What is the narrator's illness in the Yellow Wallpaper?
The narrator of "The Yellow Wallpaper" begins the story by discussing her move to a beautiful estate for the summer. Her husband, John, is also her doctor, and the move is meant in part to help the narrator overcome her “illness,” which she explains as nervous depression, or nervousness, following the birth of their baby.
What is the yellow paper in the Yellow Wallpaper?
The Yellow Wallpaper The "Nervous" Diseases and Hysteria: Medical Predecessors to Neurasthenia. In the “The Yellow Wallpaper,” the narrator is diagnosed with neurasthenia, a disease characterized by so-called “nervous exhaustion” and extreme excitability.
What does her obsession with the Yellow Wallpaper in her bedroom?
Her obsession with the yellow wallpaper in her bedroom marks her descent into psychosis from her depression throughout the story. The narrator of "The Yellow Wallpaper" begins the story by discussing her move to a beautiful estate for the summer.
How does the narrator feel about the wallpaper in the story?
The narrator and her husband move into a large room that has ugly, yellow wallpaper that the narrator criticizes. She asks her husband if they can change rooms and move downstairs, and he rejects her. The more she stays in the room, the more the narrator’s fascination with the hideous wallpaper grows.
What is John's diagnosis and recommended cure The Yellow Wallpaper?
The narrator of “The Yellow Wallpaper” is prescribed a “rest cure” as a form of treatment to her “temporary nervous depression,” as diagnosed by her physician husband, John.
What is the narrator's illness in The Yellow Wallpaper?
In Charlotte Perkins Gilman's short story “The Yellow Wallpaper,” the female narrator goes through a temporary nervous depression due to childbirth; in an attempt to help, her husband prescribes for her a treatment where she is confined to an old nursery room with yellow wallpaper for three months.
How does the narrator's illness free her in The Yellow Wallpaper?
(Pg. 8, column 1) She is freed by her illness by becoming the woman in the wallpaper, “ I always lock the door when I creep by daylight”. (Pg. 9, column 1) She sets herself free by tearing the wallpaper down and giving in to her illness.
How does John help his wife get over her illness Yellow Wallpaper?
The narrator reveals how John truly believes that she can control her condition. She must ignore unwanted thoughts, such as her hatred of the wallpaper. However, by refusing to get rid of the wallpaper, he makes her fight all the harder. He could ease her struggle by repapering.
What was the rest cure used to treat?
Noticing that many nervous women looked thin and anemic, Mitchell assumed that their physical and mental health would improve once they gained weight and red blood cells. The function of the rest cure was to help patients gain fat and blood as rapidly as possible, through a rich diet and minimal exertion.
How was mental illness treated in the 1800s?
In early 19th century America, care for the mentally ill was almost non-existent: the afflicted were usually relegated to prisons, almshouses, or inadequate supervision by families. Treatment, if provided, paralleled other medical treatments of the time, including bloodletting and purgatives.
How does John generally treat the narrator?
John is dismissive of the narrator in "The Yellow Wallpaper." He is her husband and also acts as her doctor, and in her first journal entry,...
How does John try to help his wife get over her illness?
John's attitude toward his wife and the term of illnesses that he thinks her illness can be cured in a short period of time by isolating his wife and putting her in a room where she is alone.
How does the narrator's mental health deteriorate in The Yellow Wallpaper?
As the story progresses, the narrator's notice of the wallpaper transforms into an obsession, causing her mental state to once again deteriorate, eventually resulting in her complete psychological collapse.
How does the narrator's husband treat her in The Yellow Wallpaper?
In the beginning of the story, the narrator has a very loving and appreciative view of John. She says how he is always so thoughtful to her and how he loves her and wants her to get better: “He is very careful and loving, and hardly lets me stir without special direction” (Gilman 320) and also “Dear John!
How would you describe John's treatment of his wife?
He cares for his wife, but the unequal relationship in which they find themselves prevents him from truly understanding her and her problems. By treating her as a “case” or a “wife” and not as a person with a will of her own, he helps destroy her, which is the last thing he wants.
