America, in the late 1800s, was a time of significant change. As a nation, we weren’t too far removed from a devastating civil war and we were dealing with all the social changes that came with it. Not only were the social changes between whites and African Americans taking place, but also changes between other groups, including men and women, were occurring. Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s The Yellow Wallpaper portrays some of these latter changes in society and has elements of the text that is representative of the late 1800s.

In the United States, women were seen as unequal to men in 1892, which was when this story was first published (Davis). This extended into the healthcare world. When women had any kind of nervousness or depression, they were often sent to the doctor’s office by their husbands. These doctors, who were almost always males, would typically diagnosis them with a hysterical tendency or a nervous breakdown disorder of some kind. Most “mental health problems were viewed as pathological” or caused by their reproductive system (Floyd). To combat these “diseases,” doctors, such as S. Weir Mitchell who treated Charlotte Perkins Gilman, would recommend the “rest cure,” which basically prevented women from doing any kind of labor and basically lies around in bed all day. Charlotte Perkins Gilman “suffered from a severe and nervous breakdown” for many years before writing The Yellow Wallpaper. She saw S. Weir Mitchell, who instructed her to undergo the rest cure. After three months, she came “so near the borderline of utter mental ruin” that she decided to quit the rest cure and wrote The Yellow Wallpaper (Gilman). 

Gilman was inspired to write this story because of the way she was treated. She even sent it to Mitchell, but he never acknowledged it to her (Gilman). However, she believed he changed his treatment of patients after reading it. To her, the story was written not “to drive people crazy, but to save people from being driven crazy, and it worked” (Gilman). So, basically Gilman wrote The Yellow Wallpaper because of the way she was treated by doctors of the time period. She sought to make a difference in women healthcare and ultimately did. The elements of “the rest cure” really are what the story of The Yellow Wallpaper is all about. 

Throughout the story, Gilman reemphasizes the inferiority of women to men. In the beginning of the story, the narrator says her husband “laughs at [her], of course, but one expects that in marriage” (Gilman 299). Basically, it wasn’t uncommon for husbands to laugh or blow off what their wife had to say. Also, her husband and brother (two males) don’t believe that something is wrong with her, other than a “temporary nervous depression—a slight hysterical tendency” (Gilman 300). Both of these things are slight hints that men were in charge of women in late-1800 society.

The narrator’s husband, John, also chooses what room in the house she needs to live in. She didn’t like the nursery on the top floor, but he refused to allow her to stay in the room downstairs, or anywhere else for that matter (Gilman 300). Basically, John is in total control. Part of this may be because the narrator is actually insane and very unreliable, but we have to take Gilman’s word for how marriage powers were distributed. 

During the 1800s, women were significantly less privileged than men in marriage and society as a whole. Men typically worked outside of the house and had tough jobs. Women primarily worked in the house and focused on raising children. In some parts of the United States, women couldn’t inherit property or money if their husbands passed away. They also couldn’t vote (Crumrin).

Reading The Yellow Wallpaper helps shape the reader’s impression that women weren’t seen equally to males during the time period, because of the way the female narrator is treated. However, it also suggests that women were starting to seek equality. Since a woman wrote this story, it shows that she is aware of social inequality and is seeking to change this issue.

We see Gilman feels this way because of the imprisoned woman in the wallpaper image. The narrator sees a woman trapped in the yellow wallpaper. In the moonlight, the pattern becomes bars and a woman is behind these bars. The woman is described to shake the bars and escape her prison (Gilman 309). This seems to be a metaphor for how women are trapped and imprisoned by society. No matter how much they shake the bars, they can’t seem to escape the system. This shows Gilman recognizes how women are treated and society and wants to break free, but can’t escape it no matter what she or any other woman does.

The Yellow Wallpaper is definitely representative of how women were treated during the late 1800s. Lots of different parts of the story are used to connect the text to the time it was written. Charlotte Perkins Gilman was inspired to write this because of how she was treated and wanted to make a difference in the treatment of women by doctors. As a result, this story definitely tries to convince people that women healthcare needed to be fixed and she believes she succeeded in that.
