“The Yellow Wallpaper” is written by Charlotte Perkins Gilman who was a survivor of the rest cure. She went to a psychiatrist named Silas Weir Mitchell for treatment for postpartum depression. His treatment for Gilman included rest and isolation along with other things. The treatment left her worse than before and after recovering she wrote “The Yellow Wallpaper” as proof of her ordeal and as a plea to end the treatment due to its worsening effects.

The rest cure was created by a neurologist named Silas Weir Mitchell to treat mental illnesses, more commonly used for woman. “The rest cure usually lasted six to eight weeks. It involved isolation from friends and family. It also enforced bed rest, and nearly constant feeding on a fatty, milk-based diet. Patients were force-fed if necessary- effectively reduced to the dependency of an infant.” (“Rest Cure”). Mitchel’s use of this cure sets the tone for the treatment and standing of woman in the late 1800’s. Woman were looked at as “sickly and emotional creatures” which came from the “fragility of femininity” (Poirier, 16). Mitchell thought the rest cure would work as he once said “You cure the body and somehow find that the mind is also cured” (17). He noted that most patients with mental illnesses “were pale, thin, [and] rundown” (17).

The rest cure is shown throughout “The Yellow Wallpaper”. The narrator is a woman who just had a baby and is married to a physician who rents a house for three months that stands “well back from the road, quite three miles from the village” (Gilman, 300).  The rest cure was commonly given to patients as an alternative to going to an asylum. Patients were to be kept away from family members and in isolation as shown in “They Yellow Wallpaper”. The narrator’s only social contact is with her husband (who is also her physician) and occasionally his sister. Only once is she allowed to socialize with others in the story. The narrator cannot argue against her husband when he diagnoses her with “temporary nervous depression” also descried as “a slight hysterical tendency” (300). She later talks about her baby and how it makes her nervous to be around him (302). This demonstrates the role of woman in the late 1800’s; they were subject to their husband’s authority. When moving into the house, the narrator is given the room at the top against her will. She thinks it resembles a “gymnasium” or “playroom” because of the “barred” windows to ensure the children’s safety and “rings” in the walls. (301). It is later revealed that the room has a gate (302) and a bed that is “nailed down” and also “gnawed” (310) at. This is because the room is for patients of mental illness: a gate and barred windows to keep them inside the room, rings in the walls to tie them down if necessary. The room also has wallpaper that is “torn off in spots” and a floor that is “scratched and gouged and splintered” with parts of the plaster being “dug out” (303). It is later revealed that they are the acts of an insane person: the narrator peels the wallpaper and bites at the bed during her downfall towards the end of the story.

Throughout “The Yellow Wallpaper” the narrator’s health is obviously diminishing and most likely due to her captivity within the room. She first shows concern for the treatment her husband is giving her on early on is the story, by questioning “what is one to do?” (300) when describing that her husband is a physician and diagnosed her. She cannot argue his authority. Thorough the story she is treated like a child. Her husband picks her room out for her (300) and addresses her as a “little girl” (306). The lack of sincere attention and understanding the narrator receives in the story is similar to how Gilman was treated during her rest cure. Her husband and doctor would not listen to her concerns about her worsening situation during the rest cure (“The Rest Cure in Relation to “The Yellow Wallpaper”.”). The narrator states that she will “cry at nothing, and cry most of the time” (Gilman, 304), proving that her illness is not increasing but she is becoming worse. She also describes how it becoming a “great effort for [her] to think straight” (305). When she learns that their stay is almost up in the house, the narrator gets better because she has something “to look forwards to” (308). The sense of hope that she will no longer be under the rest cure instantly brightens her mood and allows her to show improvement. However, she ends up going crazy towards the end of the story. The narrator locks herself in the bedroom and throws the key out of the window. She begins to bite the bed and contemplates jumping out of the window but the bars keep her in. Eventually she starts crawling around the perimeter of the room (311). The rest cure is untimely responsible from turning her postpartum depression into a serious mental illness. 

Throughout “The Yellow Wallpaper”, a strange significance of the wallpaper occurs. Readers first start to get an insight on how the narrator feels about the house she describes the “legal trouble” (300) accompanying the house and questions why it was empty for so long and sold for a low price (299). This could lead the reader to believe that there is something spooky about the house. The narrator immediately dislikes the wallpaper in her assigned room however she says that the pattern “provokes study” (301). The narrator studies the wallpaper and finds eyes within it (302), eventually leading her to find a “formless sort of figure” (303) in the wallpaper. The narrator studies the wallpaper from top to bottom, hoping to find “some sort of conclusion” (303). Finally, the narrator sees a woman within the paper who “crawls around fast” (309). By the end of “The Yellow Wallpaper”, the narrator is crawling around the room. This leads one to believe that the woman seen inside of the wallpaper is a reflection of the narrator’s self. She feels trapped because of the forced rest cure. It is an example of how woman are treated in the late 18000’s. They don’t really have a voice and are commonly considered less than men as shown as the figure stoops constantly. 

“The Yellow Wallpaper” is a great example of how the rest cure ultimately ruins woman. Gillman wrote it in order to save others for the “cures” damaging effects. It also creates an insight into the treatment of woman in the late 1800’s. They were subject to their male authority and thought of as weak. 
