The short story “The Yellow Wallpaper” describes a woman in the early 1900’s in the United States who had just bore a child, and her confusing decent into insanity following the birth. Mental illnesses were a bit of a mystery to the medical world in the 1900’s. Some of the more common mental illnesses were understood on a limited basis, but for the most part doctors had no understanding of what they were dealing with and how to go about treating them. The author of the story, Charlotte Gilman, makes it extremely clear that the readers know the women had just had a baby and that her husband, even though he was a psychologist, seemed to just blatantly ignore his wife’s distress. After her husband ignores his wife’s clear signs of depression and distress, she is locked away in a room. This treatment was sure to drive anyone mad and the wife was no exception. The story is a bit odd in that the woman’s husband did not even attempt to help and thought that since she was depressed for “no reason” it was a clear sign the woman was actually insane. The husband ignored his wife due to the fact that woman of that time were thought to have the same biological make up as men, and thus a woman acting in a manner that a man would not was viewed as a clear sign of insanity. The two academic works, “Psychiatric Consequences of Trauma in Women” and “Historical perspectives: a snapshot of women admitted to psychiatric facilities with psychosis or mania after childbirth in the late Victorian and inter-war periods” helped to explain the reasoning behind the confusing aspects of the stories. After reading the two academic works, they allowed for a more complete and clear understanding of the story “The Yellow Wallpaper” and the how the misunderstandings occurred. 

The first aspect that may be confusing to readers of today would be immediately and correctly assume that the woman had Post- Partum   depression after birthing her child; however, in the early 1900’s the idea of depression resulting from having a child was foolish. In “Psychiatric Consequences of Trauma in Women” it gives a brief discussion on how the top medical professionals of the time believed that the men and women had the same biological makeup meaning they could only suffer from the same exact mental illnesses. The work continues on how this belief was not rejected until the later 1900’s.  Thus, the women of the early 1900’s, who struggled with depression after having children, were at the time labeled insane, but in reality they were suffering from depression instead. The main focus of “Psychiatric Consequences of Trauma in Women” outlines the unfortunate concept that back in the early 1900’s so little was known about the biological makeup of woman that when men were tested doctors assumed woman have the same results, and this caused many issues during that time period. 

Knowing these false assumptions existed at this time, “The Yellow Wallpaper” causes the reader to feel sympathy for her because the lack of knowledge during the time period is quite literally what drove the woman insane. The academic work also explained that woman were more common to experience some mental issues and clearly Post-Partum depression is one; however, the lack of knowledge regarding Post-Partum depressions caused many pregnant woman to be labeled insane out of ignorance when that was not the case at all. The scholarly work gives great insight into the huge confusion of the biological and psychologically makeup and differences between men and women psychologically in the early 1900’s and helps greatly in letting a reader understand the story.

The other scholarly work that assists in better comprehending “The Yellow Wallpaper” was the “Historical perspectives: a snapshot of women admitted to psychiatric facilities with psychosis or mania after childbirth in the late Victorian and inter-war periods.” Unlike the other scholarly work that looks into the 1900 time period of woman and their mental states, this work looks into the progression and research of the female mind which assists the reader greatly in comprehending  the book. One would assume that one way an outside work could help a reader understand a specific story would be if the work   provided background on the subject matter of the book. However, in this situation the “Historical perspectives: a snapshot of women admitted to psychiatric facilities with psychosis or mania after childbirth in the late Victorian and inter-war periods” actually looks into how the psychological analysis of woman and their mental state improved somewhat soon after the early 1900’s. After reading the scholarly work and reading “The Yellow Wallpaper” most likely caused the reader to grieve and empathize with the woman because it showed the reader that nothing was wrong with her except for Post-Partum depression, which is commonly understood now, but was completely misunderstood then and resulted in women being viewed as insane and labeled as a mental patient. Soon after being locked away for her supposed insanity, the mind of the woman begins to fade and eventually she slips into real insanity. Without reading the “Historical perspectives: a snapshot of women admitted to psychiatric facilities with psychosis or mania after childbirth in the late Victorian and inter-war periods” beforehand, a reader may miss the key point of the story on how the total a misunderstanding of mental conditions between the woman and her husband.  The wife was suffering from an extremely common mental illness, but at the time this was unknown causing her to be labeled as mentally insane which unless the reader had the benefit of reading the scholarly work would not have understood this. 

Both scholarly works look at different time periods but focus on a similar thing-- the biological makeup of woman. While each is different in content, certain come together and help truly explain and show the meaning behind the story “The Yellow Wallpaper”. In the first work “Psychiatric consequences of trauma in women” it helps to explain the misunderstanding that occurred when dealing with the diagnosis of the woman’s condition this helps the reader to understand the whole background and context of the story thus making the story much more clear. On the other hand the “Historical perspectives: a snapshot of women admitted to psychiatric facilities with psychosis or mania after childbirth in the late Victorian and inter-war periods” causes the reader to connect through understanding with the book “The Yellow Wallpaper” because the reader feels for the woman, knowing that  men and woman are different mentally which was published less than 50 years later. Each work does a fantastic job in giving background and meaning to “The Yellow Wallpaper” which allows the reader to more easily comprehend the story as a whole and understand it in context.  
