Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s short story, “The Yellow Wallpaper”, follows the story of a mentally unstable married woman who is staying with her husband in a country manor for the summer. The woman starts to imagine things through the yellow wallpaper in the bedroom in which she sleeps. The story shows an underlying theme of feminism since her husband tries to control everything she does because he believes she is crazy. The articles, which are summarized below, support the argument that the woman’s husband is trying to control her during an unstable period in her life. The short story was written in the late 1800’s, which follows the timeline in which psychiatrists were beginning to categorize women as more mentally unstable and depressed than men. The information in the articles give a new and different viewpoint on the story as a whole, since they give more historic and specific details about the mental state of women in that time period, and how men played a role in putting their wives in asylum’s. It is important to get historic information relating to the story because it helps the reader understand why characters in the story act the way they do, and why certain things in the story happen the way they do. Getting background information after reading “The Yellow Wallpaper” helps take on a new perspective and get more knowledge on the subject in order to make a more profound argument for the fact that the husband in the story tries to control his mentally unstable wife.

The woman in “The Yellow Wallpaper” could relate to real-life women who dealt with postpartum depression and hallucinations, even though she is a fictionalized character. Perkins derived the entire storyline and the characters based on experiences she most likely faced in her lifetime. Since Perkins was a woman living in the late 1800’s, she had first-hand experiences with being treated as a woman in that time period. According to The Carolina Reader, she was not only an author, but also an activist for women’s rights and the women’s movement. She cared about the lives and treatment of women, and therefore exposed the history of mental instability of women in the 1800’s. Perkins used “The Yellow Wallpaper” as “a tool to drive nails with.” It is important to gain an understanding of the historical context in which Perkin’s life was surrounded because those facts and elements made up the backbone of her works of literature. In the short story, the reader is told that the main woman in the story had just had a baby. This connects to the post-natal depression aspect of the historical context. It is likely that the characters of the story are based on real people, or at least inspired by nonfiction events in the life of Charlotte Perkins. 

There is also a cultural connection between “The Yellow Wallpaper” and the historical context. The woman in the story is controlled by her husband throughout their time staying in the country house. This is a significant and constant theme in the story. Since Perkins was a women’s activist, she clearly wanted to expose the treatment of mentally unstable women by their husbands. Divorces were very much frowned upon in that time period, so she wanted to portray the marriage as a trap, according to the perspective of the woman. “I’m sure I never used to be so sensitive. I think it is due to this nervous condition. But John says if I feel so, I shall neglect proper self-control.” This quote from the story shows the relationship the woman has with her husband, John. In the beginning, she believes that he knows best because he is a physician and he tells her what to believe. However, she develops throughout the story, which parallels the transition of women’s rights in the 1900’s. Perkins died in the mid-1900’s, so she was able to begin to see the rights of women begin to evolve. She parallels this short story with that of her own life and knowledge of women’s rights.  

In the 1800’s, before women’s suffrage made its headway, psychiatry was just beginning to emerge as a medical specialty in Europe. Women in this time period were expected to take care of their family and household, by their husbands. Any woman who steered away from their expected duties as a domesticated housewife, were at risk of being declared mentally unstable and taken to an asylum, per request of her husband. Since women did not have their voices heard until almost a century later, it came as no surprise that they typically could not argue against being taken to an institution. Women were also considered to be significantly more sensitive, fragile, and unstable than men. This meant psychiatrics believed they were more prone to mental breakdowns and hysteria. The most common prescription for a single woman with a mental illness was to find herself a husband. Symptoms of nervousness and panic were mostly found in women during the 1800’s, and sometimes even feminist men. This held women back from speaking their mind, and withheld suffrage until the mid 1900’s. Later on in the 1960’s and 70’s, some women who were held in mental institutions were also prescribed tranquilizers and antidepressant medications in order to help them cope with depression. Husbands also would recommend their wives to take these medications, which meant the domestication mentality of the 1800’s was translating into centuries past. Some feminist professionals wrote exposés advocating institution reforms in the early 1900’s, including Dorothea Dix.

Postpartum depression was also a significant problem for women in the late 1800’s. Signs of postpartum depression included fatigue, insomnia, and irritability. After giving birth, women would struggle with hallucinations as well and, as a result, were sent to institutions for the mentally impaired, typically by their husbands. One case of this was in the late 1850’s with a woman named Emma Riches. She suffered with post-natal depression and was sent to an asylum for “puerperal insanity.” She was restrained in a restraint jacket. After a year, she was sent home to her four children. This clearly shows that mental health played an important role throughout the 1800’s and beyond in changing the perspectives of women in the household. 

 