The rest cure, described by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, in The Yellow Wallpaper, was a tactic for treating mentally ill women in the late 1800’s and early 1900’s. The treatment was created by Dr. Weir Mitchell, and it states the that Women suffering from anxiety problems and neurasthenia, should be put to rest, to “live as domestic of a life as possible.”(Gilman 32) Not only was the “cure” detrimental to women’s health, but it was a direct representation of their role in society during this time. While women were in bed, men were encouraged to head out west and partake in physical activities with hopes of boosting their self-confidence and motivation. Gilman was aware of the trauma she was enduring under the rest cure, and took action by writing a story during her treatment. In her story, she elaborates on the effects of the rest cure and how it caused the character in the story to completely lose her mind. With hopes of putting an end to the cure, Gilman sent her story to Dr. Mitchell. Gilman choosing to write during her treatment portrays the idea that she is an independent woman who saw a problem in society and wanted to make a change. 

Home life and family structure can tell a lot about someone’s life and where one is destined to end up. In an excerpt about Gilman, published in The Harcourt Brace Casebook Series in Literature, Stephen R. Mandell, discusses the childhood and home life of Gilman. One part that stood out among others is when the author states how Gilman’s mother decided to teach her the harshness of life, and refused to hug or kiss her daughter. As if that wasn’t bad enough, Gilman’s father could not support his family, and ended up walking up on the family when she was only thirteen years old. Obstacles such as these are not easy to overcome and they can have a detrimental effect on the emotional standpoint of the person experiencing them. Gilman connects these early life experiences with the anxiety problems she encountered later in life. However, being the type of person Gilman is, she claims those experiences also taught her independence of mind that would lead to some of her most satisfying professional successes. 

Throughout Gilman’s life, there have been hindrances that caused her anxiety, and depression. She found the rest cure to be detrimental and decided to leave her husband to visit friends in California. Gilman left because it got to the point in her life where she needed to do what was best for herself. Living with these mental health issues is traumatizing and she took the approach that anything she could do to bet better should be done. After her time in California, Gilman was healed from her insanity and finally found the inner peace she was looking for. The decision to leave home, brought Gilman plenty of cruel publicity, but it did not bother her because of her recovery. After so much of this negative publicity, Gilman wanted it to be known that she was not a bad person, and had to do what was best for herself. Within recent years after her recovery, Gilman published another extremely popular book titled, Women and Economics. From here on out, Gilman devoted her life to becoming a women rights activist, supporting the justice of women across the country. 

Gilman’s passion for women’s equality was shown in grand fashion all throughout her life. She believed in equality, and encouraged women of all ages to seek education and the determination to work in any field they may choose. While Gilman was said to be recovered, she tragically took her own life at her home in California in 1935. Many believe Gilman took her own life as a result of lifelong depression, or the breast cancer she had developed later in life. Conversely, in a note left for her daughter, Gilman states, “I chose this course not because of the breast cancer, but because I felt my capacity for service has ended.” This note concisely and accurately represents Gilman’s outlook on life. She was someone who looked out for others, and took the positive out of any given situation. Her dedication to women’s equality in her work and in real life, makes Gilman an icon for women across the world.

In the letter titled, “Why I Wrote The Yellow Wallpaper” Gilman elaborates on her hatred toward the rest cure and the effects it can have on someone who was prescribed the treatment. When the story was originally published in 1891, pundits criticized the novel saying “It was enough to make anyone who reads it go mad” (Gilman 32) While there were many people who were not fond of the story, there were some who found the story to be one of the best descriptions of incipient insanity. In the letter, Gilman shares her inspiration for the story, by explaining what she went through when she was prescribed the rest cure by Dr. Weir. As a woman in the early 1900’s, Gilman was already a victim of gender injustice and inequality. During this time, women were still depicted to be people who stayed at home and lived off their spouse. Society simply looked at women as the weaker sex, this is a direct correlation as to why women were told to go on bed rest. Within the cure, Gilman was specifically instructed to “have but two hours of intellectual life a day” and “never to touch a pen, brush, or pencil again.” After weeks of following orders, Gilman had enough, and begin doing what she was born to do, write. She was aware that this cure was only prolonging her symptoms, and as a result, began writing The Yellow Wallpaper. While some critics ensure that reading the story will make you go insane, Gilman claims that she wrote the story not to drive people crazy, “but to save people from being driven crazy, and it worked” 

