Mental health problems effect countless amounts of people every day. Two texts that highlight mental health concerns are Nellie Bly’s “Ten Days in a Mad-House” and Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s “The Yellow Wallpaper”. These two texts pertain to mental health, which is a significant issue, because it can affect a single person throughout their entire life. When mental health is improperly treated, it can create an extremely negative impact that will lead to disastrous outcomes, which is something that these two texts illustrate with detail. In conversation with one another, Nellie Bly’s “Ten Days in a Mad-House” and Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s “The Yellow Wallpaper” show a misunderstanding of mental health from the perspectives of two different people. The examples of the misunderstanding of mental health having an impact on treatment towards patients in each text complement one another, because they show it in multiple instances. This proves to the audience that it is not just one person who has anecdotes of mental health …show more content…
These two texts confirm the significance of mental health, by showing how badly patients suffer when they are abused and treated improperly. This is done with specific details of instances within each text. This is demonstrated when patients deteriorate throughout the duration of “Ten Days in a Mad-House” and with the narrator in “The Yellow Wallpaper” going insane in the end (Gilman 310-312). After reading both texts, the reader becomes better at understanding that mental health mistreatment and abuse have an irreversible impact on patients in mental health facilities. Furthermore, the reader is able to see the mistreatment and abuse of mental health from two angles, which allows him or her to view each text from the point of view of the other
Dawes Leksi Ms. Lawrenson ENG4U 31 May 2018 Rebellion for Better or for Worse It is amazing how humans can subconsciously make connections between things all around them that allow them to have a better understanding of the life that they live in. Well known novels entitled: One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, by Ken Kesey and Girl, Interrupted, by Susanna Kaysen, help the readers understand when both authors portray their similar views on how the system surrounding those suffering with mental illnesses works, in past and recent societies. Within these fictional novels are the ideas of how patients suffering with mental illnesses are mistreated.
We see throughout Elyn Saks journey the challenges she faces. “The Center Cannot Hold” gives a prime example of how a mental illness can affect someone and make a person face hurdles throughout their lifetime. “The Center Cannot Hold” describes how mental illness was seen through the early 60’s and 70’s; showcasing the different precautions taken to approach on the subject of mental illness. Elyn Saks gives a vivid detail into the accounts of how mental illness is look upon but also how it affects an individual
2.) “The Yellow Wall-Paper,” story resonates with many people who feel different from others, also they have suffered from depression or some other type of mental illness. The story seems to hold a message that not every order or advice given by a doctor, loved one, or friend is the correct information to take. Also, that people should listen to their own bodies for what they need to do to feel better most of the time unless they have really gone insane. It is also a good example of how to drive someone crazy by keeping them isolated in a room without any real company or activities for them to do.
Sexism and its Influences on Psychological Abuse The central theme in the short story, “The Yellow Wallpaper,” is the distinctive differences of gender roles. Gillman creates an aura of sexism with the deteriorating mental health of the female protagonist due to the male persona. Men dismiss the idea of depression being the culprit of the protagonists’ issue, and rather misdiagnose as if she has hysteria.
Gender, Madness, and Weir Mitchell’s Rest Cure in The Yellow Wallpaper Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s short story The Yellow Wallpaper explores themes of insanity, isolation, and sexism in the late 19th century. Gilman skillfully places the reader inside the head of a deeply unstable narrator, taking the reader along for the ride as she begins a rapid descent into mental illness. However, The Yellow Wallpaper is more than the story of one woman’s mental deterioration; it is a highly personal critique of psychological treatments of the time and of the way that women of the era were systematically repressed and undervalued. In this way, The Yellow Wallpaper skillfully illustrates the narrator’s descent into madness, while also providing the reader
In Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s story, “The Yellow Wallpaper,” the narrator is treated for depression by “rest cure,” isolation from society, which affects her mentality causing her to become secretive, withdrawn, and insane. With the treatment
The movie “One flew over the cuckoo’s nest” gives an inside look into the life of a patient living in a mental institution; helping to give a new definition of mental illnesses. From a medical standpoint, determinants of mental illness are considered to be internal; physically and in the mind, while they are seen as external; in the environment or the person’s social situation, from a sociological perspective (Stockton, 2014). Additionally, the movie also explores the idea of power relations that exist between an authorized person (Nurse Ratched) and a patient and further looks into the punishment a deviant actor receives (ie. McMurphy contesting Nurse Ratched). One of the sociological themes that I have observed is conformity.
