Charlotte Perkins Gilman wrote the short story, “The Yellow Wallpaper,” to mirror her own experience coping with the improper treatment of her postpartum depression. In the story, the protagonist (who will be henceforth referenced as the narrator) believes engaging in intellectually and socially stimulating activities will be the best course of treatment for her depression. However, her husband, John, disagrees and forces her to follow Dr. Mitchell Weir’s famous “rest cure” regimen: “Mitchell’s famous cure […] was designed to restore traditional gender roles […] Mitchell stressed idleness and passivity for the women in his care” (Hoeller). Although John’s oppression of the narrator seems to come from a place of love, the effects of his proposed
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John uses his position as a high standing physician to persuade the narrator’s friends and family that she is not sick, leaving her with no one to turn to about her postpartum depression. John proceeds to whisk the narrator away to a seemingly abandoned estate, described as “quite alone, standing well back from the road, quite three miles from the village” (Gilman 77). The isolated location effectively limits the narrator’s ability to engage in socially or intellectually stimulating activities, her only companions being John and his sister. The narrator spends the majority of her time confined to one room of the estate. Although it is described as a “big, airy room […] with windows that look all ways, and air and sunshine galore” (Gilman 77), the windows are barred and the only piece of furniture is a bed nailed to the floor. The bars on the windows and the immovable bed symbolize the narrator’s physical confinement to the room, mirroring the confinement she feels due to the restriction associated with traditional gender roles. While the narrator is restricted to the estate, John spends the majority of his time working in town, in an environment both socially and intellectually stimulating. The narrator’s psychological state begins to deteriorate as the improper treatment of her postpartum depression
John uses his position as a high standing physician to persuade the narrator’s friends and family that she is not sick, leaving her with no one to turn to about her postpartum depression. John proceeds to whisk the narrator away to a seemingly abandoned estate, described as “quite alone, standing well back from the road, quite three miles from the village” (Gilman 77). The isolated location effectively limits the narrator’s ability to engage in socially or intellectually stimulating activities, her only companions being John and his sister. The narrator spends the majority of her time confined to one room of the estate. Although it is described as a “big, airy room […] with windows that look all ways, and air and sunshine galore” (Gilman 77), the windows are barred and the only piece of furniture is a bed nailed to the floor. The bars on the windows and the immovable bed symbolize the narrator’s physical confinement to the room, mirroring the confinement she feels due to the restriction associated with traditional gender roles. While the narrator is restricted to the estate, John spends the majority of his time working in town, in an environment both socially and intellectually stimulating. The narrator’s psychological state begins to deteriorate as the improper treatment of her postpartum depression