What does the narrator in The Yellow Wallpaper believe would help her recovery?
In the story, John prevents his wife from doing what she feels is right to help her recover. She believes that working, writing and excitement can help her recover from her depression, but her husband thinks resting is the best way out of her sickness.
What is the yellow wallpaper?
In the “ The Yellow Wallpaper ,” the narrator is diagnosed with neurasthenia, a disease characterized by so-called “nervous exhaustion” and extreme excitability. The narrator is prescribed S. Weir Mitchell’s “rest cure” in an effort to calm her nervous ...
Why is the narrator forced to endure the rest cure?
Then again, perhaps she is forced to endure the "rest cure" in order to quell her creative inclinations and allow her to take on the role of a proper wife to her husband.
What are the symptoms of a nervous system disorder?
These nervous diseases were associated with numerous symptoms, such as pale urine, a visible swelling of the stomach, headaches, fainting, palpitations of the heart, long faintings, wind in the stomach and intestines, frequent sighing, giddiness, watching, convulsive crying, convulsive laughing, despair, and melancholy.
Why did women become victims of nervous diseases?
Although men could also suffer from the nervous diseases, women remained the primary victims because of their physical and mental inferiority to men. In the nineteenth century, the idea of “nervous diseases” in women underwent transformation and became categorized as a new disease, called “hysteria.”. Stemming from the Greek word ...
Why is nervousness called a disease?
In the 18th century, this type of illness was categorized as one of the “nervous diseases.”. Named because of their connection to the nerves, or emotions , the nervous diseases were particularly common among women.
Is the narrator a new mother?
While the narrator eventually shows elements of each of these diseases, it is unclear if the narrator is ill when the story begins.
What is the narrator's quote in The Yellow Wallpaper?
The Yellow Wallpaper: Narrator’s Quotes. John does not know how much I really suffer. He knows there is no reason to suffer, and that satisfies him. Of course it is only nervousness. The Yellow Wallpaper, entry 2.
What is the significance of Mary in the Yellow Wallpaper?
However, the significance of the character is underestimated sometimes. The narrator mentions how great Mary is with her child. The readers feel relieved because she can take care of the little girl after the young mother’s health is too unstable.
What is the idea of Jane instead of Jennie?
She can no longer tell the difference between her real self and the imaginary woman. On the other hand, there is a suggestion that the narrator made a typo and wrote Jane instead of Jennie.
Why is the anonymous figure at the top of the characters list?
The anonymous figure is placed at the top of the characters list because she is the short story’s narrator. We can tell that the narrator is from the upper-middle class. Her family can afford such a house, but she’s still surprised how. Not so long after giving birth, she seems to have postpartum depression.
Who is Jennie in the Yellow Wallpaper?
Jennie in The Yellow Wallpaper. In The Yellow Wallpaper, Jennie, John’s sister, serves as a housekeeper for the family. Moreover, sometimes she helps to take care of the narrator. Genuinely worried about the health of John’s wife, she notices the change in her.
Does the narrator keep a diary?
However, she secretly keeps a diary where she writes down her thoughts and events. We can suggest that previously she had been a writer of some kind. The narrator possesses a very developed imagination and creative writing skills. With each day, her depression is getting worse and worse.
Is it wrong to think the narrator is Jane?
It is not entirely wrong to think that the narrator is Jane. Her words at the end of the story might confirm this. When the woman’s false identity from the wallpaper takes over, she says that she is free despite John “and Jane.”. The idea is that the narrator starts identifying herself with that mysterious figure.
Why does the narrator turn to the yellow wallpaper?
The narrator, because she doesn’t have anything else to think about or other mental stimulation, turns to the yellow wallpaper as something to analyze and interpret. The pattern eventually comes into focus as bars, and then she sees a woman inside the pattern . This represents feeling trapped.
What is the Yellow Wallpaper?
" The Yellow Wallpaper" is often cited as an early feminist work that predates a woman’s right to vote in the United States. The author was involved in first-wave feminism, and her other works questioned ...
When did Perkins Gilman write the Yellow Wallpaper?
