
What if you were told you had to stay in the house all day every day to cook and clean? What if you were sent to a mental hospital because of your anxiety? Both seem very unreasonable. But, as unreasonable as they may seem, they occurred quite often in the nineteenth century.  Women in the nineteenth century were physically and mentally deteriorated. At the time mental illness had improper treatments and males had all the voice in society. Looking closely in the story “The Yellow Wallpaper,” it clearly shows the effects of lack of voice and proper health treatment of women. 

In Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s story, “The Yellow Wallpaper”, she displays a perfect example of the life of a woman in the nineteenth century. The story starts off by the main character, Jane, getting dropped off at a sort of mental help facility by her husband who is a physician. Jane is limited in what she can do because her role as a woman in society and even more limited by her husband’s diagnosis for her.  

The rights and roles of women in the nineteenth century look a lot different than they do today. In Carroll Smith-Rosenberg and Charles Rosenberg’s Journal, “The Female Animal: Medical and Biological Views of Women and Her Role in Nineteenth Century America”, explained what it meant to be a woman in the nineteenth century. The Rosenberg’s explanation of the expectations of a nineteenth century women includes:

“The Victorian woman’s ideal social characteristics-nurturance, intuitive morality, domesticity, passivity, and affection-were all assumed to have a deeply rooted biological basis. These medical and scientific arguments formed an ideological system rigid in its support of tradition, yet infinitely flexible in the particular mechanisms which could be made to explain and legitimate woman’s role” (Smith-Rosenberg and Rosenberg 334).

This quote shows that women in society were expected to produce children and then nurture them. It’s explained that males have dominance and overall power of the female while the female should remain voiceless (Smith-Rosenberg and Rosenberg 333). The idea of voiceless women is shown when Gilman writes, “John laughs at me, of course, but one expects that in marriage” (299). This shows Jane, the main character’s, thought process and shows that her expectations in her marriage is to be laughed at by her husband. “It is so hard to talk with John about my case, because he is so wise, and because he loves me so” (305). This is another example of how Jane can’t have a voice or opinion about her “illness” because she thinks her husband’s opinion is the only one that can be voiced or hold any significance. 

“Motherhood was woman’s normal destiny, and those females who thwarted the promise immanent in their body’s design must expect to suffer “(Smith-Rosenberg and Rosenberg 336). This reiterates the idea that if women weren’t creating children they were looked down upon. In Gilman’s story Jane is sent to a mental illness facility for her post-partum depression. Post-partum depression is developed after a woman goes through childbirth and develops feelings of sadness and anxiety and a sort of disconnect with her child. I could tell Jane had post-partum when it says, “I never thought of it before, but it’s lucky that John kept me here after all, I can stand it so much easier than a baby, you see” (305). This connects back to Rosenberg’s point that women were looked down on if a baby wasn’t produced and nurtured (336). Because Jane’s post-partum depression she was unable to care for her child therefore not fulfilling the duties of a women at her time (305). 

Along with Jane not fulfilling the duties of a nineteenth century women she was considered to have something wrong with her. In Thomas Bewley’s novel, Madness to Mental Illness: A history of The Royal College of Psychiatrists, it explains what these mental issues meant during that time period. Bewley states, “In the 18th and early 19th centuries, people with mental illness could be cast out from society. If harmless, they were ignored and left to cope as best they could; if considered dangerous, they were confined, sometimes in degrading conditions” (4). In Jane’s case she was taken to a mental facility and locked in a room. “I lie down ever so much now. John says it’s good for me, and to sleep all I can” (307). In this example it shows John (her husband and physician) leaving her in a room to sleep and cope with her problems. The Physicians of this century thought sleep was the best cure and these “diseases” of cure on their own with time. 

Bewley explains, “The recognition that the mind is a function of the brain enhanced this process, so that it became increasingly accepted by doctors, and to a lesser extent by the public, that mental illness was in fact a disease and thus fell within the province of the medical profession” (7). In this quote Bewley reveals that in the time period these smaller scale diagnoses were considered diseases. “Mechanical restraint was widely used at the time. Some inmates were chained to stone floors, to the walls of their cells, to the bars of a cage, or to heavy wooden trough bedsteads” (Bewley 8). In this quote Bewley’s description of the medical facility matches up with Gilman’s in the story and can be shown when she says, “He said that after the wallpaper was changed it would be the heavy bedstead, and then the barred windows, and then that gate at the head of the stairs, and so on” (302).  Bewley then states another routine the medical facilities participated in:

Sedative drugs such as laudanum (tincture of opium) could only be given orally and overactive, overexcited and deluded patients were unlikely to take them. In the early 19th century some drugs could be administered to willing patients for their supposed calming or stimulating properties but these would only have a temporary effect. It was only after the development of the hypodermic syringe that it was possible to give patients a drug without their consent. (8)

Knowing how tired Jane always is we can assume that sedative drugs were used on her too to calm her nerves and hallucinations (Gilman 307). 

Overall throughout the story and the historical research conducted you can see all the problems in the nineteenth century regarding the roles of women and the treatment of mental illness. Because of the lack of voice and poor treatment for Jane’s depression she literally goes insane. The women in the wallpaper is not only a symbol of Jane’s freedom but of all nineteenth century women. This symbol can be shown when Gilman says, “I wonder if they all come out of that wallpaper as I did” (311)? As a woman, I can say I’m glad we escaped from the wallpaper.
