Introduction
One of the reasons The Yellow Wallpaper has such a high intellectual and literary value is that Charlotte Perkins Gilman successfully conveys an in-depth understanding of what should be regarded as the emergence of one’s mental illness. In this story, Gilman manages to demonstrate her genuine skills as a psychologist who saw the level of theoretical underdevelopment of psychiatry in the late 19th century. In particular, she highlights the flaws of traditional mental treatment approaches and the gender bias common during that time.
Short Story Analysis from Historical and Psychological Perspectives
According to the first few lines of Gilman’s novel, the couple’s decision to spend the summer in a remote estate was made in part to aid the narrator’s mental health since she wouldn’t have to deal with the rigors of socialization. John continued to dismiss his wife’s mental concerns despite the fact that he was aware of some strange developments in her behavior: “You see, he does not believe I am sick!” (Gilman 1).
The narrator partially explains why John continued to refer to his wife’s cries for aid in a profoundly arrogant manner despite being an excellent physician. As can be seen in the narration, “John does not know how much I really suffer. He knows there is no reason to suffer, and that satisfies him” (Gilman 2). This observation from the narrator enables us to comprehend the reason behind John’s failure to advise his wife to undergo conceptually suitable therapy, which led to the creation of specific conditions that allowed her to continue spiraling toward insanity.
John reportedly held the same view as the majority of contemporary doctors, which is that some people’s tendency to act in a blatantly neurotic way is because they simply do not make enough conscious effort to hide their visibly observable mental anguish. Unfortunately, at a given period in history, it never occurred to doctors that an individual’s consciousness is actually determined by the unconscious parts of that person’s psyche’s functioning, not the other way around. Because of this, even though the narrator showed increasingly more signs of her mental health deteriorating during her time at the estate, John was at a loss for what to do and advised his wife to pursue a reclusive lifestyle in the hopes that it would calm her down.
Gilman’s narrative showcases another factor that prevented John from correctly diagnosing his wife and saving his loved one from the ominous outcome. This is because John never even tried to question the misconception of his biased attitude toward women as a physician who ought to put constant effort into broadening his intellectual horizons. John believed that the narrator’s worries simply confirmed his wife’s natural tendency to occasionally become hysterical, just as it was the issue with all women. The protagonist plaintively comments that if a husband “assures friends and relatives that there is really nothing the matter with one but temporary nervous depression – a slight hysterical tendency – what is one to do?” (Gilman 2). Understandably, such an incorrect initial physician’s disposition also contributed to the story’s sad outcome.
Conclusion
Overall, it would not be an exaggeration to claim that The Yellow Wallpaper is a particularly potent critique of the theories that formerly underpinned American approaches to treating mental health problems in the 19th century. These methods seemed to be arrogantly blind in addition to being scientifically invalid. This assertion is accurate given that John, a highly skilled doctor, allowed his wife’s minor sadness to progress into full-blown schizophrenia.
Work Cited
Gilman, Charlotte Perkins. “The Yellow Wallpaper.” National Library of Medicine, 1892. Web.