Over the years, our society has progressed to include women and provide them with equal rights to men. In the past, women were not able to vote and were not provided an education. They also could not hold the same jobs as men and were expected to stay in and manage the household. Now, in our society, women vote and pursue degrees as well as go into jobs that were previously all male dominated. There are also women who provide the sole income for households, while men stay home and take care of the housework. It took work to get where we are today, and the opportunities that young girls have now, cannot be seen without thinking of those who paved the way for future women. We can only understand what those women experienced through literary and historical texts. The combination of Morantz’s historical text, Sicherman’s historical context, and Gilman’s literary work provides us with a clearer view of the issue within the time period. In “Making Women Modern: Middle Class Women and Health Reform in 19th Century America”, Morantz explains the ideas that reformers are trying to accomplish, in Sicherman’s article, she provides the perspective of physicians in the time period, and in “The Yellow Wallpaper” Gilman illustrates the realities of what women were experiencing within this time period. Furthermore, the combination of these three works provides readers with greater knowledge of the treatment of women within health reform during this period.

In “Mental Health In the Gilded Age”, Sicherman provides insight of the physicians of the time period. She describes the ways that they prescribed treatments to their patients as well as the origins of their beliefs regarding mental health. She states that many physicians’ recommendations come straight out of the physician’s own personal experiences. Many believed that insanity was impossible or very difficult to cure. This was based on the idea that everyone had a limited amount of nervous energy and it was easy to be driven beyond that limit. This also contributed to the idea that in order to have good mental health, you would have to be in complete control of your emotions. This also brings about the divide between male and female education because, during this time, men were taught to control their emotions and women were able to express their emotions more freely. Going along with the belief that extreme emotions and the lack of control over emotions contributed to insanity, women were at a larger likelihood to be diagnosed as insane. Also, Sicherman takes into consideration some of the changes that occurred in the time period as well, such as the declining confidence within religion and the growing respect for science. This allowed physicians to assert their right to lead others to the desired perfect health. Finally, one of the physicians that Sicherman writes about directly is George M. Beard, who rebels against some of the common practices of physicians and is able to see the problems with treatments of women. Overall, Sicherman’s work contributes to the knowledge of the reader of the 19th century by describing the ideas of physicians and allowing a deeper understanding of their thought processes at the time.

Sicherman’s historical perspective relates directly to “The Yellow Wallpaper” because Gilman’s purpose in this work is to bring to light the incorrect treatments for insanity in women. The idea that physicians know everything is clearly seen in Gilman’s piece with the narrator’s husband as he is himself a physician and his treatment for his wife’s illness is not questioned throughout the work. The narrator’s husband prescribes the ‘rest cure’ for his wife which readers can see does not have any positive effects on the narrator’s health. This can be contrasted with what Sicherman states about the way that Beard thought of women’s health. He did not think that the ‘rest cure’ had any improvement towards mental health and believed that work and intellect helped to combat insanity for both men and women (Sicherman 905). This relates to “The Yellow Wallpaper” because the narrator enjoys writing, but her husband thinks that she should not write, and therefore he does not allow her to. By showing this, Gilman emphasizes the ideas that the education of women and the idea of intellect were essential to women as much as they are to men. She implies that the narrator’s health could have been improved if she were not governed by so many things that her husband thought was good for her. Moreover, by reading Sicherman’s writing readers are able to grasp a more in depth idea of the time period and how physicians were going about treating their patients and can use this knowledge within “The Yellow Wallpaper” to further understand Gilman’s perspective.

In an article by Morantz, she suggests an explanation of the role of women within the movement for health reform in the 19th century. Throughout the article she provides an insight into the ideas that were the primary focuses of the reformers at the time. These ideas included the individual responsibility of your own health, your family’s health, and society’s health at large as well as an emphasis on hygiene. Sickness was no longer seen as a moral and spiritual dilemma, but instead resulted from a violation of God’s and Nature’s laws. Women became the primary focus of the reformers and their health was focused on because the main role of women was childbearing and running the household. Views of childbirth were changed to being more sympathetic towards women and keeping up with the proper hygiene of the child. At this time birth control was supported for the first time publicly as well. Also changed was the ideas of fashion for women. They found that the corset was damaging to the female body and no longer wore long, heavy, unhygienic skirts. Much of the reform benefited women greatly by providing a physical and psychological relief. Although a lot of the ideas within the reform promoted women’s importance, being modern did not correspond to having equal rights. In this period, women were still confined to the household, and despite the broadening of the realm, women still remained in this confinement and would not come anywhere close to being equals with men.

Morantz’s writing relates to Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s “The Yellow Wallpaper” because in the work, the narrator is a woman who becomes ill as the work progresses. In her work, readers get to see the perspective of a woman that is going insane. By showing this transition throughout the work, Gilman creates an argument that draws attention to the inequality that still remains between women in men during this time period. Despite how many of the ideas presented in Morantz’s work support the power of women, there is still a large divide between genders. The scenario that Gilman describes in her work provides us with a better understanding of the 19th century. In Morantz’s article, the ideas of the reformers are presented, but she only touches on the idea that women still do not have the same things that men do. Through Gilman’s writing, we get to see a more realistic aspect of the time period. Also, most change does not happen overnight and most of the ideas that Morantz presents took time to develop into the normal standard, so Gilman’s work shows why reform was needed during the time period. One example from Gilman’s work is the narrator’s husband who is a doctor and throughout the piece, whatever he says goes. This shows the dominance of men within society despite the new power that women are receiving from the reform. Furthermore, Gilman’s piece along with the ideas that are presented within Morantz’s article provide a clearer understanding of the roles of women during the 19th century in conjunction within the health reform that is occurring.

Furthermore, looking at all three of these works together, allows readers a glance back into the time period that Gilman was writing her piece. By looking at Sicherman’s writing readers get an idea of the specifics of physicians at the time and what they believed in and how they were treating their patients. In looking at Morantz’s work readers get to see the larger picture of the time period, what reformers were working towards and how far they still had to go before women would be treated equally with men. By combining these two historical articles, readers can see two different sides of the reform. In Sicherman’s writing, readers see what was actually happening and the ideas that the physicians went by. In Morantz’s writing, readers see a larger scope of the reform and some of the ideals that they wanted to achieve. Bridging this background of the time period with the literary text of Gilman, readers are able to get a good grasp of the women’s health issue within the 19th century. Therefore, the historical texts give readers a better understanding of Gilman’s “The Yellow Wallpaper”.
