Mental illness is topic of fairly unrestricted conversation in the United States today; however, in generations past, it has been very unacceptable. Doctors regularly diagnosed illnesses and gave treatments without much doubt from the community. Considering when it was written, most people conclude that Charlotte Perkins Gilman made “The Yellow Wallpaper” to show her frustration with the suppression of women and those with mental illness. Gilman suffered from mental illness herself; thus, one could conclude she was projecting her own experience through the narrator in her story. Charlotte Perkins Gilman wrote “The Yellow Wallpaper” to shine a light on the taboo subjects of mental illness and gender inequality of the 1890s, and to show how poorly the sick were treated by their doctors and loved ones.
Mental illness, being the unacceptable subject it was, often lead doctors and patient’s family members to deny the idea of someone being mentally sick, causing people like the narrator to be treated incorrectly. In the narrator’s own words, she suffers …show more content…
Charlotte Perkins Gilman was an outspoken, independent woman who had received the rest cure; thus, she wished to bring attention to its horrendous practices through her writing (Science Museum). Gilman most likely drew inspiration for the narrator’s story through her own experience with the rest cure. She further implied the sinister aspect of the rest cure in her story with the environment the narrator was in. With emphasis on walls, locked gates, barred windows, beds nailed down, metal rings on the wall, etc., it shows how imprisoned those who were mentally ill felt while receiving “treatment”. Very clearly, we can see that Gilman wrote the story to show that one would rather dive into insanity than to use the rest cure as
Mental illness, being the unacceptable subject it was, often lead doctors and patient’s family members to deny the idea of someone being mentally sick, causing people like the narrator to be treated incorrectly. In the narrator’s own words, she suffers …show more content…
Charlotte Perkins Gilman was an outspoken, independent woman who had received the rest cure; thus, she wished to bring attention to its horrendous practices through her writing (Science Museum). Gilman most likely drew inspiration for the narrator’s story through her own experience with the rest cure. She further implied the sinister aspect of the rest cure in her story with the environment the narrator was in. With emphasis on walls, locked gates, barred windows, beds nailed down, metal rings on the wall, etc., it shows how imprisoned those who were mentally ill felt while receiving “treatment”. Very clearly, we can see that Gilman wrote the story to show that one would rather dive into insanity than to use the rest cure as