The couple separated in 1888, the year that Perkins Gilman wrote her first book, Art Gems for the Home and Fireside. She later wrote "The Yellow Wallpaper" in 1890, while she was in a relationship with Adeline Knapp, and living apart from her legal husband. "The Yellow Wallpaper" was published in 1892, and in 1893 she published a book ...
Why does the narrator put her journal away?
On more than one occasion, she hurries to put her journal away because John is approaching .
What does the narrator feel after hosting family?
After hosting family for July 4th, the narrator expresses feeling even worse and more exhausted. She struggles to do daily activities, and her mental state is deteriorating. John encourages her to rest more, and the narrator hides her writing from him because he disapproves.
Why was writing so revolutionary?
Writing itself was revolutionary, since it would create a sense of identity, and was thought to be too much for the naturally fragile women.
When was the Yellow Wallpaper published?
Publication. "The Yellow Wallpaper" was first published in January 1892 in New England Magazine. During Perkins Gilman's lifetime, the role of women in American society was heavily restricted both socially and legally. At the time of its publication, women were still twenty-six years away from gaining the right to vote .
More Information
The narrator of The Yellow Wallpaper is an unnamed housewife. Her husband confined the woman in a colonial mansion. The author describes her illness as a “temporary nervous depression—a slight hysterical tendency.” Its symptoms are increased mood swings which become worse because o isolation in a small room.
Cite this page
Academic.Tips. (2021) 'What Event Caused the Narrator’s Mental Illness in The Yellow Wallpaper'. 3 June.
How does the narrator start to gain sanity?
The narrator starts to begin in sane and gain sanity when she starts trip of the yellow wallpaper off-the-wall symbolizing her losing her mind. What also contributed to her sanity was when John would leave to work and left her with the nanny and she would not eat until her husband came contributing to her condition.
Why is the ending of the story seen as a victory in both defeat for the narrator?
The ending of the story is seen as a victory in both defeat for the narrator because she can finally free from the room she no longer wanted to be in and can be in a right State of mind. The way her situation is similar to the woman in the wallpaper is that the woman's are stuck in a wallpaper such as she is stuck in the room ...
Epidemiology
Signs and symptoms
- These nervous diseases were associated with numerous symptoms, such as pale urine, a visible swelling of the stomach, headaches, fainting, palpitations of the heart, long faintings, wind in the stomach and intestines, frequent sighing, giddiness, watching, convulsive crying, convulsive laughing, despair, and melancholy. In other words, any sort of personal dissatisfaction or depres…
Origin
- In the nineteenth century, the idea of nervous diseases in women underwent transformation and became categorized as a new disease, called hysteria. Stemming from the Greek word for uterus, hysteria was immediately presented as a solely feminine ailment. Any activity of the uterus, specifically menstruation, childbirth, or sexual intercourse, was thought to accentuate a woman…
Classification
- As a disease, neurasthenia has clear similarities to both the nervous diseases and hysteria and can be recognized as a relative, if not descendant, of the other two. Neurasthenia was first described in 1869 as a disease characterized by depression, extreme anxiety, and fatigue.
Symptoms
- When the narrator is diagnosed with neurasthenia, it is significant to note that she also exhibits symptoms of the two other diseases, particularly as the yellow wallpaper begins to affect her. Her fatigue and depression correspond closely to the symptoms of neurasthenia. At the same time, her constant melancholy and mental and emotional agitation ...
Style
- While the narrator eventually shows elements of each of these diseases, it is unclear if the narrator is ill when the story begins. In the first few paragraphs, her only palpable symptoms are mild depression and a desire to express her creativity through writing; she certainly does not seem to be the typical patient for the \"rest cure.\"
Analysis
- Whether or not she is actually ill, the narrator is still immediately forced to accept a diagnosis that insists that her melancholy restlessness is due to weak nerves, emotional incapacity, and her feminine nature. Whether the diagnosis actually corresponds to the symptoms of the nervous diseases, hysteria, or neurasthenia, the fact remains that the narrator is forced to undergo a trea…