A Downward Spiral
A Downward Spiral
In the late nineteenth century, there was not a lot of information known about mental illness. Treatments prescribed to the mentally ill at that time were often bizarre, and cause the patients more harm than good. Suffering from a nervous breakdown after the birth of her daughter, Charlotte Perkins Gilman is all to familiar with the treatment at the time; isolation, and total rest. Drawing upon experiences from a month long stay at an asylum run by Dr. S. Weir Mitchell, Perkins felt compelled to write a short story, about a woman fighting her own battle with mental illness and the treatment prescribed to help her. In the short story, "The Yellow Wallpaper," the narrator's illness goes through three distinct stages.
The first distinct stage of the narrator's illness is mild depression. She seems to be exhibiting the symptoms of the baby blues, also known as post-partum depression. The narrator expresses an inability to bond with her child: "It is fortunate that Mary is good with the baby. [. . . .] I cannot be with him" (Gilman 706). Because the narrator is bedridden and unable to perform even minor tasks, it makes her feel as if she is a burden to her husband and Jennie. What few things the narrator is able to do- such as walking in the garden and writing down her thoughts and feelings- tire her out quickly. She is beginning to worry that she is not getting better and tries to express these feelings to her husband John, who dismisses her as if she is a child. The burden of trying to hide the symptoms of her illness only seem to escalate it to another level. The second distinct stage of the narrator's illness is severe depression. She begins to cry frequently over the smallest things and her sleep habits also change. She sleeps most of the day away and lies awake staring at the wallpaper most of the night. She becomes secretive about her growing obsession with the wallpaper in her bedroom believing she might be sent...
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