Postpartum depression is a disease that continues to affect at least 15% of all women. When Charlotte Perkins Gilman wrote her short story titled “The Yellow Wallpaper” in 1892, mental health, especially when it concerned women, was a forbidden topic. In The Yellow Wallpaper, Gilman uses this story as a secretive way to to open up by loosely basing it on her own struggles. One hundred and twenty four years later, these struggles describe symptoms of what is known now as postpartum depression. This story was also a demonstration of the terrible treatment that Gilman received for so long by her husband.  Merriam-Webster’s dictionary describes postpartum depression as “depression suffered by a mother following childbirth, typically arising from the combination of hormonal changes, psychological adjustment to motherhood, and fatigue.”  The professional descriptions of this disease compared to the accounts that Gilman describes as examples in her struggles with postpartum depression are so realistic, that today, this text is being used in medical schools across the country to help students better understand psychosis. Gilman uses her short story “The Yellow Wallpaper” to discuss her struggles with postpartum depression, and through a close reading of this text, the reader is able to better understand the anxiety, hallucination, and lack of mother-child connection that Gilman endures on a daily basis.

Postpartum depression includes many symptoms that are experienced when struggling with normal depression as well. In 2006 however, the Journal of Community Health Nursing and Wichita State University completed a study involving specifically postpartum depression and the symptoms that occur with this disease. The tests that were run in the study gave a detailed analysis of the symptoms through statistics of repetition, and the data they collected regarding the patients they tested who were screened for postpartum depression. One of the most reoccurring symptoms that were observed in these tests was anxiety. Comparing these tests to Gilman’s story that talks about the “nervous feelings”(302) she experienced while her husband, John is away. She explains how difficult this is by saying “ These nervous troubles are dreadfully depressing. John does not know how much I really suffer. He knows there is no reason to suffer, and that satisfies him. Of course it is only nervousness. It does weigh in on me so not do my duty in any way!”(301). John is more worried about his wife seeming stereotypically okay in terms of mental health by only understanding the physical aspects and symptoms that she is experiencing. John is so ignorant to the fact that his wife is not in a correct state of mind by choosing to disregard her emotional problems and telling her that her case is not serious. The fact that John is satisfied by knowing that there is no reason for his wife to struggle shows that he simply only wants her to be normal for societal standards. These fits of nervousness and the way Gilman describes them are actually intense feelings of anxiety. Despite this, the 1800s was not a time where one was able to acknowledge or talk about what these symptoms meant or why people were feeling this way; so it is understandable that she simply laughed it off when her husband would tell her otherwise.

A second symptom that is demonstrated in “The Yellow Wallpaper” that contributes to the reader’s diagnoses of Gilman as a patient with postpartum depression is hallucination. Gilman shares with us what she sees when she looks at the yellow wallpaper covering her house by saying, “This paper looks to me as if it knew what a vicious influence it had! There is a recurrent spot where the pattern lolls like a broken neck and two bulbous eyes stare at you upside down”(302). The way Gilman describes this wallpaper by personifying a devilish person that taunts her by constantly staring at her upside down drives Gilman crazy. The adjectives Gilman incorporates into this quotation such as vicious and recurrent show the emotional impact that this wallpaper has had on her. This impact is vicious, as she is trapped in the house all day, thus constantly forced to interact with this wallpaper continually. When her husband is unable to understand why she is so entranced by this wallpaper, Gilman explains this and the person she

Notices in further detail by saying “There are things in that paper that nobody knows but me, or ever will…and it is like a woman stooping down and creeping about behind that pattern. I don’t like it a bit. I wonder-I begin to think-I wish John would take me away from here”(305). This woman who is creeping behind the pattern is ultimately herself, creeping around the house not acknowledging her own problems. When Gilman says that there are things in the wallpaper that no one knows but her, this shows how the wallpaper is the way she sees herself, almost like a mirror. This wallpaper is Gilman’s personal mirror as no one else will ever be able to understand what she sees in it when she looks at herself.  

The stigma toward mental illness has greatly decreased in the modern day and the acute concept of hating motherhood still stirs controversy today. Gilman addresses this topic by talking about how she cannot bear to be with her baby. She worries about him but cannot be with him

By herself. This symptom of “feeling resentment towards your baby, or your partner, or your friends who don’t have babies, or simply experiencing out of control rage” is one of the most extreme signs of postpartum depression, and a symptom that in today’s world would require desperate measures immediately. Gilman acknowledges her own problem with this when she says, “It is fortunate Mary is so good with the baby. Such a dear baby! And yet I cannot be with him, it makes me so nervous”(301). Gilman is acknowledging the fact that she knows that her baby is such a sweet baby and that is it not the baby’s fault that she feels this way, however for some unforeseeable reason, she cannot be with the baby alone. This concept of being too nervous to be around your baby is definitely a struggle that was caused through her anxiety and other symptoms that she experienced. However, many women who feel like this today feel scorned or disgraced to admit it, because it is going against what society believes should happen when a woman has a child. Stereotypically, motherhood is perceivably the most amazing time of your life. However, the Guru Rajneesh describes motherhood by saying “The moment a child is born, the mother is also born. She never existed before. The woman existed, but the mother, never. A mother is something absolutely new”. Although Rajneesh’s quotation is not necessarily glorifying motherhood, his statement about how the mother is new is exactly what happens to Gilman. The woman already existed, however, when motherhood took place in her life, it caused her to change very drastically and for unforeseeable reasons. This concept of being too nervous to be around your baby is definitely a struggle that was caused through her anxiety and other symptoms that she experienced. However, many women who feel like this today feel scorned or disgraced to admit it, because it is going against what society believes should happen when a woman has a child.

If Gilman’s case were exemplified in today’s world, her diagnosis would be much easier to understand for herself and the era she lived in. Today, many women are using their cases of postpartum to promote a movement of awareness for it. Hayden Panettiere and Brooks Shields are two influential women in society who have taken their fame and used it to discuss openly their experiences with postpartum depression. Both Panettiere and Shields required treatment for this disease and they are extremely open in discussing with society their everyday struggles despite the fact that it is going against the stereotypical motherhood ideals. When Panettiere was readmitted for this disease she was quoted saying, “The postpartum depression I have been experiencing has impacted every aspect of my life. Rather than stay stuck due to unhealthy coping mechanisms I have chosen to take time to reflect holistically on my health and life. Wish me luck!”. Although postpartum depression is still a controversial topic to discuss, Panettiere is very open about her own struggles to encourage women everywhere that it is okay to ask for help. 

While every mother has a crazy, abnormal hormonal imbalance following childbirth, the women who have the most severe cases of postpartum depression are the women whose hormones never truly balance back out. This hormonal imbalance in addition to the extreme exhaustion and emotional roller coaster of becoming a mother, contributes greatly to the feelings of anxiety, nervousness, and depression. Gilman inevitably wants the courage to express her feelings by saying “But I MUST say what I feel and think in some way--it is such a relief”(305). Gilman’s plea of wanting to say what she felt, although the story wasn’t exactly about her, allowed her to ultimately express her feelings by writing this story. Because of the courage she demonstrated by writing about her illness, despite not truly understanding what she was suffering from, it has helped generations of women and doctors better understand this disease and its effects on society.
