Charlotte Perkins Gilman, who is most known for her writing of The Yellow Wallpaper, was a powerful woman writer during her time. Charlotte Gilman creates a horrifying image of entrapment in The Yellow Wallpaper. She tells the story of a young woman undergoing the rest cure treatment by her husband, who is also her psychiatrist. Throughout the story, Gilman exposes the rest cure for how dangerous it can be, and to inform other women of the harmful effects of this treatment.   

The Rest Cure was developed in the late 1800’s by Silas Weir Mitchell, who was an American neurologist. The rest cure was widely used throughout the United States and the United Kingdom. It was prescribed more often for women than it was for men. This treatment usually lasted about six to eight weeks and was known to keep some patients alive and others out of asylums, though some patients and doctors considered the cure worse than the disease because of tedious conditions that patients had to sometimes go through such as talking, reading, writing and even sewing. The rest cure involved isolation from friends and family and enforced bed rest.

I acquired information on the rest cure from exhibits.hsl.virginia.edu which is a website that explores the culture of nervous exhaustion. This website is relevant to my topic as the rest cure was used for the treatment of hysteria, neurasthenia and other nervous illnesses. In the story “The Yellow Wallpaper” by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, the topic of the rest cure is used to cure the narrator. The narrator of the story, without realizing it is suffering from a mental illness herself, and is therefore taken to an old abandoned “house” to help cure her mental illness using the rest cure. This is seen all throughout “The Yellow Wallpaper” as the narrator is put into isolation throughout the whole story. She is away from her husband and is restricted from talking and writing, even though she still does in secret. Silas Weir Mitchell believed the point of the rest cure was physical and moral, which is seen towards the end of “The Yellow Wallpaper” when the narrator finds herself again. 

In The Yellow Wallpaper, the narrator said, “I don’t like our room a bit. I wanted one downstairs, that opened on the piazza and had roses all over the windows, and such pretty old-fashioned chintz hangings; but John wouldn’t hear of it” (pg #?). Although she despised the room, she was confined by her husband and had no way of escaping. Gilman continues to express how much the narrator hated the room by saying, “It is a big airy room, the whole floor nearly, with windows that look all ways, and air and sunlight galore. It was nursery first, and then playroom and gymnasium, I should judge, for the windows are barred for little children and there are rings and things in the walls” (pg #?). The narrator was babied and pampered as if she were a baby or a child; however, John was not present to her when she needed him. Actually, John rarely was present to her. Instead of giving her attention she deserved, he left her alone in a nursery with barred windows. When John was around, he treated her as if she were a baby, not a full grown woman. The rest cure treatment reflects the statements he says to her throughout the story about the room. Throughout the entire story, Gilman illustrates the disrespect both her husband and psychiatrist had for the narrator. 

I gave this website a score of 46, which would be considered excellent. In the currency category, I gave it a 9 because the information is as up to date as it can be. The rest cure was a topic during the 1800’s, so it is not as relevant today and there is not much new information on it currently, but the information is still relevant and reliable. In the relevance/coverage category, I scored this website an 8. The information could go more in depth, but overall the information is presented well and is unique. In the authority category I gave this website a score of 9 because the author of this is an authority on this topic and credentials are listed. In the accuracy category, I gave this source a score of 10 because there is a bibliography at the end of the page and the original sources of information are listed. Also, there are no spelling or grammar errors and no other typos. In the category purpose I gave it another 10 because there is no biases stated within the information. There is also no advertising content seen on the page. The website is professional looking with the purpose to inform and teach about the topic of the rest cure. This website should be consulted for academic research because it is all professionally written and edited, and is extremely reliable and is a good source to use for writing an academic research paper. 

When I first started the research process for the topic on the rest cure, I found it to be difficult, as many of the sources I was finding could not be reliable. Many of the websites were blogs about the topic, which should not be used for academic research because they can contain extreme bias and they are not always reliable. I also had some trouble when starting the research process because the rest cure is not a relevant topic in today’s world, so it was hard to find sources on the topic, and sources that had up to date and reliable information. After spending some time looking through sources, I got a better sense of what would be a reliable source and what wouldn’t so it became easier to distinguish what I could use from what I couldn’t use. Overall the research process was a little harder than I anticipated because this topic is not relevant in today’s society, but once I knew what to look for, it became much easier and more interesting.
