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Mental Health Deterioration In The Yellow Wallpaper

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The Yellow Wallpaper Main Character Mental Health Deterioration
“Asylums. Electro-Shock Therapy. Skull drills. Pills. Exorcism. Isolation. Lobotomies. Many of the drastic procedures that have been put in place to relieve a person of mental illness are only successful in creating ‘vegetables’ out of patients, not curing their illness but making them ghosts of their previous selves.” (History Cooperative) In the Yellow Wallpaper the main character's condition deteriorates through the beginning, middle, and end of the short story.
In the beginning of the story the main character describes something that is strange about the house. According to the woman “That spoils my ghostliness, I am afraid, but I don’t care - there is something strange about this house - I can feel it.” (648) Little to her knowledge that idea of something strange about the house will continue to grow. The main character acknowledged that she has her hourly medications that she takes during the day “I have a schedule prescription for each hour of the day; he takes all care from me, and so I feel basely ungrateful not to value …show more content…

I find it hovering in the dining-room, skulking in the parlor, hiding in the hall, lying in wait for me on the stairs.” (654) While believing that something is in the house, she also states that she sees a woman watching her in the daytime “I see her in that long shaded lane, creeping up and down. I see her in those dark grape arbors, creeping all around the garden.” While the main character states that a woman is watching her in the daytime, she also claims that she sees someone in the wall paper trying to pull her in, resulting with the woman locking herself in the bedroom and tearing the wallpaper down while her husband furiously and desperately begs for her to unlock the

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