Charlotte Perkins Gilman wrote “The Yellow Wallpaper” in 1890. “The Yellow Wallpaper is a close look into the position that women during that time were put in. Women were expected to stay in the house, and abide by their husbands expectations, as the narrator in “The Yellow Wallpaper” was. The author used this poem to give awareness to women’s mental health, and women in unhealthy marriages. I chose my first article about the Progressive Era, because that is the time period the poem was wrote in, and it gives a clear illustration of what led women to demand more psychiatry and equal status. My next article is about the reform of psychiatry for women. With out this article, one wouldn’t understand why the husband of the narrator treated her with isolation. My two sources support Gilman’s theme of giving marital and psychological right to all women.

Gilman’s “The Yellow Wallpaper” is a raw illustration of what women felt and wanted to change in the late 1800s. The narrator is the main character of this story. She is suffering from post-partum after her baby is born, and her husband who is a psychiatrist is treating her. He potentially attempts brainwash with telling her that the best treatment is isolation and low activity. The narrator believes that her husband is wrong, but because of women’s roles in this time, she doesn’t argue with him. She continues to listen to him and follow his treatment plans of not doing the things that make her happy, and almost nothing at all. Ironically, the room that he isolates her in starts making her more crazy than she was before. Hints, “The Yellow Wallpaper” becomes the women’s obsession because of the women that she “sees” in them. The irony is that her husband isolated her for treatment, but in turn made her psychotic.

I chose my first article about the progressive movement because this the time era that Gilman was in when she wrote the text. To understand the text on the level that Gilman intended to write, one has to understand the social and political changes that went on. The article I chose gives many examples and historical events about the progressive movement, which gives us the knowledge of why it was so important. During this time, the country as whole wanted reform, and change away from the harsh and traditional values and laws of this time. New industries were booming, which caused workers to demand safe conditions and better wages. Politically, the main goal of the progressive movement was to take away power from the giant federal agencies and give more power to the working class; thus the Federal Reserve Act was issued in 1913. Social reform was the most important during this time. Women and children demanded labor laws due to their new work. Women demanded more social status, and equal rights to men. Educational reform was booming during this time as well, more schools were built than ever, and scientific discoveries were rising everywhere. This time was essential for America, and gave rise to Gilman’s “The Yellow Wallpaper” (Filene, 20). 

With out this article, the reader would lack the understanding and approach of Gilman.  Women’s suffrage started during the progressive era. Because of women’s new role in the work place, they wanted a new role in society. Women went from being stay at home house wives, to working house wives. Women still didn’t have equal pay or social status. Women were still expected to live by their husband’s word. This is illustrated in “The Yellow Wallpaper.” Gilman states, “Personally, I believe congenial work, with excitement and change, would do me good. But what is one to do?” (Gilman, 209) The narrator knows that she has no other choice than to obey her husbands wishes, because that’s what women were held to do in this time. Gilman shows that the narrator knows what’s best for herself, but listen to her husband because he is a man. Gilman does this illustration to highlight the crooked social status during this time, while showing what women wanted to change during the progressive era. If one didn’t know about the progressive movement, the reader wouldn’t understand why the women didn’t go against her husband’s words. Also, you wouldn’t understand the irony of how his treatment actually makes her worse. Gilman wrote the text in the placement and perspective of the women because she wanted to clearly illustrate what she wants changed in the marital and social status of women. 

My second article is about the psychiatric reform during the Progressive movement. Before the progressive movement, psychologists’ treatment methods were isolation and any mental health issues were because you were completely insane. Psychologists were mostly scientists during this time. They believed that any activity of a mental patient would cause them to go into neurological distress. After the progressive era, psychiatry reached a break through. The discovery of psychotherapy came about, and psychiatrists were finally fining the root to the patient’s problems and giving them the correct therapy to help them. This was one of the most beneficial reforms during the movement because if one is suffering from mental health, one can’t contribute to society in their full potential. The reform of psychiatry gave humans during this time a new sense of self, because they are not just simply insane. 

This article gives evidence to why the narrator’s husband gave the treatment to his wife like he did. If one didn’t know that psychiatry was reformed in the progressive era, then they would just think that her husband was evil and his actions were in spite of her. But they were not; he genuinely believed that isolation and doing nothing was great for her mental health. His education was built on this treatment. Gilman states, “John is practical in the extreme. He has no patience with faith, an intense horror of superstition, and he scoffs openly at any talk of things not to be felt and seen and put down in figures.” This is a clear jab at how crooked psychiatry was at this time. It wasn’t about what one felt or went through, it was the facts. This article is completely necessary to understand why her husband is doing this.

The progressive era and all of the reforms that were necessary for the success of this country is what drove Gilman to write “The Yellow Wallpaper”. One would not understand her need for the reader to see women’s placement in society, if you didn’t know the text was written in the progressive era. Also, they would they that the husband was just crazy and evil, instead of him just practicing what the world thought was treatment for mental health. These two sources are crucial for Gilman’s yearn for change on women’s status in society, and psychiatric reform. I believe if a reader didn’t know these sources, they wouldn’t see her theme in her ironic text. 
