Conform To Society

Everyday we conform to society and do what is expected of us. In The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, the unnamed author who might be known as Jane had to conform in more ways than one, but also took a stand at times. She suffered from depression. For many years society has a hard time accepting mental illness especially in love ones. Jane was forced to live in a symbolic bubble that family expected and figured was right for her. Does its helps or makes the situation worst to conform to other people's reality? No it does not! The story tells of an unnamed writer that pours her heart to her diary she was ordered not to have due to the treatment. She was suffering from a mental illness after recently have a child that perhaps could have just been postpartum depression. Her husband not wanting to believe his wife is suffering from temporary insanity and need psychiatric help, ordered her “the rest cure”in a room at the top of a mansion they moved to for the summer for this purpose. The rest cure was invented by Weir Mitchell, a 1800 American physician. He ensured that women remained in isolation for a period of time according to author and science expert Anne Stiles. Jane's husband has full control over everything she does, she conforms to his demands believing he only wants the best for her. Jane would sometime feels ungrateful to second guess her husband's decisions. “He is very careful and loving, and hardly lets me stir without special direction” said the author. Her husband placed her in the room he saw suitable where she can get air and rest. The author's husband, a physician by the name of John was sure this would be the best cure for his wife and so did her brother whom was also a physician. The author confessed to herself that she does believe that her illness is being lengthened due to her husband's occupation. He thinks he knows it all and his rest cure treatment is all she needs. Though the author feels this way, she agrees with her husband's demands, but still hide and writes to free her mind. Her husband insist she's only having nervous depression, but she knew she was ill. She explained she would cry for no reason and had little control over her emotions. “I cry at nothing, and cry most of the time. Of course I don't when John is here, or anybody else, but when I am alone,” Said Jane. After she was placed in a room, she voiced her concern and discomfort about the yellow wall paper on the wall. She could see things in the wallpaper no one else could see, but her husband explained if it's not the wallpaper it would be something else so she should just rest. Jane saw so much expression in the wallpaper that it consumed her. She wrote about her emotions but will constantly come back to talking about the …show more content…
The wallpaper is not just any paper, but instead symbolizes an escape, a understanding, a look inside herself. With all the desperation to be free, she decided to free the woman she sees trapped in the wallpaper. She begins to start tearing away the wallpaper convincing herself she was once trapped behind there. She then became the woman in the wallpaper. Confinement has drove her to complete insanity. “I don't like to look out of the windows even, there are so many of those creeping women, and they creep so fast. I wonder if they all come out of that wall-paper as I did?” Said jane. She then started to creep on the floor, believing she was a woman who was being trapped behind the wallpaper who has now escaped and gaining her freedom from not just John, the husband, but also from Jane. When her husband entered the room, Jane was crawling on the floor. "For God's sake, what are you doing! " Said John, as he tried to figure out what was going on with his wife. She explained to him she have got out of the wallpaper and pull it off the wall so she cannot be placed back in. John fainted and Jane stepped over him freeing herself of his