“The Yellow Wallpaper,” by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, is a fascinating story about a woman who struggles with her mental health in a facility that is supposed to help her get better. The story was written at a time when the roles of women were beginning to change; however, the ideas of submission and domesticity were still prevalent. Gilman brings to light a variety of ideas about women’s roles in the nineteenth century through her story. Her work was used as a critique against the expectation that women should submit to their husbands, the struggles of mental health, and the struggles of motherhood. Gilman’s first critique of women’s roles in the nineteenth century was about the expectation that women should submit to their husbands. At the beginning of the story the main character explains, “Personally, I disagree with their ideas. Personally, I believe that congenial work, with excitement and change, would do me good” (Gilman 317). The woman is explaining how her husband (and brother) is a physician and is making decisions about her illness with no regard for how she feels about it. She disagrees with the way he is treating her disorder. However, because of the …show more content…
Throughout the story, the woman talks about a child that she does not get to see while she is in the facility. She says, “Such a dear baby! And yet I cannot be with him, it makes me so nervous” (319). The woman clearly loves her child; however, she does not feel that she is the best person to take care of it because of her nervous disorder – which is now known as Post-Partum Depression. The relationship the narrator has with the yellow wallpaper shows her struggle with the way she feels about her baby. In that period, women were expected to care for their children. However, the narrator struggles with those feelings because of depression and that drives her personification of the woman trapped in the