“The Yellow Wallpaper” by Charlotte Perkins Gilman is a short story mapping the downward spiral of mental health of a woman who is being treated with the rest cure. This story was written in 1890 in just two days, right around when the rest cure was at the peak of its popularity. Gilman’s aim was to express her beliefs on the treatment through her writing, given that she herself had been treated with it. Based off of her obvious dislike for the treatment, the rest cure is portrayed to be a very negative, constraining, and invasive treatment that should not be practiced. Her experience with the rest cure first hand most definitely changed her views on the treatment, since at the time, only the successful stories and the miraculous outcomes were being shown. Gilman’s “The Yellow Wallpaper” was definitely affected by the medical beliefs in the rest cure during that time, and by her own experience with it.

The rest cure itself claims to be a treatment to cure mainly women who suffered from nervous disorders. It calls for six to eight weeks of complete rest and solitude, meaning the patient was to not strain themselves, and was to refrain from seeing any friends or family members. It was thought that being exposed to others besides the primary caretakers could trigger an upsetting social interaction that could potentially make the patient’s condition worsen. Since patients were mainly immobile for such an extended period of time, doctors provided electrotherapy and massage in order that the patient’s muscles did not atrophy from the lack of physical activity. A strict protein and milk-based diet was also enforced to help the patient maintain or gain weight, which in turn was thought to increase blood flow. The goal of this cure was to have patients emerge calm, rested and nourished, and it was thought that a break from all stressful mental stimulation and total rest would allow them to more rapidly and successfully battle and overcome whatever nervous disorder they suffered from (Blackie 60-67). Even though at the time the logic behind the rest cure seemed valid based on whatever medical knowledge was available then, people like Gilman who experienced it firsthand without success begged to differ. Although there were many positive cases in which patients made complete turn arounds, there were always stories like Gilman’s that proved to be mentally straining and actually more harmful then helpful in curing their nervous disorders. For the narrator in the story, not being able to see her baby or her cousin actually made her even more nervous, which is the opposite of the goal of the cure.

A major note about the rest cure is that it was mainly targeted at women. At the time, gender stereotypes were very commonly believed. It was thought that since women were fragile and more prone to being emotionally hurt, that when they were diagnosed with nervous disorders, the rest cure was the best option because it required no physical labor or mental stimulation, as to not strain the sensitive mind of the woman. This belief is extremely sexist, and as proven through cases such as Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s, not all women are that fragile, and that kind of environment could actually be toxic to some female patients. This was very different than the way that nervous disorders were treated for men. For them, it was the “west cure.” This treatment was basically the exact opposite of the rest cure. It involved sending men diagnosed with the same nervousness out west do complete very manly and burly tasks, including hunting and farm work, and recording their experiences in writing. This was very different from the rest cure: instead of rest, men were encouragingly stimulated, instead of lack of mental stimulation, men were ordered to write as much as they could. Instead of a serious disorder, men’s nervousness was treated as a “temporary systemic disruption resulting from mental overstrain,” and they were encouraged to basically work to get their minds off of their condition (Will 294-296). Again, this cure is very sexist. It is built off the notion that men are tough and don’t need to be babied, and that they could get rid of their nervousness by doing very manly tasks and writing about their experiences, as opposed to the mandatory rest and force feeding that the cure for women’s nervous disorders entailed.

It is obvious that curing nervousness was a radically different process for males and females, one notable factor is that males were permitted to write, and women were not. This major difference could definitely have produced a bias in literature during the time. Since the female voice was oppressed, the only feedback that the public was getting about the rest cure was coming from the doctors and caretakers themselves, which were primarily male. This put a spin on what was truly happening to females who experienced the treatment; the male doctors were obviously going to report what they saw and what was positive, because they wanted their success to be seen. A male doctor may report that a female patient appears well-rested and healthily fed, but in reality, the mental state of the patient could be as worse as it was for the narrator in Gilman’s “The Yellow Wallpaper.” If women were able to document their own experiences, then maybe it wouldn’t be as difficult for them to endure it. All that time just sitting with nothing to do but think to themselves obviously did not work for people like Gilman. Instead, the lack of stimulation drove her to insanity. On the other hand, there was more abundant, accurate information on the effects of the west cure since males were in fact encouraged to document their experiences. This allowed for less uncertainty of the true effects, and information directly from the patients themselves and how they were feeling.

Overall, Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s “The Yellow Wallpaper,” is a great representation of the unknown and undocumented effects of the treatment called the rest cure that was given to several women during the 19th century. It revealed the true effects of the treatment and how the excessive isolation proved detrimental for some patients. By doing so, it also proved that the treatment was not effective for all women, even though the vast majority of patients who were treated with the rest cure were in fact females. This piece was also important because it captured the emotions of patients experiencing the treatment, since at the time, females weren’t permitted to write while they were being cured. It is a statement on the realities of the rest cure, and a representation of the limited medical knowledge at the time. Thankfully there are better cures and treatments for stress and nervous related disorders in today’s society, and they don’t involve the invasive and harmful ways of the infamous rest cure.
