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
Silas Weir Mitchell
Silas Weir Mitchell was an American physician, scientist, novelist, and poet. He is considered the father of medical neurology, and he discovered of causalgia and erythromelalgia, and pioneered the rest cure.
What is John's diagnosis in the Yellow Wallpaper?
In the ''The Yellow Wallpaper,'' a short story by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, the narrator has a husband named John who's a physician. He's diagnosed her with what he calls a 'slight hysterical tendency,' but refuses to consider that something different or more serious may be wrong.
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.
Who is the Yellow Wallpaper?
That cry, uttered by the unnamed protagonist of Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s 1892 short story “The Yellow Wallpaper,” could just as well be that of Abby Norman, author of Ask Me About My Uterus, or Porochista Khakpour, author of Sick. Both memoirs, published this year, focus on women whose physical symptoms are downplayed and disbelieved.
What is the disease in the yellow paper?
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 treatment is prescribed for the narrator of The Yellow Wallpaper?
Gilman was treated with the “rest cure”, devised by Mitchell, as is the protagonist of the story; like an infant, she was dosed, fed at regular intervals and above all ordered to rest. Mitchell instructed Gilman to live as domestic a life as possible “and never touch pen, brush or pencil as long as you live”.
What was John treatment in The Yellow Wallpaper?
Though John seems like the obvious villain of “The Yellow Wallpaper,” the story does not allow us to see him as wholly evil. John's treatment of the narrator's depression goes terribly wrong, but in all likelihood he was trying to help her, not make her worse.
What does the doctor prescribe for the protagonist in The Yellow Wallpaper?
We see this method applied to our protagonist, who is forbidden to “work” until she is well. She is given phosphates and tonics and is prescribed not to think of her situation.
What cure did Dr Mitchell prescribe for Gilman?
rest cureA few years later, Charlotte Perkins Gilman was prescribed Mitchell's rest cure for postpartum depression, and her fictionalized account of its effects in "The Yellow Wallpaper" depicts a woman descending slowly but surely into insanity.
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 the narrator's husband treat her in The Yellow Wallpaper?
The narrator insisted to her husband that she was sick, but he never took her serious instead, he confined her in an isolated place away from home and her child.
What is the name of the cure John and the doctor's are forcing upon the narrator?
Weir Mitchell is the real life champion of the 'rest cure' that is being enforced on the narrator, and was the actual doctor who treated Charlotte Perkins Gilman, the author of this story. While John is away, the narrator walks in the garden or lies in her room, staring at the wallpaper.
How does Jennie treat the narrator in The Yellow Wallpaper?
Jennie acts as housekeeper for the couple. Her presence and her contentment with a domestic role intensify the narrator's feelings of guilt over her own inability to act as a traditional wife and mother.
What are phosphites in medicine?
Phosphates are used as dietary supplements for patients who are unable to get enough phosphorus in their regular diet, usually because of certain illnesses or diseases. Phosphate is the drug form (salt) of phosphorus.
What is the West cure?
Yet it's a fundamental part of the origins of the modern western and the mythology of the West. The West Cure was a strenuous rest, a mind- and body-toughening escape from the supposedly deleterious effects of civilization.
Why is the rest cure prescribed to Jane?
In addition to narcotics, Mitchell prescribed a rest cure to calm them and limit movement that would keep them from healing. The cure involved four basic elements: bed rest, force-feeding and overfeeding, massage, and electrical stimulation of the muscles.
What did the rest cure do?
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.
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 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 .
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 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.
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 is the yellow wallpaper?
“The Yellow Wallpaper” comes from Gilman’s own struggle with a “nervous disorder,” a depression for which she was treated by a physician named S. Weir Mitchell.
What was Mitchell's signature cure?
Mitchell was entirely interested in the body, not what women had to say about their own symptoms. His signature “rest cure” relied on severe restriction of the body. Patients were kept completely isolated, fed rich, creamy foods and forbidden to do any kind of activity, from reading a book to going on a walk.
What was Gilman treated with?
As a result, Gilman was treated with what Thrailkill calls “a model of disease articulated through experience with male bodies.”. Mitchell likened the strain of the nineteenth-century home to that of war and his female patients to vampires who sucked the life out of everyone around them.
Who bucked hard against her doctor's misogynistic reign?
It was a new diagnosis at the time, and when physicians treated women with complaints for which they could find no obvious source, they turned to new diagnostic techniques and treatments. Charlotte Perkins Gilman bucked hard against her treatment and her doctor’s misogynistic reign.
Who wrote the Yellow Wallpaper?
“These nervous troubles are dreadfully depressing”, wrote Charlotte Perkins Gilman in her short story, The Yellow Wallpaper. Though later gaining recognition as a journalist and social critic rather than an author of fiction, Gilman is best known for this brief and extraordinary piece of writing published in 1892.
Who was Gilman's doctor?
Though many details are changed, the story is semi-autobiographical, drawing on Gilman’s own health crisis and particularly her fraught relationship with Dr Silas Weir Mitchell – who carved a reputation for treating nervous exhaustion following his experiences as a Civil War doctor – and who was brought in to treat her in 1886.
Does Hilary Marland work for a company?
Hilary Marland does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.
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 is the yellow wallpaper?
In the ''The Yellow Wallpaper,'' a short story by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, the narrator has a husband named John who's a physician. He's diagnosed her with what he calls a 'slight hysterical tendency,' but refuses to consider that something different or more serious may be wrong. Hysteria in the nineteenth century wasn't well understood as a psychological disorder and was incorrectly thought to primarily afflict women. The treatment for perceived hysteria was the rest cure. Used from 1873 to about 1925, it typically involved confining women to their beds, where they were often bathed and fed, forbidding them to social interactions or work.
