During the 19th century women were typically treated as property who were not active agents in their everyday life and were controlled by the paternalistic structure society has set. Primary and secondary sources will be considered in the use to show how “The Yellow Wallpaper” exposes how women were controlled from birth and how it was passed on through marriage. By looking at “The Yellow Wallpaper”, along with the research, we can understand how women were confined to their homes, unable to do most things men could do during this period, which was very common during the 19th century all over the world. The research also begins to show how women were misunderstood, which could have been another reason for containing them to certain job titles and activities they could partake in. 

Within Harper’s Bazaar’s document “Rest Cure at Home,” it suggests how women during this time would sometimes gain very strange symptoms after birth and how the rest cure was the only way to cure it. Post-partum depression has very confusing symptoms, which included women to be irritable very easily, have no appetite and have a difficult time being with the baby as well as changes in mood very quickly and overall changing everything emotionally involved about themselves. These symptoms were peculiar during this time because doctors were unsure why someone could be so unhappy or have these symptoms or not seem like themselves after giving birth as well as postpartum depression was an unheard-of condition during the 19th century. Such as the new mother within the story of “The Yellow Wallpaper,” women during this time were prescribed with the Rest Cure, which was discovered by “Dr. S. Weir Mitchell” (Rest Cure at Home). The rest cure states how women were to go away for the “much-needed rest” that the doctor advised among herself knowing she is “greatly in need of” this treatment (Rest Cure at Home). The treatment places these women under a strict schedule where they were forced to rest for a long period time, preferably at least “six months” by themselves and were not able to do anything that required hard work but to engage in activities such as to “lie down for a while with an interesting book” or “go out for a walk” or “ride on horseback” or a “bicycle” or any other activity that was good for your “health” (Rest Cure at Home). The rest cure specifically states how at leisure a woman should be and how they should rearrange their lifestyle to “have rest instead of work” and to have “as much restful diversion as possible” among always having a “good tonic” and a “good read” on hand while you are away resting (Rest Cure at Home). The rest cure also states that is takes a lot of “courage” to complete this process and how even though you have been resting for quite some time it’ll be hard to transition back home to the “neglected” family you left behind (Rest Cure at Home).

The Yellow Wallpaper written by Charlotte Perkins Gilman devotes itself to exposing the standard living conditions of women during the 19th century. The author writes about a woman who is confined to a single bedroom that is a part of a “hereditary estate” which the author refers to as a “haunted house.” The woman just gave birth and was experiencing a condition called postpartum depression, which allows the story itself to symbolize more than just her condition. The story illuminates how women were confined within their lives and were not able to do anything unless their husbands or fathers allowed them to. Within “Gender Roles in the 19th Century” by Kathryn Hughes, it is shown how women were portrayed as “physically weaker yet morally superior to men,” which led men to believe this made them “best suited to the domestic sphere” of the household (Gender Roles). Their main purposes in the social world was to “counterbalance the moral taint of the public sphere” that their husbands “labored” all day as well as preparing the “next generation” to uphold the same kind of lifestyle (Gender Roles). They were teaching their daughters to be well-educated girl to “soften her erudition with a graceful and feminine manner” because men did not want women were unfeminine or uneducated, as this would make people look down on them in the social aspect of the world (Gender Roles). However, women were only expected to have knowledge of “music, singing, drawing, dancing and the modern languages,” but nothing to do with social standings, politics, literature, etc. (Gender Roles). As well anyone who did not possess these features were “blue-stockings” which were women who were to seen as “unfeminine and off-putting” in that they “attempted to usurp men’s natural intellectual superiority” (Gender Roles).

Among these rules and roles suppressed onto women, the author herself was confined in her house taking care of her husbands every need and was soon to be taking care of her child. With her own experiences in mind, she found the courage to write “The Yellow Wallpaper” as a metaphor for women’s oppressions during the 19th century. The woman in the story is surrounded by all these objects that seem almost like she’s being treated like she is a baby herself and is unable to do anything at all. The woman also sees someone in the wallpaper who is trapped and at the end of the story is finally released. This symbolizes how once her husband is not moving she finally feels free and not trapped anymore. The story itself also brings out the truth about the rest cure, how the treatment causes her to go “insane” and not the actual postpartum depression, as well as the social structures in place. This is just one of the many examples throughout the story that brings light to how men viewed themselves as superior and suppressed women and truly did not understand what women were capable of or the knowledge they could hold out side of everyday household chores and taking care of children. Holding someone in a house all day to only do chores, tend to the children, and only leave on special occasions can get old quickly. Not only does it get old, but it allows women to feel as if their entire lives are controlled by men. Men are in politics, society, literature, and everything else that women can’t be in. As well as being controlled and trapped within their own home, women were unable to use their brain to its full capacity for writing themselves because men thought they were not suited for a life outside of the home, which is why women were taken care of/controlled by their fathers and then the responsibility being passed on to their husbands. The way the society was set up during this time caused women to not be able to be active roles in their lives and were controlled by any male figure._Overall, “The Yellow Wallpaper” brought out a few of the oppressions women had and how unfairly they were treated among showing how they did not have a voice within society or within their own lives because men did not truly care how they felt or took the time to understand how women truly thought or what they wanted, nor did they care. 
