Yellow Wallpaper: Insanity In The 1800's

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“The Yellow Wallpaper”: Insanity in the 1800’s In life most individuals trust physicians to properly diagnose mental or physical health issues and trusting a physician is often done without hesitation. Historically, however physicians were not always right though and traditional treatment plans often caused more damage than healing. Addressing the harm treatment plans caused was dangerous and anyone who spoke negatively against physicians was looked down upon; however, the author of “The Yellow Wallpaper” addresses the issues symbolically to bring attention to the negative effects of previous treatment plans during the late 1800’s to early 1900’s. In “The Yellow Wallpaper” Charlotte Perkins Gilman critiques the traditional healing concepts for psychiatric treatment in a symbolic way using the physicians, the environment, and the character’s hallucinations. Through the characters of the physicians in “The Yellow Wallpaper,” Gilman critiques the traditional treatment plans for psychiatric issues in the hopes of possibly changing the treatment methods of the 1800’s. The main character in “The Yellow Wallpaper” is prescribed the rest cure by her husband who is a physician of high standing. The rest cure consists of what one might expect, rest, little …show more content…
The room described in “The Yellow Wallpaper” is perceived similar to a cell, one from a prison or perhaps an insane asylum, with descriptions like the “windows are barred” and the “heavy bed that will not move” the room is big but to the character it seems she has been imprisoned (Gilman 131,142). The traditional methods of isolation as a cure for mental illnesses is criticized by Gilman as an outlandish tradition based on the symbols used such as the bed and barred windows in her

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