Theme Of Postpartum Depression In The Yellow Wallpaper

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In the short story, “The Yellow Wallpaper”, the wife is kept confined as a result of her nervous condition.The wife, Jane, is confined and controlled by her husband, John. She is taken away from her home and John barely allows her company and does not allow her to write. While she is there, she has to sleep in a room with ugly yellow wallpaper. After being in the room so long, Jane becomes obsessed with the yellow wallpaper. She begins to see a woman behind the pattern. It is her confinement to the house, the room, and her husband that induces her mental state to insanity. Jane’s nervous condition is caused by postpartum depression. Symptoms of postpartum depression include anxiety, mood swings, crying, irritability, depression, repeatedly going over thoughts, unwanted thoughts, fatigue, and loss of appetite. Jane exhibited these many of these symptoms. In paragraphs 49 and 50 Jane talks about her baby, “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” (Gilman 528). Jane wants to be with her baby, but her nerves won’t allow her. In “Postpartum Depression: A Review” is says, “Up to 60% of women with PPD have obsessive thoughts focusing on aggression toward the infant.22 They do not represent a desire to hurt the infant but over time can lead to avoidance of the infant in an effort to minimize the thoughts” (Patel). Jane also has little control of her emotions, “I cry at nothing, and cry most of the time” (Gilman 530). This goes back to the symptoms of crying and mood swings. Throughout the story Jane also had obsessive thoughts about the wallpaper and repeated went over them. In the time period that the story takes place, women who suffered from postpartum depression, like Jane, were usually falsely diagnosed and did not receive the needed treatment. The treatment that was most often given to these women was the rest cure. “Don’t Take This Lying Down” describes the rest cure, “IN 1877, Dr. Silas Weir Mitchell, describing what he called his ''rest cure'' for hysterical women, wrote, ''I do not permit the patient to sit up or to sew or write or read. The only action allowed is that needed to clean the teeth.'' At the end of six weeks to two months of such treatment, he expected that women would be good as new” (Bilston). While on the rest cure, bed rest was a major part. In some cases, the patients were not allowed out of bed at all. The patients were fed a fatty milk based diet. The purpose of the rest cure was to boost weight, increase blood supply, and remove the patient from a possibly toxic environment. During the rest cure, patients were not allowed to be around a lot of people. They were usually taken away from home and isolated from friends and family. On top of Jane’s already existent mental disorder, her confinement creates a new mental problem. Isolation causes Jane to lose her sanity. For the most part, Jane only saw John, Mary, and Jennie. Jane only once got to see anybody else. Isolation can have many negative effects on the mind, one of those being hallucinations. Jane had multiple hallucinations of the woman behind the wallpaper and her nerves didn’t help. In paragraphs 98 and 99 Jane says she sees the woman outside of the wallpaper, “I see her in …show more content…
Being one of the only people Jane had contact with, she relied on him and what he did or say. If he said one thing, Jane could no dispute it. For instance, John would not listen to his wife about her own health, “‘Better in body perhaps-’ I began, and stopped short, for he sat up straight and looked at me with such a stern, reproachful look that I could not say another word” (Gilman 532). John got upset with her when she disagreed with him about her getting better. John had complete control over Jane’s healthcare, which may have had a major effect on her. Because John was her husband, he may have been to attached to look at her case objectively and do or notice what any other doctor would. Like noticing signs of her going

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