Throughout history, it is no secret that women have had their fair share of discrimination and fights for equality. From winning the right to vote in the 1920 to still now getting paid less than the average man, it has never been easy for women. By analyzing the treatment of the narrator in “The Yellow Wallpaper” by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, it is evident that she has trouble being heard and is subjected to follow the rules of her own husband as she recovers from post-partum depression. Throughout the entire story, the unnamed narrator experiences a great deal of solitude and is made to feel as though she cannot do anything for herself. However, with insight into the historical context of women’s role in society during the late 1800s, we can see that it was not uncommon for women to be treated as a minority.  

Written in 1890 and published in 1892, “The Yellow Wallpaper” provides an accurate example of what it was like to be a woman during the late 19th century in America. At the time that “The Yellow Wallpaper” was published, the ideal woman in America would stay at home and take care of her husband, children, and household. Additionally, the women who sought out other activities or jobs were seen as selfish. Not only were women seen as weak, dependent, and timid during this time, but they were also viewed as being very susceptible to madness or hysteria. A great deal of literature in the 19th century focused on hysteria of both genders. However, women were considered to have the greatest amount of symptoms of hysteria including faintness, nervousness, loss of appetite, and insomnia. An illness that was often linked to hysteria in the 1800s was post-partum depression. In today’s world, we now know that postpartum depression is a type of depression that occurs after child birth and is an illness that can be treated with counseling, antidepressants, and hormone therapy. However, in earlier time periods, not many people were entirely educated on postpartum depression and in most cases, weren’t exactly sure how to handle it. During the late 1800s and early 1900s, the illness was not even diagnosed as a legitimate condition. Instead, the depression became associated with plain hysteria, causing this time period to be known as the “Golden Age of Hysteria.”

In her autobiography, The Living Of Charlotte Perkins Gilman, Gilman describes the struggle she endured in the spring of 1887 after being diagnosed with hysteria and prescribed the “rest cure”. She writes, “I came perilously near to losing my mind. The mental agony grew so unbearable that I would sit blankly moving my head from side to side” (96). This quote further proves the point that many women were misdiagnosed with hysteria during the 19th century and that the “rest cure” wasn’t very curing at all. If anything, it made things worse for the women that were ordered to follow it. In general, postpartum depression paired with the smothering social constraints of the Victorian Era drove many women mad and even some to commit suicide. 

The historical context of women’s role in society during the 19th century is very evident in “The Yellow Wallpaper”. Seeing as though the piece was developed in the 1890s, the narrator is seen as powerless and is constantly belittled throughout the narrative. In many instances throughout the story, John, the narrator’s husband, refers to the narrator as “little girl” (306). This trivializes the narrator and gives off the impression that her social status is well below her husband’s. Throughout the story, the narrator is constantly advised on what she should do and how she should behave, which also correlates to how all women were treated during the late 19th century. Additionally, not much attention is focused on the postpartum depression that the narrator experiences. All the other characters in the story just assume that the narrator has gone mad and don’t realize that postpartum depression could be a partial cause of narrator’s actions. 

On it’s own terms, “The Yellow Wallpaper” can be analyzed in a few different ways, depending on how it is looked at. From the very beginning, the narrator’s husband in the story makes it seem as though the narrator is sick with “temporary nervous depression” and that the only way for her to get better is for her to do nothing but rest. However, according to Paula A. Treichler’s “Escaping the Sentence: Diagnosis and Discourse in “The Yellow Wallpaper”, and many other critics, that isn’t necessarily the case. Treichler states: 

Almost immediately in Charlotte Perkins Gilman's story "The Yellow Wallpaper," the female narrator tells us she is "sick." Her husband, "a physician of high standing," has diagnosed her as having a "temporary nervous depression—a slight hysterical tendency.” Yet her journal—in whose words the story unfolds—records her own resistance to this diagnosis and, tentatively, her suspicion that the medical treatment it dictates— treatment that confines her to a room in an isolated country estate—will not cure her. She suggests that the diagnosis itself, by undermining her own conviction that her "condition" is serious and real, may indeed be one reason why she does not get well. (Treichler 61)

It is obvious from this quote that the narrator disagrees with her husband’s reasoning yet goes along with it anyway. As the narrator follows the strict order of no exercise, no social conversation, no writing, and virtually no thinking, it is not hard to believe that forcing behavior like this would in fact make someone crazy, instead of cure them. However, John seems to think that his wife will soon be cured as time goes on. Little does he know, she gets worse as each day passes. As she conceals her thoughts in her hidden journal, the yellow wallpaper in her room becomes her entire reality. At first, the narrator is simply convinced that there is a woman trapped behind the paper. However, it quickly escalates to the point where she believes that the woman creeps around the room during the day, which leads her to do the same. Suspecting that John and his sister are catching onto her obsession, she decides to destroy the wallpaper at once by peeling it all off. At this final moment in the story when the narrator has become hopelessly insane and her husband faints at the sight of her madness, the narrator’s condition is generally left unknown. As a result of John’s diagnosis, the audience is led to believe that it was simply a “temporary nervous depression”, however it is evident that the narrator’s condition progressed into something much more than that.

For the most part, this story provides an accurate representation of what it was like for women in the late 19th century. Just like the narrator in “The Yellow Wallpaper”, women during the 1800s experienced a great deal of depreciation, belittlement, and were seen as nothing other than housewives. This story remains important today because it reminds us of how far women have come in today’s society. Although things like the wage gap still do exist and many feminists claim that the patriarchy still exists, women are definitely no longer expected to work as housewives for their entire lives and are thankfully seen in a very different light than they were in time periods such as the 19th century.  
