The background of “The Yellow Wallpaper” by Charlotte Gilman is shaped through the readings of “Mad Doctors? The Significance of Medical Practitioners Admitted as Patients to the First English County Asylums up to 1890” and “Asylum Nursing as a Career in the United Kingdom, 1890-1910”.  The psychiatric piece of this text is better understood by reading these articles because they provide insight on the world of mental illness in the 1890s.  The article “Mad Doctors?” develops our understanding of the character John the physician while the other article “Asylum Nursing” gives insight on the setting of the story and role of Jennie.  Overall, the cultural and historical backgrounds contained in both of these journals develop the understanding of the story as a whole.

To begin with, “Mad Doctors?” investigates professional that treat the mentally ill, who become mentally ill as well, by analyzing specific cases and information from various sources.  The author introduces the case of James Pownall then, begins to dive into factors that can led to the insanity of psychiatric physicians.  For instance, it states, “The strains of juggling private practice, public responsibility, domestic solvency, and personal ambition could and did wreak havoc on individual men’s physical and mental health…” (1 p439).  This quote emphasizes that the pressure of trying to be successful, as well as fulfilling their physician obligations, can be detrimental to both their physical and psychological health’s.  In the rest of the article, it goes into depth examining the phenomenon of physicians who went mad and were committed into mental institutions.  

In “The Yellow Wallpaper” specifically, the character John the physician, by the end of the text, suggests that he may have gone “mad”.  Throughout the story, John is portrayed as a stubborn physician that is the know it all of mental illness and its treatments.  He tells his wife what to do and is in total control of the care of her mental illness.  One night when his wife comes to him he says, “What is it, little girl? He said.  “Don’t go walking about like that – you’ll get cold”(3 p306)  This quote exemplifies the dynamic of the relationship between John and his wife.  John treats her as if she is a little child that is in capable of making decisions for herself.  His way of treating her is by ordering her around because he believes that he “knows best” about what treatment would and would not be effective for his wife’s condition.  

The ending of the story suggests that it is possible that John may have gone mad.  The last part of text shows varies little interaction between John and his patient.  He becomes more and more involved in other work and starts to avoid his wife more.  This may be John’s inability to find an effective treatment for his wife or his inability to deal with the stress of helping his mentally instable wife.  The last lines of the story say, “Now why should that man have fainted? But he did, and right across my path by the wall so that I had to creep over him every time!” (1 p 312)  After the information provided in “Mad Doctors?”, it is not an unreasonable prediction to assume that John has gone mad by the end of the story.  The prediction is not much of a stretch because when John returns home and goes to check up on his wife in the nursey, he finds her in a state of panic.  The horrors of seeing his wife self-harm herself would negatively impact John’s mental health.  This madness could be the manifestation of him seeing his wife’s attempt at committing suicide.  

Moreover, the article “Asylum Nursing” provides insight on the asylum facilities which provides evidence that “the nursery” may have actually been a room for the clinically insane.  To specific quotes from this piece provide insight on “The Yellow Wallpaper”.  The first quotation, “The attendants on the insane those providing the direct day-to-day care… were to be a key part of the ‘moral’ or psychological and environmental treatment provided…”(2 p771).  The second of the two, “Attendants…. And the regular use of mechanical restraints, from seeing the patient as ‘a vicious horse that he had to subdue’” (2 p771).  

The first quote describes the role of Jennie in this piece.  Jennie is the person that sees to the day to day care of John’s wife.  She shown throughout the story encouraging John’s wife to do things such as go outside to aid in the treatment of her psychological disorder.  Also, as the caretaker of John’s wife she plays an important role in aiding her treatment of her mental illness.  When John’s wife explains, “She tried to get me out of the room…” (3 p 310) it shows that Jennie, who could be considered her nurse, is involved in trying to treat her psychological disorder.  In this instance, John’s wife had been spending long periods of time in the nursery, which was starting to affect her psychological state negatively.  Due to the concerns that could result from this, Jennie inserts herself, like a nurse at an asylum would, to try and aid in the treatment of John’s mentally ill wife.  

On the other hand, the second quote proves that the nursery was probably a room like one from an insane asylum.  Medical doctors in asylums use restraints, like the ones found in the room of John’s wife.  The entire description explains, “…for the windows are barred for little children, and there are rings and things on the walls” (3 p 301).  The rings and bars on the windows are both methods of restraint for the patient.  As the quote states, this also reveals the view of patients in the eyes of doctors, which is that they are seen as animals that need to be tied up.  This also adds to the understanding of the husband and wife relationship because John really sees his wife as more of an uncontrollable animal-like patient.  

In conclusion, through the readings of “Mad Doctor? The Significance of Medical Practitioners Admitted as Patients to the First English County Asylums up to 1890” and Asylum Nursing as a Career in the United Kingdom, 1890-1910” the background of “The Yellow Wallpaper” is explained.  The readings of both of these articles provide insight into the characters of both John, the physician, and Jennie, the caretaker, along with key information on the place in which the majority of the story takes place, the nursery.  All in all, the cultural and historical background of this time are necessary in developing a full understanding of “The Yellow Wallpaper”.   
