whole life. Plus, not doing anything for a while can make one very lazy, which makes the depression worse. Overall the rest cure was a selfish diagnosis because the doctors got lazy.

In the second article, The Rest Cure Revisited, by Diana Martin mainly focuses on how the rest cure was used to kill all of the creativity that women have. Citation? While the rest cure was prescribed to treat hysteria, many husbands would tell their wives to go rest because it made them feel like they had more power. The rest cure was described in this article as a paternalistic style of 19th century medicine. By using this method the women often had to go through hours of psychological manipulation in order for the rest cure to “work”. This was the main way that the rest cure would hold women back. The creator of the rest cure often showed women how much he did not actually care about them getting better. He would say very unprofessional and inappropriate things to them during check-ups. Another reason Gillman went crazy was because she was not a loud to work and she made it very clear that that was one of the main reasons for her going mad. The rest cure is just another way for men to feel more in control as well as just prescribing something for an incurable disease. 

The second article relates to “The Yellow Wallpaper” because of how the rest cure puts women down and makes it so they cannot make their own decisions. Gilman talks a lot John who is the physician and her husband who prescribed her with the rest cure. She spends a lot of time praising him. For example, she said, “It is so hard to talk to John about my case, because he is so wise,” (Gilman 305). She praises him because he makes her feel like he has more power than her even though he doesn’t at all. Another common occurrence in this book is Gilman just listening to John just because he is the man and he tells her to do it. An example of this would be when she says, “But John says if I feel so, I shall neglect proper self-control,” (Gilman 300). John would say this because Gilman would get mad because she does not like being controlled like this. But since John “knows what is best” so she will listen to him because he is a man. Gilman only listens to John because he is a man and is in authority and one can tell that this is another one of the reasons she goes even more insane. These are assumptions, and your reference to the article is not enough to deem them true or evidential. The ideas can work with proper presentation, but they do not work as they are expressed now. 

“The Yellow Wallpaper” is filled with evidence proving that, one, the rest cure is not good for someone’s mind and also that women would listen to anything a man said even though it may not be true. This book did take place during a time when women didn’t have many rights, but one can tell that this drives Gilman to insanity. Many husbands prescribed wives the rest cure even if they were not sick. 
