The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman - Book Report/Review Example

? Short Story Analysis “The Yellow Wallpaper" written by Charlotte Perkins Gilman ‘The Yellow Wallpaper’ is a moving tale of a contemporary woman suffering from a serious mental illness. Penned by Charlotte Perkins Gilman and subsequently published in a magazine in 1982 (Laing), the 6000-word short story unveils the taboos pertaining to women’s health back in the 19th century. The story was a first of its kind that led to serious criticism from one lot, while extensive praise from another. The idea gave a whole new meaning to how women with mental illnesses were dealt with and treated and paved the way for a modern approach towards mental disorders. Written as a first-person, the story is a fictitious reflection of a woman suffering from nervous depression, and who has been caged within a room of a rented house by her husband. Through the day she has a caretaker to keep a constant check on her while throughout the night her husband makes sure she does not leave the bed. The physician husband has made sure his wife has no way to escape and has deliberately chosen an upstairs room with barred windows. The tale is an expression of the hardships this woman faces – both mentally and physically – and ends up with the woman exploring a new personality from within her. What cures her? The yellow wallpaper. The main focus of the story revolves around the woman who is seen as ill. She speaks to the readers through a conversation sort of a story, writing out like one would write his or her daily diary which reflects on the views and experiences. Her serious mental disorder is tried to be cured by confining her to a room and forcing on her a full-time rest. The more the woman is forced into solitary confinement, the more her health is deteriorated. Out of the confinement in the room she discovers strange feelings and objects that are not really present. She hallucinates into feeling objects and even seeing real-time people. The yellow wallpaper covering the wall of her room becomes her special attention as she sees a woman, barred behind the paper. Others around her see these signs as her pathway to madness. As she grows madder and obsessed by the strange wallpaper, she locks herself in the room one day and tears off the wallpaper completely. Done, she claims to her husband that she was finally ‘free’! Popularly seen as a feminist story, ‘The Yellow Wallpaper’ grieves the readers with its idea. It is set in a time when mental disorders were little known and were related more to spiritual disorders than mere brain ones. Such was often treated with exorcism, which mostly was ill-treatment. The main role of the story is penned as passing through a series of apparently subtle and quiet experiences, mixed with extremely strange and bizarre feelings down inside her. She transforms from a relatively stable woman to a one that is all destroyed by the end of the story, due to the lack of proper treatment. Her insanity shoots up as she is sent into solitary confinement, and rather than being comforted, she experiences the worst of all times that shakes the entire family. The lack of medical facilities for such illnesses paved the way for her destruction and led to an end of total hysteria. Though not discreetly mentioned, the disorder that this woman was suffering from was something close to melancholia. Widely unknown in those times, the disorder was referred to as being something supernatural. These contemporary beliefs usually led to improper treatment and often resulted in the death of the patient. Something quite the same was the case with this character who was devoid of proper treatment. Confinement only led to her being frenzied mentally as she saw images and objects that were not actually present. She often cited a woman which is walking around the house and, strangely, could be seen through any of the window this character looked out of. Rather than that she was at least subject to love and care by her husband; she was sternly asked to rest. Lack of knowledge barred him from understanding his wife’s real condition, and she being strongly neglected. As a result, the woman went through a series of unpleasant experiences, passing through odd phases and experiencing strange feelings. Continuous neglect resulted in her insanity. Apparently, the woman is seen to be suffering from ‘baby blues’ since she was pregnant and that was why she was put into a rented room for six weeks – the approximate time the post-partum depression lasts (KidsHealth). This very act of confining her in a rented house worsened the situation and led to a trauma. Rather than making sure the wife receives proper care and love, the husband reacted as most men would usually do. Though John did express his love for his wife, he was never able to put it to positive practices and rather acted as per his ill-informed beliefs. The lack of love was poured onto her isolated in this condition and worsened her health. She found her relief in the yellow colored wallpaper that was torn in patches at several places. She was able to imagine a woman who was trying to force herself free from behind the wallpaper. She would get out of the bed and actually see this creepy creature struggling. If weighed closely, it is the very reflection of her own life: a woman confined in a room finding a way to escape. Though not very rare, mental disorders were not well known in contemporary times since they were seen as taboos. Patients of such illnesses were seen as victims of supernatural forces and were treated secretly to devoid them of spirits. This lack of knowledge had almost always resulted in improper treatments. This never means that people with mental disorders never recovered; they did mostly as soon as the period of depression was over. But today mental disorders are a part of the medical illnesses book and are almost similarly treated as you would treat any other medical illness. Though they are still seen as medical taboos, they are nevertheless perceived more positively today. Patients of medical illnesses are prone to better treatment and care in the 21st century and thus are more capable of recovering, unlike what it was in the 19th century. In a short and well written idea, Gilman reproduces the role of women as victims in the early 1800’s. Her feminist tract gets the reader closer to the ideas of psychological illnesses that were not perceived so in contemporary times since psychology was not widely known. The story also sheds light on to the pains and suffering such patients used to go through since there was not anybody who could understand them properly. It also acted as a pioneer in psychological thrillers and shifted the focus of the world to more intricate realities of life. The ignorance led to the victim feeling neglected, and that is when he or she found relief in strange activities, the staring and tearing wallpaper in this case. Years later, Gilman confessed suffering from something very similar in her own real life since critics were stunned by such a depiction of her ideas (Charlotte Perkins Gilman's). Many practitioners even changed the course of treatment for their patients ever since they read the ‘Yellow Wallpaper’. But unlike her character; Gilman was able to recover out of her mental disease. Since then, Gilman has laid the foundation for the multitude of psychological thrillers that have followed ever since. Works Cited Laing, Olivia. Yellow Wallpaper and Selected Writings. The Guardian. Guardian News and Media, 17 Jan. 2009. Web. 15 Feb. 2013. KidsHealth. Postpartum Depression. N.p., n.d. Web. 15 Feb. 2013. Gilman, Charlotte Perkins, and Denise D. Knight. Herland, The yellow wall-paper, and selected writings. Penguin Classics, 1999. Print. 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