Unlike many women, Gilman could not accept her reserved life, and chose to go against her treatment and write. Even though writing the story was mentally exhausting, Gilman persevered and finished what is now known as a valued piece of literature. The way in which Gilman linked the story to the events that happened in her life is nothing short of genius. Gilman was able to share her story, while also exhibiting the negative affects the rest cure can have on women suffering from a mental illness. Even though there were critics that disparaged the story, no one could argue the results of Gilman, as they are shown through her story. Ironically, the critics who found The Yellow Wallpaper disturbing were all male. This is no coincidence, and it should be knowing matter what critics say, readers were able to see the effects of the rest cure from a personal perspective.

The way in which Gilman depicts the events during this time, cause the reader to become emotionally, and ethically attached to the story. In Gilman’s era, in order to influence readers, it was essential to grasp the audience with personal connections and experiences from her life. An emotional appeal that stands out in The Yellow Wallpaper is the character’s husband is also the physician that puts her on the rest cure. Throughout the entire story, besides her own mind, the husband was her greatest enemy. After putting his wife on the rest cure, he monitored her frequently, making sure she was not living an intellectual life. The connection ties into Gilman’s life because the character’s husband should be her most trusted, and supporting figure. Similar to a husband, when in the hands of a doctor, the patient needs to be able to trust hey physician. By Gilman not being able to trust Dr. Weir Mitchell in real life, she deliberately portrays him as the husband in the story to show disappointment and the failure of his remedies. 

The strongest ethical appeal in The Yellow Wallpaper is Gilman’s will to write the story while under the rest cure. Even though she was advised to live as domestic a life as possible, she knew that this would only end up hurting herself. Multiple times throughout the character’s sickness, Gilman illustrates the point that writing while under the rest cure causes anguish and fatigue. Gilman’s will to write, think, and go against the rest cure, is what makes this story so powerful.  

In the article, Women’s Suffrage in the Progressive Era, the role of women is portrayed in ways that relate to the faulty treatment from Dr. Weir Mitchell. During the late 1800’s and early 1900’s, women rights advocates were still trying to gain the right to vote, as well as “Broad-based economic and political equality and for social reforms.” This article contains a study that shows that the number of women employed in the United States increased from 2.6 million to 7.8 million. However, the majority of higher positions still belonged to men. In fact, in the year 1900, 60 percent of all working women were employed as domestic servants. This statistic gives readers the idea that women were unequal to men, and received inferior treatment in all aspects of society. Since women were still looked at as the secondary gender, it made it hard for them to make their voice heard in and influential way. For a women’s voice to be heard, they had to state their point in a clear, effective way. The ethical appeal Gilman uses within The Yellow Wallpaper is what makes her story such a profound and respected piece of literature. The way Gilman makes her reader’s emotionally attached to the story is what opens the readers mind to see that the rest cure needed to be abolished as soon as possible. Another reason the story is able to portray such an accurate representation of a women under the rest cure is because the author was experiencing the treatment while writing the story. Since she was forbidden to write, and clearly becoming more and more ill, writing this story must have been an extremely challenging task for Gilman. The author’s perseverance to pursue her work, was revolutionary in the idea of eliminating the rest cure. 

Within the article titled, Putting the Rest cure to Rest-Again, the authors use scientific evidence to prove that women with mental health issues can exercise and partake in physical activities as long as it is in a controlled environment. The most crucial benefits patients noticed under this method, was an improvement of physical fitness, and most important, a sense of confidence to partake in day to day behaviors. This result was found to be so influential because it gave a sense of happiness and meaning to the patient. While this method was found to be very effective, it must be taken with heavy precaution. Over exercising and overworking the patient will have the same result as the rest cure and their symptoms will be prolonged. As a result, physicians suggest an in between that practices the idea of working out on a schedule, and increasing the activities day by day. With this, doctors will be able to adjust one’s treatment depending on the results from the previous day’s action. When this strategy was implemented into medical practices among mentally ill women, there was a sense of justice and equality spread to women across the country.  

