During the 19th century people believed that women were sick and weak because the wombs were evil, so women were mistreated when they failed to perform their role because of their sickness. The male doctors believed that women’s wombs caused them to get the nervous disease because they were weak (Wood 27). The nervous disease symptoms were losing weight, headaches, and backaches, ongoing crying and irritability, which the doctors thought came from the women’s wombs (Wood 29). However the women were trying to break free from their housewife roles, so they pretended to be sick with the nervous disease. The men tried to control the women by not letting the women think for themselves, so the women would continue to take care of the house. In the “The Yellow Wallpaper” John controlled his wife by prescribing her the “rest cure” but she is tried to break free of her role by pretending to be sick. The “rest cure” was thought to cure the mind and fix the nervous problems, but the cure did not work (Wood 31). The doctors treated the patients like prisoners because the social norms affected the way people thought about the incurable women. Society created the social norms for the men and women but the women were isolated or punished if they did not follow the social norms. 

Social norms in the 19th century told what was accepted in society and what was expected of the men and women. The role of the man was to control the women, be smart, provide for his family and think for the family. In the “The Yellow Wallpaper” John fits the man’s role during that time. John is described by his wife as “practical in the extreme… no patience with faith… horror of superstition” (Gilman 299). The role of the women was to be good hearted, domestic and moral. In the 19th century the men were expected to work and provide for their family, which meant he controlled what went on in their house. For example in the “The Yellow Wallpaper” John was a doctor and he controlled his wife by giving her the “rest cure” because he did not want her to think for herself. Doctors believed that women were sickly and weak, so doctors did not want women to think or do physical work because they might step outside of their role (Morantz and Zschoche 568).  At home the man’s role was to make decisions and protect his family. John tried to protect his wife by isolating her because he believed that was the best decision for her. The wife disagreed with her husband’s decision, but she could not say anything because it was not her role to call out her husband, so she did whatever he said. The wife’s role was to do house work, take care of the kids and be a good person. If the wife was sick then that meant she did not do her role. 

The wife could not do her role because she was sick, weak and could not control herself. John’s wife said, “I get unreasonable angry with John sometimes… I think it is due to the nervous condition” (Gilman 300). The wife had a role and she rebelled because she was tired of doing what her husband told her to do. John responded to his wife saying that she did not have self-control and that she was way out of line. John tried to control his wife, so she would fit the social norms of a woman. John was successful with his plan at first because his wife felt bad and said, “of course it is only nervousness. It does weigh on me so not to do my duty in any way!” (Gilman 301). The nervousness disease got worse because she fought against her role. John controlled her and social norms told her how a woman should act and be seen as a good person. In the 19th century doctors believed that most of the women pretended to be sick to get out of their work by using the common nervousness disease. 

The common disease for women was the nervous disease. The symptoms for the nervous disease were headaches, nervousness, and feebleness (Wood 29). The “real disease” reached all around the Americas but only one half of the women really suffered from the disease (Wood 27). The doctors punished the sick women and treated them like prisoners because they wanted the women to be childlike, therefore the men could control the women (Morantz and Zschoche 568). John treated his wife like she was his little girl. The wife explained, “John gathered me up in his arms, and just carried me upstairs and laid me on the bed, and sat by me and read to me till I got tired my head” (Gilman 305). John did not want his wife to think for herself, he wanted to think for her because the man did not want a women to out step the pursuits beyond her sphere (Morantz and Zschoche 568). If the women started to think they could be more than just a house wife, then the men thought the women would stop being house wives and the men would lose their power over women (Morantz and Zschoche 568). John’s wife said “He says no one but myself can help me out of it that I must use my will and self-control and not let any silly fancies run away with me” (Gilman 305). This shows that John controlled her mind and how she thought. The social norms showed that the men wanted to think for the women all the time but the women tried to break free from being controlled. 

In “The Yellow Wallpaper” the wife was diagnosed with the nervous disease and it was not accepted by the society because men thought women were faking being sick to get out of housework. John said “…there is really nothing the matter with one but temporary nervous depression…” (Gilman 300).  In the 19th century it was normal for women to be seen as ill and weak because they had a womb and they were women (Wood 28). During this time the men thought the women’s wombs were evil and the wombs made the woman ill. Doctors thought women were two times more likely to get sick then a man because the woman had a womb (Wood 29). Male doctors did not know how to deal with the issue, so it caused them to think all women were sick. The male doctors treated women harshly to keep power over women, so women would get back to their roles. According to Morantz and Zschoche, doctors gave harsh punishments to stay in control of the women that did not stay true to the role of a true woman (568). Social norms effected doctors as well as men and women and it caused the doctors to punish the women. In the 19th century society if a person did not follow the social norms they would get punished. 

During this time period, if a person did not follow the social norms they would be isolated. The “rest cure’ was used to punish the woman that had the nervous disease (Wood 31). The “rest cure’ was a treatment for the women and they were not able to see anybody, read, and get up from bed (Wood 31). John locked his wife away because he thought the “rest cure” was the best thing for her. This cure meant she could not do anything, she was not allowed to do anything and she was isolated. The wife said, “I believed that congenial work… would do me good” (Gilman 300), but the wife told herself “… I am absolutely forbidden to “work’ until I am well again” (Gilman 300). The wife felt this way about her health because the social norms told her that the men are smarter and they know how to treat women. The men tried to control the women’s minds by manipulating them with the “rest cure” (Verbrugge 960). It was expected that the patient eat regularly and gain weight in order to get better and get rid of the nervous disease (Wood 31). John thought his wife were getting better because she was eating more and he told her, “I am a doctor, dear, and I know. You are gaining flesh and color, your appetite is better, …” (Gilman 307).   The women were locked away if they were put on this cure because it was not accepted in society. If you were a mental illness patient you were treated like a prisoner.

