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Postpartum Depression In The Yellow Wallpaper By Charlotte Perkins Gilman

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Charlotte Perkins Gilman used her own postpartum depression to create a robust narrative about a woman who realizes that there is more then one way of feeling trapped. In "The Yellow Wallpaper" there is an unequal relationship between husband and wife. The narrator describes the enclosed feeling of being told what to do and how she should feel. "Locked away in a mental prison of her husband's machination, the protagonist of Charlotte Perkins Gilman's "The Yellow Wallpaper" is the embodiment of the struggles faced by women in seeking freedom of thought" (Andrew). This story is based in the late 1800's when women were often known as dependents and followers of men. At that time, men were seen as dominant and women were viewed as submissive. …show more content…

He becomes much like a woman himself, fainting and losing the prideful power he used to possess. This shows how much built up anguish she has attained from being left alone day after day to "heal". Her Husband was not severely concerned about her well-being or the fact that she was losing touch with reality. She became so fixated upon the wallpaper that she saw it "move" and dance about. Her imagination grew intensely wild and, in the end, left her deranged. Jane's hallucinations involved women being trapped in the pattern of the wallpaper just as she has felt enclosed in the room she so much despised. The women that she visualizes within the paper are helpless and cannot leave just as she cannot leave that room. "It was not intended to drive people crazy, but to save people from being driven crazy, and it worked" (Gilman). After writing this story, "The Yellow Wallpaper" was seen more of a scary tale then a cry out for mental illness awareness. At the time, it was published many people were not aware of incidents such as this and it was scary to think that this could happen. After being rediscovered in the late 1970's this story was able to make a better impact on its audience and was understood to a better extent. Mental illness had been researched more effectively and was now acknowledge by the

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