Silas Weir Mitchell

Jane moved to a new house with her husband while dealing with depression. John was her absolute everything. She rarely did anything without him and anything she needed, John was on task. However, shortly after their arrival, John’s company became less and less. At times in the day, Jane would speak of needing John or him being away and it was uncertain how long he would be gone. Jane was use to John taking care of her. He did things that were unnecessary and also did things for her she did not…

A Family Affair: Obsession in “The Dead Past” “Indeed, like a ghost that was afraid to materialize, she hesitated, her head down, eyes averted” (Pickard). In the exposition of her short story “The Dead Past,” Nancy Pickard introduces the deeply-troubled character Elizabeth Ouvray. Disturbed by the traumatic events of her past, Elizabeth seeks the help of renowned psychologist Paul Laner. Used to conventional psychology, Paul finds himself at his wits end and resorts to hypnotism to uncover…

Overthinking causes many effects on people, from going crazy to even feeling free. “The Yellow Wallpaper” by Charlotte Perkins Stetson is on how the narrator of the story gets carried away in her mind by a yellow wallpaper. Through the story, the narrator finds herself both trapped and set free due to the wallpaper, which has an odd peculiar pattern and a woman, with also the writing that helps her through the story with both factors helping her gain control in her being able to break and feel…

Journey from Insanity to Self Slaughter Insanity is the stage when women are credited with title of ‘Madness’ by the patriarchal society. Perkin’s The Yellow Wallpaper and Kate Chopin’s The Awakening both the texts can be studied on the basis of effects or the impact that such a brutal society can have on females of society. Insanity, which further results in an attempt of suicide or self-slaughter. These are basically the ways of escapism used by suffering woman. These are the ways, which…

In life, everyone deals with a certain hardship that affects them in a way where they just want to give up. In Speak, Melinda is dealing with the pain of being sexually assaulted. In “Still I Rise”, a poem by Maya Angelou, the character is dealing with everyone being against her and calling her names to try to bring her down. They both were dealing with the pain of being doubted, the pain of people trying to kill their dreams, but they both learn that they shouldn’t give up when something has…

Charlotte Perkins Gilman is the author of a very intriguing story called “The Yellow Wallpaper.” This story is a very haunting and psychological kind of story that gives you a feminist point of view. This story is about a wife who is sick and a husband who is a doctor. He diagnosed her with a mental illness, and tells her she just needs to rest, and she will become better. The husband locks her in an upstairs bedroom, with bars, and with yellow wallpaper. She soon become kind of obsessed and…

“It was not intended to drive people crazy, but to save people from being driven crazy” (10). “The Yellow Wallpaper” by Charlotte Perkins Gilman describes a woman’s descent into madness. Narrated by the main character, the reader is given an insight into each change her character experiences. Isolated and patronized, the narrator becomes obsessed with a certain aspect of her temporary home. She faces an overwhelming amount of opposition from her husband which produces feelings of loneliness,…

people do not visit for extended periods of time. The husband says that if she did not get any better that he would send her to a specialist, Weir Mitchel. If she was already in an asylum they would send her away to get help, because she was already in treatment. The treatment itself is called the “rest cure” and it was invented by neurologist Silas Weir Mitchel. Doctor Mitchel came up with this treatment to combatant hysteria and other nervous illnesses. The treatment was used as an…

This essay attempts to compare the paralysis and repression of two women with different social statuses in male-domineered societies. The first of which is Kate Chopin’s “The Story of an Hour”, a short story which takes place in the late 19th century America and follows a repressed Mrs. Mallard who, upon being falsely informed of her husband’s death, sets out to gain a sense of self-assertion. Her short period of rejoice – and her life – are, however, put to an end when her husband returns. The…

Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s short story, ‘The Yellow Wallpaper’ and Sylvia Plath’s novel, ‘The Bell Jar’, scrutinises how both women, the unnamed narrator and Esther, become mentally unstable. Both protagonists exploit their real life situations in their story and novel to emphasise how being a woman living in a patriarchal society has caused mental breakdowns. Moreover, they make attempts to explore and understand their suffering of depression and the possible ways to overcome it. The short…