Womens Illness in Psychology Research Paper

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Yellow Wall-Paper

The context of the work for Charlotte Perkins Gilman's story "The Yellow Wall-paper" was placed in a time that witnessed dramatic changes. During that period of change -- the early to the mid-nineteenth century, American women were identified in the society to be the moral and spiritual leaders of the home according to the domestic ideology. The primary role or duty of a woman was considered to be in her home where she would carry out the prescribed responsibilities of being a mother and a wife within the private domains of her home. On the other hand, men would be engaged with work, politics and economics in the public domain where women were not expected to participate. However, changes began to appear in this system and way of thinking during the middle of the century due to the rise in the concept of women's rights and women liberty. Feminists gained momentum during by the end of the 1800s when the change was in the air. As women strived to gain broader roles outside of their home roles, the rise of the concept of "The New Woman" drew on the intelligence and the non-domestic skills of the women. In the writing, Gilman reflects his belief in the equality of women and advocates equal footing for women with men in economic, social, and political roles as he proposed a reversal of roles for women. He believed that women should be financially independent and advocated the then radical idea of men sharing household chores. Critics have said that the "The Yellow Wall-paper," which first appeared in the New England Magazine in January 1892, showed the depression and nervousness of Gilman in a manner of the narrative. Like in the story, Gilman too had sought the help of a neurologist who prescribed the "rest cure" solution to her problems which sought to restrict women from taxing or laboring their minds and bodies like thinking, reading and writing. Gilman's own feminism gets reflected in the "The Yellow Wall-paper" more than the psychological study of depression.

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If a physician of high standing, and one's own husband, assures friends and relatives that there is really nothing the matter with one but temporary nervous depression -- a slight hysterical tendency -- what is one to do? . . .

So I take phosphates or phosphites -- whichever it is, and tonics, and journeys, and air, and exercise, and am absolutely forbidden to "work" until I am well again.

The main elements of the dilemma that exists in the mind of the narrator are evident from the above passage. She is urged to be passive by the voices of her husband, the rest of the family and the medical establishment that are powerful and authoritative.

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However, the woman's own conviction is that to get well she requires to be active and stimulated which is opposite to what has been prescribed for her. While she disagrees with her own treatment her opinions seem to carry little weight and the woman has no powers to bring in any change in her treatment. The fact that she is not interested in the factual accuracy of issues is evident from the confusion of the women over "phosphates or phosphites." This goes in with the own prescription that was given to Gilman by her doctor that prescribed strict isolation and limited her intellectual stimulations to just two hours a day. While the woman in the story wants to get stimulated by talking about the issue other than the house and household chores she is restricted from doing that given the prescription of the doctor restricts her to tax her mind and body from stimulating thoughts and stimulus.

In the story, the woman says: "I sometimes fancy that in my condition if I had less opposition and more society and stimulus -- but John says the very worst thing I can do is think about my condition, and I confess it always makes me feel bad. So I will let it alone and talk about the house."

The narrator, as well as the dilemma of the narrator, is further established by this section that appears towards the beginning of the story. This section clearly sets up the characteristics of the narrator. The internalization of the authority of her husband has been portrayed by Gilman in this section where the woman even practically hears her husband's voice in her head that tells her what to think. However, she is unable to stop her own feelings and, therefore, she decides to focus on the house instead of the situation which is the first step that the narrator says marks her decline towards obsession and madness. The description of the wallpaper whose "sprawling flamboyant patterns" tends to commit "every artistic sin" that is imaginable. The slide of the woman into madness is demonstrated by the narrator who says that the wallpapers in the room create beast which is devoid he sanity from an "artistic and articulate woman." Critics and feminists have said that this story symbolizes how men wanted to see women as narrated in the story where the woman is left crawling on all-fours in the room and smooching about the room. This is the setting or the woman getting into physical confinement and subsequently her mental demise.

Towards the end of the story, the woman says: "I don't like to look out of the windows even -- there….....

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