The short story “The Yellow Wallpaper,” has many connections to women in history. The story takes place in the nineteenth century, which was a time of oppressed rights for women. The ideas that women could be put in an asylum for little to no reason, men had total control of women’s lives, and confinement being a cure for lunacy shaped both the culture of the time and the text of this story. In “The Yellow Wallpaper” by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, the protagonist’s gender is the reason behind much of the mistreatment she gets from her undiagnosed mental illness. The lack of power women had over their lives in the late 19th century is exemplified through Gilman’s little control over her daily life. The first textual and cultural theme that occurs in the story is false diagnosis of lunacy.

The story starts out with the narrator and her husband, John, renting a beautiful, secluded estate for the summer. The narrator suffers from what her husband believes is a, "temporary nervous depression” (CR 300). He orders her to rest as much as possible, and picks a room in the house for the two of them. The narrator feels slightly uncomfortable with the estate, but obeys her husband’s decision for the two of them to stay there. This idea of a women being considered insane for something as simple as “temporary nervous depression” was extremely common in nineteenth century America. Authors Katherine Pouba and Ashley Tianan’s research in “Lunacy in the 19th Century: Women's Admission to Asylums in United States of America” proves that in the early 19th century, women were placed in mental institutions for behaving in ways which men did not agree with. Research concluded that many women were admitted for questionable reasons, and many of the symptoms these women experienced would not be eligible for admittance today. Religious excitement, epilepsy, and suppressed menstruation were all symptoms and factors that could potentially diagnose a woman as insane. During this time women had minimal rights when concerning their own personal and mental wellbeing (95). It is perceived throughout the story that the narrator is struggling with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) from her recent childbirth. Her husband believes she is unwell and unstable due to this, and isolates her in one room. The narrator exclaims, “It is fortunate Mary is so good with the baby. Such a dear baby! And yet I cannot be with him, it makes me so nervous” (CR 301-302). The narrator plainly states that she is nervous and anxious by the thought of her child and the memories of a tough childbirth, and due do this she is sent to a room with nothing but her own company. The narrators states, “John says if I don't pick up faster he shall send me to Weir Mitchell in the fall,” this describes how her husband will send her to an asylum if she doesn't return to “normal” (CR 303).  In modern society, the reaction to this is almost completely opposite. Instead of isolating the mother and letting her deal with her struggles alone, PTSD victims are met with love and support from their families. Not only were drastic measures taken over small issues such as PTSD in the nineteenth century, women also had no control over their own decisions regarding their mental, physical health. 

The narrator’s husband controls her life and has complete power in diagnosing her as mentally insane. Although he tells her repeatedly that he does not think she is crazy, she knows she would not be in confinement if he did not believe that. As stated in “Lunacy in the 19th Century: Women's Admission to Asylums in United States of America” by Katherine Pouba and Ashley Tianan, it was never up to the women to decide if they needed to be placed in an asylum, it was often up to a male figure in the women’s life (97). In this story, it is the narrators husband who ultimately decides what is wrong with her and to lock her up in a room she is not comfortable in. She states “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 slight hysterical tendency- what is one to do,” this shows how powerless she was in the decision of her diagnosis (CR 300). Despite her expressing her wants and needs, her husband ignores them believing that only he knows what is best for her. The status of women in marriage and employment during the early 1900’s is a great example of this oppression. Women held a second-rate position compared to men, and their life decisions were often decided by a husband or brother. It is important to be aware of these dismal positions of women’s status and lack of opportunities to be able to understand why so many women were deemed insane for very minimal reasons. If a woman did not act in a matter in which her husband agreed with, he had the right to send her off to the asylum. Once admitted, it was nearly impossible for these women to prove whether they were sane because everything they did was “confirming their diagnosis.” A woman was expected to cook, clean, take care of the children, attend to her husband and be perfectly well mannered (97). Along with men dominating female’s life decisions in both the text and in history, there are many other factors which contributed to women’s poor mental health, including isolation.

Many symptoms that women struggled with in the early 1900’s were completely normal and accepted today. Instead of being praised for seeking help, they were isolated and victimized. Today, it is more common than not for a person who is suffering from a mental illness to receive support and kindness from his or her friends and family, which is a completely different dynamic from a century ago. In the story, it is the narrator’s confinement that drives her mad. As she has been alone for longer and longer, she starts to lose her mind. When her husband John limits her creativity and writing, the narrator takes it upon herself to make some sense of the wallpaper within her room. She reverses her initial feeling of being watched by the wallpaper and starts actively studying and decoding its meaning. She tears at the wallpaper and locates a figure of a woman struggling to break free from the bars within the pattern. Over time, as her insanity deepens, she identifies completely with this woman and believes that she, too, is trapped within the wallpaper. When she tears down the wallpaper over her last couple of nights, she believes that she has finally broken out of the wallpaper which John has imprisoned her in. By tearing it down, the narrator emerges from the wallpaper and asserts her own identity, although a somewhat confused, insane one. After extensive research in his article "The Horrible Psychology of Solitary Confinement,” Brandon Keim found that in isolation, people become anxious and angry, prone to hallucinations and wild mood swings, and are unable to control their impulses. The problems are even worse in people predisposed to mental illness, and can cause severe long-lasting changes in prisoner’s minds. Scientific studies of solitary confinement and its damages have come in waves, first emerging in the mid-19th century, when the practice fell from widespread favor in the United States and Europe. More study came in the 1950s, as a response to reports of prisoner isolation and brainwashing during the Korean War. The renewed popularity of solitary confinement in the United States, which dates to the prison overcrowding and rehabilitation program cuts of the 1980s, spurred the most recent research. Over the course of extensive researching, many consistent patterns emerge. These patterns are centered around extreme anxiety, anger, hallucinations, mood swings and flatness, and loss of impulse control. In the absence of stimuli, prisoners may also become hypersensitive to any stimuli at all. The prisoner will often obsess uncontrollably, as if their minds did not belong to them, over tiny details or personal grievances. Panic attacks are routine, as is depression and loss of memory and cognitive function (1). All these affects are seen in the narrator of story, and this is all due from her “resting cure” prescribed by her husband. 

There are countless similarities within the passage “The Yellow Wallpaper” and the treatment of women throughout the nineteenth century. In both the text and in historical culture women were diagnosed with lunacy for even the slightest feeling or emotion. The story follows the culture of the nineteenth century by having the narrator almost powerless to her husband, which was a theme of the time. By the end of the story the narrator becomes mad after being in isolation for so long, which was also a common solution for mental illness in the ninetieth century. Overall, there are countless connections between the inhumane treatment of women in the nineteenth century and the dehumanized narrator in “The Yellow Wallpaper.” 