By analyzing the words chosen to describe the actions of the narrator and the wallpaper in her bedroom, the reader can fully grasp what makes the story suspenseful and why there are multiple interpretations of the ending. CP Gillman utilizes her story to discuss the ineffective treatment of mental illness in women during the early 1900 's (191), and
“The C word in the Hallways” by Anna Quindlen, focuses on the issue of mental health in teenagers and young adults. Misinformation and ignorance are found all around the subject. The author tries to argue that society should focus more on learning about these problems. She begins with specific examples of when mental health problems were not treated properly.
Gilman helps shed some light on the reality of the situation in regards to female oppression and social degradation, especially when referring to the issue of mental health. “The Yellow Wallpaper” is a timeless piece that presents social justice issues that are still present today, and allows for a better understanding of the history of female oppression and the ignominy that surrounds discussions about mental
Paula A. Treichler from the University of Illinois analyzes “The Yellow Wallpaper” and its effects of the diagnosis given to the main character effectively in her article “Escaping the Sentence: Diagnosis and Discourse in ‘The Yellow Wallpaper’”. In her article, Treichler emphasizes the reasons why the main character was lead to believe her diagnosis from her husband and the other contributing factors that played a role in her hysteria, such as lack of social interaction and confinement. In the introduction to her article, Treichler gives the background of the story and hits on every area of importance. The diagnosis made by the narrator 's husband is highlighted by Treichler in her opening paragraph to illustrate the significance and informality of the diagnosis and its unreliability.
Women with mental illnesses in the 1800s were not taken very seriously. They were often told to get some rest, and they would be fine. Taking rest involved being alone for a long period of time and doing nothing at all. This is precisely what happened to the narrator in The Yellow Wallpaper. Little did doctors understand that isolation and sitting idly can cause mental illnesses to get worse.
My reading response was over “Ten days in a Mad-House” by Nellie Bly. She was a smart and normal female, well so she believed. Bly went on a mission to spend time in an asylum. She thought she was acting to be admitted into this hospital.
This essay refers to Michel Foucault’s Punish and Discipline and Nellie Bly’s Ten Days in a Madhouse to prove that: the judge gained normalizing authority in society, Blackwell Insane Asylum employees, doctors and nurses, neglected and abused patients rather than rehabilitating them, and Blackwell Insane Asylum functioned as an antiquated punishment complex. The beginning of this essay summarizes the judge’s traditional role in society. Next, it references Nellie Bly’s ‘unvarnished narrative’ to prove 19th century judges gained authority. Then it discusses how late 18th century theoreticians sparked the change in the judge’s traditional role by integrating psychology into punishment. Next it provides examples from Bly’s article to prove that the late 18th century theoreticians’ ideas influenced the judge.
Charlotte Gilman’s short story, ‘The Yellow Wallpaper’, (1899) is a text that describes how suppression of women and their confinement in domestic sphere leads to descend into insanity for escape. The story is written as diary entries of the protagonist, who is living with her husband in an old mansion for the summer. The protagonist, who remains unnamed, is suffering from post-partum depression after the birth of her child and is on ‘rest’ cure by her physician husband. In this paper, I will try to prove that ‘The Yellow Wallpaper’ acts as a subversive text by portraying the protagonist’s “descent into madness” as a result of the suppression that women faced in Victorian period.