: Mental health is a prevalent issue in today’s society, but unlike years before, physicians are better equipped to handle these issues. In “Why I Wrote The Yellow Wallpaper” Charlotte Perkins Gilman delves into the inadequacy of care for handling these mental health issues among women, while also sharing her inspiration for the story. The Yellow Wallpaper was first made public by the New England Magazine in 1891. Ever since that day, the story has been criticized by pundits and critics alike, yet as time evolved, so too did the affection for the story. What was once an overtly criticized story, has now manifested itself into a revered and respected piece of literature. The factors that cause the main character to progressively become insane, can be closely linked to events that have transpired in the authors life. When Gilman first began suffering from nervous breakdowns and mental illness, Dr. Weir Mitchell assured her that nothing was wrong, and suggested that she go home to live as domestic of a life as possible. Ironically, Gilman wrote The Yellow Wallpaper with the intention of sending it the Physician that told her not to write, and that she did. The story has received multiple reviews that imply reading the story will make you go insane. Conversely, Gilman ends her letter, stating, “It was not intended to drive people crazy, but to save people from being driven crazy, and that it did.”

Research drawn from Harvard University implicates that regular exercise changes the brain to improve memory and thinking skills. While there are plenty reasons to exercise, the affects it has on the brain are the ones that are most important for women with mental maladies. 

Heidi Godman, Executive Editor of Harvard’s health blog writes, “Indirectly, exercise improves mood and sleep, and reduces stress and anxiety.” Oddly enough, the health aspects that exercising improves, are all of the things that women on the rest cure are struggling with. The blog continues, by sticking to a common theme; committing to a workout plan is extremely beneficial in bettering one’s disposition while also giving a sense of accomplishment and triumph. With the results from this study, it is no surprise that Gilman did not get better from her “treatment” from Dr. Weir Mitchell. Unlike other women, Gilman did not take kindly to being on bed rest.  She abandoned her cure for a reason and decided to partake in the cure she knew would get her healthy. 

With all of these elements, it is hard to imagine why Dr. Weir Mitchell implemented the rest cure in the first place. It is also no surprise why Gilman took it upon herself to go out west and partake clear her mind. Ironically, the events that healed Gilman were the ones that Dr. Weir Mitchell advised men to get better. The results Gilman saw from moving to California and living on her own, were so significant, that they should be accredited as part of the reason for ending the rest cure. By implementing a practice for women that consisted of exercise and self-intellect, women everywhere were given a sense of fairness and equality. The theme is simple, mental health issues should be treated based on the severity of the illness, not the patients gender.

The Yellow Paper is an unfortunate representation of what many women had to go through while dealing with anxiety problems, and neurasthenia in the late 1800’s and early 1900’s. Gilman wanted people to know that this so called “cure” only made things worse and that women everywhere deserved better treatment. As a sign of rebellion, Gilman sent the story to Dr. Silas Weir Mitchell, founder of the rest cure and the physician that put her on the harmful treatment. Dr. Weir Mitchell’s treatment was not only unfair to women, but a direct representation of their role in society at the time. While mentally ill women were told to “live as domestic a life as possible”, men were encouraged to go off to work, exercise, and think for themselves, in hopes of them gaining confidence; which it sure did.  As an alternate tactic, women should partake in a similar treatment to men, with confined adjustments. Obviously men and women are diverse so the treatment would have to differ, yet the objective would be the same. Having women patients’ exercise in a controlled environment would not only benefit the patient’s physical health, but would also give the patient a sense of confidence and a sense of meaning. The Yellow Wallpaper is able to portray such a strong demonstration of a women under the rest cure because it was written by a someone who was personally experiencing the treatment at the time. Hearing the negative effects from such a close source, proves that the rest cure was only destructive to the patient’s health. In conclusion, through synthesizing these 3 articles, the rest cure was strictly detrimental to women’s health, and it was only a matter of time before it was abolished. 
