“The Yellow Wallpaper”, by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, is a short story taken place in the late 1800’s about a woman who slowly loses her sanity due to the treatment of her overpowering husband. Due to the narrator’s nervous depression, her husband, a physician, takes her away to a vacation house and secludes her in a room covered in yellow patterned wallpaper. Including the ugly yellow wallpaper, the room also has bars on the windows and furniture that was nailed to the floor. During the late 1800’s, women were expected to take care of the children, clean the household, and subdue to the demands of their husband. Women were seen as weak compared to men, therefore men obtained the majority of jobs. This made it impossible for women to make an income that would allow them to sustain life independently. “The Yellow Wallpaper” demonstrates how men were the cause of women’s physical and emotional self-harm in the late 1800’s.

In “The Yellow Wallpaper”, it was not the narrator’s nervous depression that drove her to insanity, but instead, the actions of her demeaning husband. Throughout this short story, the husband diagnosed his wife’s sickness, and decided that she needed to be isolated with zero stimulation. During this treatment, the wife noticed a decline in her condition, yet the husband constantly ignored her belief. His demeaning actions included childish pet names such as “little girl” (306), his need to hug or carry his wife once she spoke up about her feelings (306), and his refusal to let her leave the vacation house (306). Karen Ford, who writes an article about “The Yellow Wallpaper”, explains, “The narrator’s lack of a name, argue against her individuality, and the primer-like names of the husband and sister-in-law – John and Mary- suggest they are merely representatives for Husbands and In-Laws” (Ford 309). Ford wrote this to explain how any woman during this time period could relate to “The Yellow Wallpaper”. The narrator does not have a job, relies on her husband’s income, and does not leave the home. Without a specific name or any kind of identity, women readers during this time period were easily able to place themselves in the narrator’s position due to their same experiences. Ford’s article, “The Yellow Wallpaper and Women’s Discourse”, shows great insight into “The Yellow Wallpaper”, giving many examples of how women’s sense of individuality is taken away by men.

Men in the 1800’s believed that women were responsible for the happiness of their spouse, the care of their children, and the cleanliness of their home. Another work that might help to explain the narrator’s spiraling sanity, “The Awakening”, tells a story of a woman who is driven to suicide by the lack of individuality in her marriage during the late 1800’s. The main character in this story, Edna, decided that she was meant for more than these responsibilities, and strays away from her life at home and begins to make money for herself. “He could see plainly that she was not herself. That is, he could not see that she was becoming herself” (Chopin 75). Once Edna’s husband notices that Edna is realizing her true potential, he consults a male doctor, who informs Edna that he is worried about her actions. The disapproval of men in this story proves that men believed that women were only capable of household chores. After realizing that she had no one to support her new life of a steady income and happiness, Edna became doubtful of her ability to become independent. This self-doubt turned into a depression, which led to Edna’s suicide. The narrator in “The Yellow Wallpaper” and Edna in “The Awakening” both show how men were able to take away their wives option to become independent.

The option to become an independent individual was taken away from women in the 1800’s due to the necessity of a husband’s income. Ford notes how “The Yellow Wallpaper” takes place in patriarchal society with the setting of “ancestral halls” (Gilman 299), the narrator’s birth of a boy, and the husband and brother’s high-ranked jobs as physicians. Women, such as the narrator or her sister-in-law, Jennie, are constantly torn down by the men in this short story. It is said that Jennie, “is a housekeeper and hopes for no better profession” (Gilman 303) which shows how men believed that a woman’s sole purpose was to tend to household needs. Most women had no better option but to clean the house and take care of the kids, so they were expected to do so. High-ranked professions were taken by men, who expected their wives to stay at home. This lack of an option lead to women relying on their husband’s income in order to survive. 

Physicians were mainly men during the late 1800’s, so when a woman was sick or depressed, they would treat them using the ‘rest cure’. Women treated with this cure were negatively affected by the isolation and lack of communication through reading, writing, and speaking. These conditions took away a woman’s voice altogether. Specifically in “The Yellow Wallpaper”, the “cure” drove the wife to insanity, proven when she attempts to tear down the wallpaper in order to free the woman she believed to be inside of it. Weir Mitchell, the founder of the rest cure, is an important part in explaining the behavior of men in the late 1800’s as he was able to give men a way to suppress women by demeaning them. “The Yellow Wallpaper” is a clear example of the negative effect of the rest cure, and demonstrates how men were able to overpower women by taking away their voice. Men contributed to the instability and weakness of women through the use of the rest cure, demeaning attitudes towards their spouses, and their expectations of women in the household. “The Yellow Wallpaper and Women’s Discourse”, “The Awakening”, and “The Yellow Wallpaper” all demonstrate how a man caused a woman to lose her sense of individuality and as a result, turn to self-harm.
