Women In The Yellow Wallpaper

Men and women have been treated differently throughout history. In the 19th century, manual labor was much more prominent than it is today. It is possible that women were viewed as less than men because men traditionally did manual labor. They were considered as the overall weaker sex. Women’s mental state were believed to be weaker and more prone to mental health issues. These fragile women were often overlooked when came to mental illnesses. A woman with severe depression may just be considered sad, or she could just be overworked. It was rarely considered as serious of an illness as it is today. A woman with a mental illness was often overlooked and not treated properly. Mental illness could have been looked at as just another weakness that women have. The Yellow Wallpaper exhibits exactly how women were treated at this time. She may well have been suffering from postpartum depression, yet she was told to rest and wait to be better. She could not get excited or else she may relapse because she was so fragile. It is constantly mentioned how weak she is, and that is what society believed at that point in time. The Yellow Wallpaper was a work that showcased the malpractice of society with

It is a firsthand account of a mentally ill woman from this time. She recalls that “[A doctor] sent me home with solemn advice to ‘live a domestic a life as far as possible,’ to ‘have but two hours ‘intellectual life a day,’ and 'never to touch pen, brush or pencil again as long as I lived.’" (Gilman 968). A credible doctor believed that if a woman could just rest then her ailment would just fade away. That clearly shows how women were viewed at this time. The fact that society thought of women as fragile little minds that should not stress too much or think too hard shows just how society negligent society can