The mental illness patients were treated as prisoners because the doctors did not understand why the women were going crazy or getting sick. The way the doctors treated their patients was based on patient’s social factors (Rosenberg 429). The wife was treated as an outpatient in order to keep her away from everybody. The patients were treated based on social wealth and type of sickness. (Rosenberg 431).  John and his wife were middle class people and he treated her sickness, so he rented a house away from everybody to help his wife get better. John needed his wife to get better so she would get back to normal. John told his wife that if she did not get better he would send her to Weir Mitchell in the fall (Gilman 303). John threated to send her off somewhere else because it was common practice for the doctors to move the women around. According to Rosenbereg, “If a patient developed a contagious disease while in a private institution, he or she might be transferred to municipal hospital” (431). If a person did not get better at one place they would move the patients around until they got better. The male doctors thought some of the women faked being sick, so doctors moved the women somewhere else if they were incurable, because doctors refused to have incurable cases as free patients (Rosenbereg 431). John did not want take care of his wife anymore because she was incurable and she was a free patient. The social norms for doctors was to not accept incurable diseases because the hospital was seen as a bad place to be.  

The common nervous disease was popular social disease that women pretended to have in order to get out of the house wife’s role. For the middle class women being ill became a trend to get away from the demands from being a woman (Wood 27). The women were tired of doing housework because they wanted their freedom. Some women were actually sick, but doctors were still hard on female patients because they thought all patients faked being sick. In the “The Yellow Wallpaper” the wife was really sick, but the husband did not believe her, because John thought his wife was faking being sick. The wife said, “He does not believe I am sick!” (Gilman 299).  The wife showed that she was really suffering, but John believed that she was not suffering from anything by saying “John does not know how much I really suffer. He knows there is no reason to suffer, and that satisfies him” (Gilman 301).  John did not think she was sick because of what was going on with middle class women and that women were ill because their mind was not clean anymore. The men thought they had a better understanding of the women’s body and how women’s minds worked then the women. 

During this time men believed that women were sick because their mind was on their role as a women. John tells his wife not to read or write, because he did not want to gain knowledge. According to Morantz and Zschoche the men did not want the women to get higher education because it would cause females health problems (568).  The men believed they could figure out women but they could not understand what was going on with the women. Men thought they were smarter than women but they did not understand a women’s mind. In the beginning of the story the wife told the reader that her husband is a physician, so she said “…perhaps that is one reason I do not get well faster” (Gilman 299). John and many doctors thought they knew how women’s minds and bodies worked, but they did not understand because they were males. John tells his wife that “…you are really are better, dear, whether you can see it or not. I am a doctor, dear, and I know…” (Gilman 306).  Social norms said that men knew what was best for the women, however women doctors thought they were more capable of treating women (Morantz and Zschoche 569).

Female doctors would have been better doctors for the women, because they were women and they had personal connections. The female doctors believed the male colleagues were not the best fit for treating the women and children (Morantz and Zschoche 569). The female doctors felt like they would have been better for the job, because the female’s doctors would understand the women better than male doctors. The wife seems to like Jennie more because she leaves her alone when she wants her to (Gilman 304). The wife was isolated in her room for a long time, however the wife had Jennie to look after her and she had more freedom. The wife is now allowed to walk on the porch, walk down the lovey lane and she gets to walk through the garden (Gilman 304). The women felt like it was their job to look after the sick children and sick women (Morantz and Zschoche 569). The female doctors were called on by the sick women to find a cure for the female health, because the male doctors were not helping the women (Morantz and Zschoche 569). The women’s roles affected the male and female doctors, because they both had the same treatment styles. When John was looked over his wife he did not want her writing or reading and he would get mad at her for thinking. In the story the wife wrote on her own, but John and Jennie saw it at different times. One day the wife caught Jennie looking at her writing and the wife asked Jennie why she is reading her paper. The wife said “… she turned around as if she had been caught stealing, and looked quite angry and asked me why I should frighten her so!” (Gilman 307). The women doctor’s treatments were almost the same as the male doctors because the medical treatments are influenced by social norms (Verbrugge 960). The social norms effected the doctor’s discussions and treatment styles. 

If a person did not follow the social norms during this time the doctors would isolate the sick person. If a women were isolated for a very long time, then their case of nervous diseases seemed to get worse over time. John’s wife is an example of a woman that was isolated for a long time and went crazy. She started hiding things that were not accepted by the people, because she is tired of being told what to do. She wrote when she was told not to write and sometimes she liked her condition she had and she said “I sometimes fancy that in my condition… “(Gilman 302). She knows she broke the roles of a women. The wife said “it must be humiliating to be caught creeping by daylight” (Gilman 309) then said that she creeps during the day too, but it is behind closed doors because she knew she was not allowed to creep if John was there. The wife started pealing the wallpaper off the wall because she kept thinking a woman was in the walls. She did not want people to see her because she did not want to get in trouble. John was a doctor and it would have been bad business for John if people found out that his wife went crazy. Social norms played a big part in her condition because she was hiding all her problems.  

Social norms and the roles of men and women caused women to diagnose themselves with the nervousness disease (Wood 27) because they wanted to break free from their social roles. The doctors used harsh treatments to get power over the women and demanding the women get back to their roles. Treatments of mental illness and nervousness disease in the 19th century were based on the cultural attitudes towards the women that were sick (Wood 25). The cultural attitude towards the women’s wombs was evil and it caused the women to be sick or weak. “The Yellow Wallpaper” showed how the men tried to make the women stay true to their roles. The men wanted to control the women because they did not want women to go out and try to be more than a house wife. The men wanted to stay in power and wanted the social norms to stay the same. 
