
If readers want to fully understand “The Yellow Wallpaper,” written by Charlotte Gilman, it is important for them to be informed about mental illnesses and how these conditions can come off as different to different people, depending on how it affects them.  People who do not suffer from a mental illness, as well as those who do not know someone who has a mental illness are probably less informed on what mental illnesses are and how they affect the mentally ill.  When people are less informed about mental insanity and depression, they only know the depth of everyday talk, where “insane” means crazy and “depressed” is defined as sad.  If readers of “The Yellow Wallpaper” are not educated about mental illnesses, this short story will not be as interesting and also may be confusing.  I read this story in high school and just read right over the details about what Jane saw and heard, thinking that it was not important to the story as a whole.  After researching and re reading “The Yellow Wallpaper,” the short story and details are now much more interesting to me.  While reading this short story, readers can see Jane’s progression, as well as her symptoms, and in a way, readers diagnose her with what they believe she is suffering from.  An educated reader can put themselves in the character’s shoes and think of what they would do to help Jane if they were in John’s position.  Of course it will be different because the reader’s knowledge in the 21st century is way above what John knew back in the late 1800s.  To get the most out of this short story, reading articles written about, or by those who have suffered a mental illness first hand are very useful and helpful.  

One important thing to note about Jane’s journey is that she lived in the late 1800s, a time when mental illnesses were not well known and they did not have the nurses and knowledge that hospitals have today.  In the 21st century, there are websites and common knowledge to help discover symptoms of mental health issues and most people know to take someone with these symptoms to seek professional help.  Jane writes that, “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 299).  The fact that even a physician could not pick up on any of his wife’s symptoms, or even if he did see symptoms and did not think that the best option would be to take her to a hospital shows the difference between the time they lived in, and today’s world.  In the conditions that Jane had, there was little chance of her getting better because mental insanity was not well known back then.  Kate K wrote a book from a nursing perspective for mental health patients and their families.  One of her main points that she covered was the importance of good and relatable nurses for patients suffering from a mental health issue (O’Conner).  When Kate was suffering, there was nearly no information about her illness, just like when Jane was suffering with her mental insanity.  What made Kate’s situation better than Jane’s was that as a patient she had moments where she felt a real connection with her nurses and she believes that is very important and crucial for every patient to feel that connection in their recovering time (O’Conner).  In the conditions of the 19th century, Jane did not have the luxury of having a person to relate to and to make her feel safe and to feel as if she were not alone.  Unfortunately, Jane did not even have a nurse to tend to her, she had John, her husband who was gone most days for work, and John’s sister to watch over her.  Even with her husband and her husband’s sister, Jane spent most of her time alone locked away in the upstairs bedroom.  If Jane had a nurse that would try and relate to her situation and show her that what she was seeing on the wall was just her shadow mixed with the barred window’s shadow, she may have been much better off.  People think that mental health issues, like Jane’s insanity, can be solved with medicine and help of a specialist.  If readers think like this while reading “The Yellow Wallpaper,” they may be annoyed at John for not giving her the right care, but he could be doing the best that he can in their time period.

 Another important detail to keep in mind while reading “The Yellow Wallpaper” is just how it is difficult for someone to understand what a mentally ill person is truly going through if he or she has not experienced that before.  Deborah Denno wrote an article about what Andrea Yates went through as she suffered from postpartum depression and insanity.  Andrea’s case for drowning her four healthy children after having a miscarriage happened in 2003, and even then people had trouble understanding her mental illness.  Andrea’s attorney got a hold of a couple experts to prove that Andrea had a mental illness of some kind, and each expert had a different twist of what was wrong with her (Denno).  The fact that experts in 2003 were unable to pin point what exactly was wrong shows just how uneducated and unprepared “experts” in Jane’s time must have been.  Even once the experts agreed that Andrea suffered from forms of postpartum depression and a level of insanity, the juries were not understanding at all.  One of the juries decided that she was still competent enough to be put on trial for murdering her kids, while another refused her insanity plea but at least declined to impose death penalty (Denno).  Denno writes that the insanity defense is one of the most controversial criminal law doctrines because of the debate over the definition of insanity (Denno).  When Jane complains about wanting to leave the house, John says, “Of course if you were in any danger, I could and would, but you really are better, dear, whether you can see it or not” (Gilman 306).  This quotation shows what Jane went through, she had to deal with suffering from something that no one else could truly understand or grasp, even her physician of a husband.  When someone is suffering by seeing things and hearing things that no one else can see or hear, that must make them feel psycho, which cannot be good for their mental healing.  The confusion of having someone tell her that she is doing better when she feels as if her condition is getting worse can only make her go more insane.  

Understanding the background of any text somebody reads is just as important as close reading the text.  If a person close reads a short story, novel, poem, essay or any other form of text as closely as they can, but does not know the context of it, the energy of close reading that work goes to waste.  It does not matter how long someone spends reading something if they do not fully understand the main idea of it, because they will either be confused the whole time or they will not care and just read to say that they have read it.  This happens a lot when students are forced to read books or articles for school that they do not have any interest in.  A way to fix this would be to plan out the class and assign readings that will give background to the big story that students must read for an assignment.  Another reason that this is important is because the reader who is uneducated about the reading topic will likely skip over important details because they will not recognize the importance of them.  This is not intentional, most people just accidentally skim over topics that they do not understand because they are too lazy and not motivated enough to try and understand the topic.  If people were less busy and less addicted to their phones and what not, more people would enjoy reading and learning new things.  This would mean that people would research the background of books they are about to read, instead of jumping into their reading completely clueless.  People who are about to read “The Yellow Wallpaper” should take the time to research mental illnesses such as insanity and depression prior to reading this short story.  This will help the reader to understand the author’s details and will give them the most out of their time reading the short story.  It is a much more interesting short story if the reader is able to pick up on Jane’s symptoms and John’s “helping” actions.  

