The Yellow Wallpaper written by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, takes us on the journey of a woman suffering from depression. Her husband, who happens to be a doctor, confines her to a single room in the house as a treatment for her. The woman was treated as if she was psychotic and endured uncomfortable and cruel treatment. During the 1970’s and 1980’s there was little knowledge on mental illnesses thus leading to many misconceptions. Society looked at everyone who had mental illness as a crazy person, which is not always the case. Through The Yellow Wallpaper, as well as articles on women and mental illness, we see the heinous conditions people suffering from mental illness were put through in order to be “cured” as well as the results of their treatment and how it effects them; these articles help allow us, as the audience, to decipher the main work of literature and give us context based on the time period as well as the conditions. 

The Yellow Wallpaper, tells the experiences one woman endures after recently having a baby which she is not allowed to see. She is believed to be suffering from depression, but more accurately, postpartum depression. Her husband realizes her behavior is abnormal and is convinced that she is psychotic. He confines her to one room in the house in hopes that he can rehabilitate her with barred windows and restraints on the bed. All the woman wants to do is to write, since that is her favorite thing to do but her husband tells her she is not allowed to. Her husband believes that if she reads or writes it will be too much stimulation for her to handle. This causes her to be left alone with her thoughts and stare at the yellow wallpaper in her room. After some time, she begins to see a woman trapped inside the wallpaper. This is, in fact, a vision of herself trapped in this room by herself trying to escape from her depression. She becomes fixated on trying to release this woman in the wallpaper meanwhile she really wants to release herself from these cruel conditions. Towards the end of the work, the woman peels off all of the wallpaper, releasing the woman but still keeps moving around the room in a circle. Her husband enters and suddenly drops to the ground, dying, and she keeps going through the same motions. Her husband ultimately is who made her insane, the same way that many women actually go insane due to the way they are treated. The woman in The Yellow Wallpaper wasn’t psychotic when her confinement began, the conditions in which she was held caused her to go insane. As explained in Charles E. Rosenberg’s article as well, And Heal the Sick: The Hospital and the Patient in the 19th Century America, this was a main cause of patients becoming crazier than they actually are rather than getting better. The way in which patients are treated can influence their mental health and cause them to suffer from mental illness when normally they would not.

And Heal the Sick: The Hospital and the Patient in the 19th Century America by Charles  E. Rosenberg is an article that reports the conditions patients endured in the 19th century. Hospitals were compared to prisons and patients were compared to inmates. Patients suffering from mental illnesses were expected to follow strict rules and regulations with very little freedom. While these institutions were intended to rehabilitate patients in a comforting way, they had become controlling facilities who treat their patients as if they belong in prison. They were restrained to their beds and left in solitary confinement for much of the day. They had nothing other to do but to stare at the walls and be left with their thoughts. Without human contact, almost anyone could be at risk to drive themselves insane. They were not allowed to read or write because it would cause too much stimulation and possibly create hallucinations or delusions. Patients received no sympathy or TLC when it came to their care. Meanwhile the main purpose of hospitals and psychiatric facilities is comfort to help rehabilitate patients back into society, not to treat them inhumanely. This is a result of the lack of knowledge on mental illness and ways to treat it. Society was very naive to the seriousness and ways to approach mental illness; patients were deemed as “crazy” or “not normal”, leading people to believe it was acceptable to treat them with inhumane care. At this time, physical abuse was also acceptable as a form of treatment, which we can see now, is not the right way to go about rehabilitation. The 19th century was not an ideal time period for the study and rehabilitation of those who were mentally unstable.

Postpartum Psychiatric Reactions: Time of Onset and Sex Ratio of Newborns by Frederick T. Melges describes the changes a woman endures after she gives birth. Within the first ten days postpartum, there is a period of rapid hormone changes that most likely reflects postnatal influences of fetal sex. There have been over 2 dozen cases where mothers have developed schizophrenic symptoms during the first month after delivery. Many also experience neurotic, psychotic, and manic depressive reactions after giving birth. Common symptoms were delusions and hallucinations which the woman in The Yellow Wallpaper experienced. Although many women faced these postpartum reactions, they were treated as if they were psychotic meanwhile it was just due to the imbalance of hormones. Society did not understand these changes and would just use it as an excuse to lock them up. Hormonal changes may make some women more vulnerable to postpartum emotional illness. These changes in women are very common and a normal part of the birthing process. Women were looked at as psychotic when this was just a part of life and nature.

The Yellow Wallpaper, And Heal the Sick: The Hospital and the Patient in the 19th Century America, and Postpartum Psychiatric Reactions: Time of Onset and Sex Ratio of Newborns all express the postpartum changes that come with a woman giving birth. The imbalance of hormones causes a lot of physical and emotional changes which can come with side effects. These women were treated inhumanely, as if they were inmates in a prison. They were treated with no personal regard, as if they were just crazy. This is due to the very little knowledge on mental illness and how to treat it. Through these three works of literature we see the heinous conditions in which women were treated and the effects that it had on them. The 19th century was a very naive and ignorant time period which made it hard to care for individuals in a correct manor since their was very little knowledge on the subject. 
