“The Yellow Wallpaper”, written by women author Charlotte Perkins Gilman, is a story about treatment process of women with mental disorder. Her husband was a doctor and he brought her to the summer house during treatment. Gilman experienced mental problems on her own and she was treated by the psychologist Dr. S. Weir Mitchell, who provided her simple treatment as “rest cure” with limitation of physical or intellectual activities. It shows the underestimation of serious female mental diseases at this time, so she decided to start work secretly. In the story author reflects her own experience of psychological problems and she raises very important social problems as second wave feminism, female insanity and hysteria and its’ treatment at this time period.

Majority of women were not allowed to work at this time and their main purpose was being a housewife. In the article “Clarina Howard Nichols, Woman’s Rights, and Abolitionism in Kansas Territory”, written by Marilyn S. Blackwell, author provides the historical background of women’s rights in 1855-1900 during the slavery time. Women struggling against slavery politics, because there were thousand black women among slaves and white women understand that there is no gender equity and cancellation of women rights discrimination unless the black people particularly women will not get freedom.  In the story author shows the progression of the woman’s insanity being kept by her husband inside of the house. She was not allowed to write a letters, everything he wanted her to do is to take a rest and be inside of the house. The main character, woman has light mental health problems and her husband John brings her to the house for “rest curing”, what might symbolize the idea of lack of female rights at this time. Author tries to involve readers into the story, where women readers could find themselves in the woman character jailed in the yellow wallpaper, which the main character tries to rescue through the peeling of this wallpapers. By the end of the story the main character got completely insane, what tells us about negative impact of women’s rights discrimination on their metal health condition, what cause another problem hysteria. 

In the article “The relation between emotion work and hysteria: a feminist reinterpretation of Freud’s Studies on Hysteria”, Jennifer L. Pierce shows the problems of underestimation, misinterpretation and causes of female hysteria. At this time female hysteria was defined as the overwhelming of education and intellectual activities and hysteria illness was interrelated as lack of self-control and power, rebelliousness, what leads to emotional instability and desire of power, so psychiatrists’ solution for hysteria at this time supposed to take control over a sick person and use methods of submission in order to tame and discourage a patient. Patient was forced to take the “rest curing” and once should be isolated from the society. This article also describes causes of hysteria related to systematic oppression of women because of their type of job they were held. Also at this time there were practicing of violence treatment tools like electroshock or hypnotic used by psychiatrist Charcot, however later psychiatrists Sigmund Freud and Josef Breuer in their studying revealed new methods of curing “talking-cure” and “chimney sweeping”. All misunderstanding problems of hysteria and its treatment might be found in the Gilman’s story. When she described the room the woman was put in, she mentioned the rings on the wall, what might symbolize the methods of submission used as a treatment for hysteria at this time. One can see the negative effects of John’s and society’s treatment of the woman in her response to the rest cure. At first, she tries to fight against the growing lethargy that controls her. She even challenges John’s treatment of her. Yet, while one part of her may believe John wrong, another part that has internalized the negative definitions of womanhood believes that since he is the man, the doctor, and therefore the authority, then he may be right. Because they hold unequal power positions in the relationship and in society, she lacks the courage and self-esteem to assert her will over his even though she knows that his “treatment” is harming her. Deprived of any meaningful activity, purpose, and self-definition, the narrator’s mind becomes confused and, predictably, childlike in its fascination with the shadows in the wallpaper. John corresponds to most of the psychiatrists at this time, denying the scale of female mental instability. His methods of treatment were completely opposite towards effective methods of Freud. Over the course of the story, we can see the woman gradually losing her mind. In the beginning, she can offer calm and logical descriptions of her surroundings. Soon, however, she attempts to have a rational conversation with John but ends up crying and pleading. By the end of the story, she is convinced that the wallpaper is moving, as a woman trapped inside attempts to break free. As the story unfolds, however, the prose remains very crisp and factual. We can ascertain the narrator’s listlessness as she lies in bed and follows the pattern of the wallpaper. As her delusions increase and she becomes more convinced that a woman is trapped within the paper, the prose becomes more urgent and more secretive.

Historical background describing social problems and political circumstances described in the articles “Clarina Howard Nichols, Woman’s Rights, and Abolitionism in Kansas Territory” and “The relation between emotion work and hysteria: a feminist reinterpretation of Freud’s Studies on Hysteria”, helps to understand the covert social meaning of “The Yellow Wallpaper”. Author shows the problem of female rights discrimination and calls all women to action struggling for equal treatment, what corresponds to second wave feminism. We could see that politics towards woman at this time caused their mental problems and women’s lack of rights affect also their treatment and underestimation of the problem lead to female hysteria, what psychiatrists at this time considered as female disability to self-control and treated by submission which again discriminated their rights. Author through the story tried to advocate women to struggle for freedom and equal care. In the final scene woman has stripped off all the wallpaper in her room and is creeping around when John shows up at the door. She tells him that she’s free and that she’s liberated herself. He faints and she continues to creep around the room. She steps over his body every time she makes a circle in the room, what symbolize her superiority over him. By John’s loosing conscious author shows feminization of the John and lines the equality of them.