When was the hysteria cure used?
Used from 1873 to about 1925, it typically involved confining women to their beds, where they were often bathed and fed, forbidding them to social interactions or work. Charlotte Perkins Gilman, who was misdiagnosed with hysteria, found this cure inhumanely oppressive.
What does the narrator believe about the wallpaper pattern?
The narrator's windows have bars, and the narrator believes that a woman in the wallpaper pattern is also shaking its imprisoning bars. She comes to identify with this woman, believing that she herself has escaped from the wallpaper.
Does the narrator agree with John's diagnosis?
The narrator establishes at the outset of the story that she doesn't agree with John's diagnosis or treatment. (Her brother, who is also a physician, agrees with John). The narrator's careful not to contradict John openly. Her husband ''is a physician of high standing,'' as is her brother.
What is the yellow wallpaper?
‘The Yellow Wallpaper’, an 1892 short story by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, has the structure and style of a diary . This is in keeping with what the female narrator tells us: that she can only write down her experiences when her husband John is not around, since he has forbidden her to write until she is well again, believing it will overexcite her. Through a series of short instalments, we learn more about the narrator’s situation, and her treatment at the hands of her doctor husband and her sister-in-law. You can read ‘The Yellow Wallpaper’ here before moving on to our summary and analysis below.
What does the narrator tell us about the wallpaper?
The narrator then tells us that she believes John and Jennie have become ‘affected’ by the wallpaper – that they are losing their minds from being exposed to it. So the narrator begins stripping the yellow wallpaper from the walls, much to the consternation of Jennie.
Is the yellow wallpaper narrated in first person?
The fact that ‘The Yellow Wallpaper’ is narrated in the first person, from the woman’s own perspective and in her own voice, is also a factor: the only access we have to her treatment (or mistreatment) and to her husband’s behaviour and personality is through her: what she tells us and how she tells it to us.
What was Weir Mitchell's treatment for?
More controversially, Mitchell also developed the Rest Cure, a treatment for the now passé diagnoses of neurasthenia (physical and mental exhaustion) and hysteria.
Who is the purveyor of the rest cure?
To celebrate National Poetry Month, we are sharing poems from our collection throughout April. Today, Silas Weir Mitchell (1829–1914) is best known as the purveyor of the Rest Cure, made infamous by Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s short story “ The Yellow Wallpaper .”. But while he was alive, he was renowned as a pioneering doctor ...
What disease did Weir Mitchell discover?
He determined that eyestrain could cause headache, and also discovered the rare vascular pain disorder erythromelalgia, or Weir Mitchell’s disease. 1. “Dr. Mitchell examining a Civil War veteran at the Clinic of the Orthopaedic Hospital, Philadelphia.”. In Burr, Weir Mitchell: His Life and Letters, 1929.
Who wrote "Of those remembered"?
When Mitchell wrote “Of Those Remembered” in 1899, he was no stranger to loss: he had experienced the death of his father (1858), his first wife (1862), his mother (1872), and his sister (1874) in quick succession, along with the deaths of so many Civil War soldiers. 2. Unsignaled, unannounced they visit us.
Where did Weir Mitchell work?
Mitchell began his medical career researching rattlesnake venom. With the outbreak of the Civil War, he shifted focus, beginning work as a contract surgeon at Philadelphia’s Turner’s Lane Hospital, specializing in nervous diseases. “Ward at the Civil War Hospital.”. In Burr, Weir Mitchell: His Life and Letters, 1929.
What is the relationship between the narrator and her husband in The Yellow Wallpaper?
The relationship between the narrator and her husband in "The Yellow Wallpaper" is strained at best. He is acting more like a father or authority figure than a spouse, forcing her to stay in her room and rest when she feels as though some mental stimulation would actually help her. He infantilizes her, laughing at her and calling her pet names. She, meanwhile, grows worse as a result of his "treatment."
Does John the Doctor listen to the patient?
It quickly becomes clear that the doctor-patient relationship has superseded that of husband and wife between them. John appears to be the type of doctor who does not really listen to the patient, but relies entirely on his own medical training for diagnosis and treatment.
Is John in the yellow wallpaper healthy?
The relationship between the narrator and her husband, John, in The Yellow Wallpaper is not exactly a healthy one by twenty-first-century standards. However, it is likely to have been seen as very appropriate to those living at the end of the nineteenth century.
Is the narrator of Yellow Wallpaper reliable?
" The Yellow Wallpaper " has an unreliable narrator, but she becomes progressively less reliable as she descends into depression and insanity. At the beginning of the story, the narrator seems clear and focused. The first thing she reveals about her relationship with her husband is that he laughs at her rather than taking her concerns seriously. She then adds, tellingly, that one expects to be laughed at in a marriage. This suggests that her husband has never treated her as an equal or valued her opinion.
The Narrator
A young, upper-middle-class woman, newly married and a mother, who is undergoing care for depression.
John
The narrator’s husband and her physician. John restricts her behavior as part of her treatment. Unlike his imaginative wife, John is extremely practical, preferring facts and figures to “fancy,” at which he “scoffs openly.” He seems to love his wife, but he does not understand the negative effect his treatment has on her.
Jennie
John’s sister. Jennie acts as housekeeper for the couple. Her presence and her contentment with a domestic role intensify the narrator’s feelings of guilt over her own inability to act as a traditional wife and mother. Jennie seems, at times, to suspect that the narrator is more troubled than she lets on.
Epidemiology
- 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. Because they were thought to have delicate bodies and sensitive minds, women were thought to be extremely susceptible to any disorder that ...
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 are sure signs of the nervous disea…
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…