Charlotte Gillman received a rather unruly test of a new cure for mental illness which was, S. Weir Mitchell’s “rest cure.” She wrote a story called, “The Yellow Wallpaper,” which entails what she believed and a story of women went through during this cure. The “rest cure” is why Gilman’s story is written but it also gives an analysis of what all women went through during their treatment and the discrimination that anyone showed against women with this disease.

The “rest cure” treatment had initially been designed to cure mental emotions which were not psychotic disorders just like the one which Gilman had to suffer through. The procedure they used to cure this disease was used mainly on women and was a very in depth, confusing process which involved many different tests and hardships. Women were forced to be isolated from most of the world like Gilman was while staying in the room. They were forced to rest many times a day as Gilman did when she would rest and sleep throughout the day but also was suppose to be resting at night while she was awake just looking at the wall. Many patients were instructed to lie in bed for long periods of time which could last up to months at a time. Gilman never had to stay in bed that long and was able to walk around some but she was in this place for a total of three months which was a reasonable time to go through this treatment. Many patients going through this cure were on a special diet but the diet Gilman went through was not exactly mentioned other than many times Gilman did not eat her food when she was supposed to. The isolation part is what really got to her. She could not see her family which she asked to many times and she had just given birth to a baby before coming to this place so she could not see the  baby either. These ideas of the cure which were supposed to help did not seem of much help to her but to John, her husband and doctor, seemed to be helping her (Martin).

After all this took place and could see improvement in the patient, doctors would then begin to slowly allow the patient to communicate with friends and family until she felt as if she was normal and could return back to a normal lifestyle. This cure came into practice because Mitchell believed women who used to much thinking began to get distracted from what they were to be doing. At the time, if a woman was not managing the household, she was not doing her job. What Gilman endured this treatment, we do not get to see her going back to see family and friends before the story is over. The story ends with the day she is getting to leave, which ends with a realization that this time here has driven her to a new level of insanity. In the story she is said to have a nervous disorder which caused her to become distracted from what she was supposed to be doing in the household which eventually led to her being sent to this place. 

Gillman was an active feminist, which was mentioned in the background of this story and her. She strove to create an equal lifestyle for men and women. The three months that she spent in these living quarters drove her to a state of insanity. The treatment which she received while in the asylum not only did not fit her because the cure was meant to confine the patient while Gilman was active women but also made her state worse which drove her to write “The Yellow Wallpaper.” This story she wrote is meant to show the unfair treatment of women. She want every to know what these women have to go through for long periods of time which does not always have reasoning behind it.

Mitchell knew the manipulation of women that was involved in this “cure.” His success he from this practicing came from deceiving patients into doing this without them really understanding the treatment. He was a charming man, which allowed him to use harsh and dominating procedures which never helped the women. He received many letters from women which drove him even more to continue this practice. Some of the treatments he used on women were very strange and nothing that could have helped many women. Some of the measures he went to in his practice were things such as, dropping women off far from home to walk back and promote exercise, and making women get up out of bed by threatening them with the thought of getting in bed with them. Many of the things in which Gilman went through were not as harsh as what Mitchell forced many women to go through. Gilman, in her story, says she went through things such as lots of rest and being able to walk around outside. She was never threatened to do anything except she just was not able to see her family. Another difference in her story and what Mitchell did to these women was that since she had her husband there with instead of being threatened to get out of bed John would be in the bed wanting her to come to sleep at times. Other doctors that practiced this cure stated that not all women do well with these ideas and makes matters worse, which is why Gilman’s treatment was much different. This may have been why Gilman saw her treatment unsuccessful, because the treatment shown on her just did not fit her. When she was isolated for so long she did a lot of thinking and staring at the yellow wall which caused her to begin seeing thing in it. Another thing which Gilman did not agree with in this treatment is how she was treated like a child. She says the room looks like an old children’s room which she says is more evident when she moves stuff back at the end of the story. Examples of this not only show how women were treated unfairly but also that she got no say in her treatment or where she was to stay.

Gilman’s doctor and husband were the same person throughout this story. She believed that both the doctor and her husband lessened her artistic ability while she was in treatment because they did not want her to even write which drove her even more of a mental state than they believed she was in.  “John is a physician, and perhaps—I wouldn’t say it to a living soul of course, but this dead paper, and a great relief to my mind—perhaps that is one reason I do not get well faster (Writing on Women Writers).” She mentions that she does not believe this helps her case at all and even when John says she is getting better she does not believe she is. Gilman does not like the room she has to stay in from the way she describes it and wishes to be in another room, “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 chitz hangings; but John wouldn’t hear of it,” which John is in charge of the situation so she does not have a say in her room. She describes the room she has to stay in as, “…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 (WOWW).” When she describes the room she has to stay in, she explains and shows that it that of a child and a room not fit for a grown woman to stay in. She believes the room to be unsuitable for her which is why she wants a different room. The bars on the window can give it the feeling like she is trapped in a prison with no way out which is what this cure seemed like too many. She mentions the sunlight galore which is another factor which drives her to insanity. The sunlight that comes into the room and reflects of the wallpaper makes her see things not there which is also even stronger when the light from the moon comes in. From the way she describes everything it may not be the treatment that drove her to insanity but instead the room in which she stayed in. 

The “rest cure” showed to be a key way to influence the traditional gender roles. When Mitchell placed the patients in a resting state and limited physical and mental state he realized it put women in their proper place. He believed that women should not be smart because it was bad for reproduction and their overall health. He also tried to make women believe that jobs and long amounts of studying were not for women. He states, “She (woman) is physiologically other than the man (Stiles).” Anyone that state man is any different from woman is someone that Gilman would not agree with. Mitchell portrays women as a lesser from man which Gilman does not see at all. Gilman believed that women should have a say in their life too which is why she so much tried to talk John into moving her or letting her go see family. 

The rest cure which Mitchell began started something in Mrs. Gilman that made her want to expose Mitchell and other doctors who forced women through this treatment. All the hardships Gilman went through can show and identify that this so-called cure could have easily driven her to insanity which obviously did. It shows it the very in that she was trying to rip all the wallpaper off to free someone she saw trapped in the wall. This was hallucinations which drove her to a much higher level of insanity than she ever had before going to this place. She took her experience in an asylum and while going through rehabilitation to show she a major supporter in feminism and wrote a story which showed the wrongs created from this cure and how unfair women were treated in this period.
