“The Yellow Wallpaper” was written in the year 1892 by the author, Charlotte Perkins Gilman.  The events that take place during this story are unusual to most people, but one could interpret from historical research that these events are not quite so unusual to Charlotte Perkins Gilman.  In fact, one could make the argument that these events describe actual life events that occur in the life of the author.  In this essay, the reader will see displayed evidence from outside sources, that explains why one could believe that this story describes “real life” events and feelings from the life of the author, Charlotte Perkins Gilman.  Events, in the life of the author, that can be viewed like actual proceedings in this the story include: autonomy, postpartum depression, mistreatment of women by men and physicians (the author, herself), and the foreshadowing of the death of Charlotte Perkins Gilman.   

When one seeks autonomy, one seeks the desire to be independent and to live freely. During the life time of Charlotte Perkins Gilman, she felt that herself and all women were denied autonomy.  Ultimately this lack of independence was a pathway or stepping stones towards women feeling unwanted and inferior to men.  The woman in the story, “The Yellow Wallpaper”, does not live a free life full of independence.  For example, the woman is locked away in her horrible, yellow, upstairs room against her will.  She does not have any input and cannot make a comment on her situation because she is not autonomous.  Her husband, John, is a living symbol of autonomy and the woman seeks the same feeling of independence that he possesses.  “She envisioned a world in which women were free from the drudgery of cooking and cleaning and could engage in intellectual pursuits—a world in which women threw off their corsets and breathed freely.” (Tannous 1)

Charlotte Perkins Gilman and her husband had their only child a year after their marriage, in 1885.  After the birth of her daughter, Katherine Beecher Stetson, she began to have phycological breakdowns and began having trouble adjusting to her new role as a mother to her newborn.  In the story, the woman has given birth to a baby just like the author did in her life.  John, the husband of the woman in the story, puts her upstairs in a room by herself so that she is away from him and their baby.  He declares that she is sick and needs to rest.  The woman in the story says, “If we had not used it, that blessed child would have!  What a fortunate escape!” (Gilman 305) which allows the reader to know that the baby is not with her and is being kept away.  Postpartum depression is never mentioned in the story but the author experienced this depression.  The reader can make an educated guess, after research, that Charlotte Perkins Gilman is implying the woman from the story is suffering from the said depression. (A Closer Look)  

During the lifetime of the author, Charlotte Perkins Gilman, women were not treated as equal to men.  Men were the dominant sex and women were viewed as nothing more than housekeepers.  More personal to the author, she felt pressured into the marriage with her husband, Charles Walter Stetson. (Radcliffe Institute 1) The couple’s marriage lasted for ten years and the author was treated poorly by her husband throughout.  The relationship between the author and her husband was so bad that the two separated and she moved away.  In the text, the woman is also treated poorly by her husband.  She is powerless, and she is not under control of what she wants to do.  John, her husband, is clearly the alpha male of the house because when he says to do something, then it happens.  The woman never questions her husband because, during the time, this was not done.  When the woman in the story says, “I don’t like our room a bit.  I wanted one downstairs that opened on the piazza and had roses all over the window, and such pretty old-fashioned chintz hangings! But John would not hear of it.” (Gilman 300) the reader sees an example of how the time the story is written correlates with the story itself.  

Women in the mid to late 19th century were not only treated poorly by their husbands but also were treated poorly by other men including physicians. (The Neurasthenia Rest Cure) If men were sick, they were treated fairly and given proper medical advice and given the appropriate medication needed to cure the sickness they were diagnosed with.  Women on the other hand were turned away from physicians when they went to them for help.  They were needed in the house to cook and clean and one could believe the physicians (usually male) did not want to declare them sick so they would not have to stop doing their duties in the house.  If the doctor did give them a firm inspection, they would, many times, deem them crazy or give an extreme diagnosis.  In the story, unfortunately for the woman, her husband is a doctor so she receives the mistreatment from her husband as her spouse and as her physician.  The woman says, “If a physician of high standing, and one’s own husband, assures friends and relatives that there is really nothing the matter with one but temporary nervous depression—a slightly hysterical tendency—what is one to do?” (Gilman 300) furthermore showing the reader the struggle between the woman and her husband in their personal relationship as well as their doctor/patient relationship.

The woman in “The Yellow Wallpaper”  is very troubled and has a sense of loneliness and a sense of being unsure of what is going on in life.  She sees movement in the wall and the objects behind the bars and in the wall, seem to be drawing her near and pulling her in.  The reader sees the woman accept the invitation the wall provided and she gives into insanity.  She seemed to never give much effort to stop.  One could assume that there is no reason to fight something if it is bound to happen in due time anyway.  If one is to research the life of the Charlotte Perkins Gilman, the information will show that the author killed herself.  She gives into death much like the woman in the story gives into insanity.  While at the time the story was being composed, the author had no idea that she would one day have inoperable breast cancer (The Biography.com) and would take the action of taking her on life, she writes this story that displays such a foreshadowing chain of events.  The woman in the story had a legit sickness of depression and her husband, the doctor, told her she was fine and “nothing needed to be done.”  The author later in her life had an instance where she had a sickness and the doctors told her that it was inoperable or “nothing could be done.”  As the woman in the story saw the objects in the wall and was being dragged towards craziness, she finally decided that that was the easier route rather than fighting against everything that was influencing her.  The author received the news about her breast cancer and felt the same way as the woman in the book.  The author left a suicide note that says, “When all usefulness is over, when one is assured of an unavoidable and imminent death, it is the simplest of human rights to choose a quick and easy death in place of a slow and horrible one” and these words allow the reader to see how the author and the woman in the story have the same mindset. (Charlotte Perkins Gilman Quotes)

In conclusion, “The Yellow Wallpaper” is a story that tells of events that happen in the life of the author.  The author and the woman in the story both searched for autonomy in their lives, struggled through depression, dealt with the mistreatment from men and physicians, and the two similarly gave up on continuing their normal lives.  Charlotte Perkins Gilman brilliantly tells her life story through events in the story allowing the reader to understand what she goes through during her life.
