Definition In the yellow wallpaper, the husband of the narrator prescribes to her something which is referred to as yellow cure, even though this rest cure is not explicitly mentioned in the yellow wallpaper. His husband, John, who is a doctor, has diagnosed her with a nervous condition or a mild hysterical tendency.
What is the yellow cure in the Yellow Wallpaper?
In the yellow wallpaper, the husband of the narrator prescribes to her something which is referred to as yellow cure, even though this rest cure is not explicitly mentioned in the yellow wallpaper. His husband, John, who is a doctor, has diagnosed her with a nervous condition or a mild hysterical tendency.
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 role of the husband in the Yellow Wallpaper?
In the beginning of 'The Yellow Wallpaper,' the narrator describes her husband as a kind of saintly caretaker. By the end of the narrative, he becomes a kind of prison guard that she has to escape. We'll learn about the role of the husband in Gilman's story.
What did Mitchell do after the Yellow Wallpaper?
Mitchell continued his methods, and as late as 1908 – 16 years after "The Yellow Wallpaper" was published – was interested in creating entire hospitals devoted to the "rest cure" so that his treatments would be more widely accessible.
What does John prescribe his wife in The Yellow Wallpaper?
After separating from her husband, Charlotte Perkins Gilman wrote “The Yellow Wall-Paper,” during a heat wave in Pasadena, California in the summer of 1890. She took two days to complete the shocking story. The narrator is a woman prescribed the rest cure by her husband John, a physician.
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”.
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.
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.
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 mental illness does the woman in The Yellow Wallpaper have?
temporary nervous depression“The Yellow Wallpaper” takes place in the 1890's America. The story is about a woman who suffers from temporary nervous depression and is treated for that diagnosis by her husband John, a physician. As the story proceeds her mental state deteriorates until it reaches a state of madness.
What was Weir Mitchell's rest cure?
Weir Mitchell, a wealthy and influential Philadelphia neurologist, created the rest cure, a regimen of forced bed rest, restricted diet, and a combination of massage and electrical muscle stimulation in place of exercise.
What does the ending of The Yellow Wallpaper mean?
At the end of the story, the narrator believes that the woman has come out of the wallpaper. This indicates that the narrator has finally merged fully into her psychosis, and become one with the house and domesticated discontent.
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.
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 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.
Who wrote the Yellow Wallpaper?
Yellow wallpaper “Yellow Wallpaper” is a short story written by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, who is facing a dark world where a woman falls into severe after birth depression. Charlotte deals ]
What is the yellow cure?
In the yellow wallpaper, the husband of the narrator prescribes to her something which is referred to as yellow cure , even though this rest cure is not explicitly mentioned in the yellow wallpaper. His husband, John, who is a doctor, has diagnosed her with a nervous condition or a mild hysterical tendency.
What does the wallpaper symbolize in the crusader?
One strategy crusader uses is that the wallpaper as a emblem of the narrators confinement. The wallpaper can also be seen to symbolize the narrators mind. once ages, the speaker ]
What is the isolation process of the narrator?
The isolation process that the narrator receives and is one of the factors that contribute to the rest cure and enlightened the mind that made her move away from the oppression of her husband through the diagnosis of the rest cure and the inability to think and do anything of her own.
Who invented the rest cure?
The history of the rest cure. This cure was invented towards the end of the 19th century by Silas Weir Mitchell, who was an American neurosurgeon and became widely used in both USA and the UK in the early 20th century.
Was Mitchell's period a disease?
However, during Mitchell’s period, the condition was purely a disease and was known to affect women exclusively. Mitchell, developed several crude misconceptions about the situation and therefore he was known to be very unsympathetic to patients who he diagnosed with the case in the use of rest cure.
What is the yellow wallpaper?
“The Yellow Wallpaper” shows that mental illness is not a new phenomenon even though it was not a legitimate diagnosis or distinguished from insanity in the nineteenth century. ...
Why does the narrator see hallucinations at the end of the story?
The insomnia alone could cause the hallucinations the narrator sees at the end of the story. Hallucinations are also typical of postpartum psychosis, a more intense and longer lasting form of postpartum depression. “The Yellow Wallpaper” is still an extremely resonant story.
Is the Yellow Wallpaper a feminist book?
by Mekayla Trout. “The Yellow Wallpaper” is traditionally considered a feminist text, with scholars reading feminism in the way the narrator rips down the wallpaper that is symbolic of the heavy expectations on nineteenth century women. However, Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s work also explores the experience of a mother suffering from ...
What is the Yellow Wallpaper?
"The Yellow Wallpaper" provided feminists the tools to interpret literature in different ways.
When was the Yellow Wallpaper first published?
" The Yellow Wallpaper " (original title: "The Yellow Wall-paper. A Story") is a short story by American writer Charlotte Perkins Gilman, first published in January 1892 in The New England Magazine. It is regarded as an important early work ...
What is the relationship between the narrator and the wallpaper in the story?
The relationship between the narrator and the wallpaper within the story parallels Gilman's relationship to the press. The protagonist describes the wallpaper as having "sprawling flamboyant patterns committing every artistic sin".
When is the next episode of The Yellow Wallpaper?
The adaptation, which was dedicated to the #metoo movement, aired on The Sonic Society during its August 11, 2019 episode.
What is Gilman's work about women?
Gilman's works challenge the social construction of women in patriarchal medical discourse who are seen as "silent, powerless, and passive". At the time in which her works take place, between 1840 and 1890, women were exceedingly defined as lesser than—sickly and weak.
What does the yellow wallpaper symbolize?
The Yellow Wallpaper is a short story in which Charlotte Perkins Gilman, the author, symbolizes the control of women and their subjugation in society around that era. The narrator, Perkin’s main character in the story, suffers from postpartum depression and was prescribed by her husband, John, a physician, bed rest. Later, the narrator is placed in a room with a yellow wallpaper. The narrator believes that behind the wallpaper she can visualize a woman. Her obsession grows, finds clues towards what she can make out of the women and why the women is there in the first place. Finally, when her husband wanted to check up on her, he fainted from the appearance of his wife and the narrator liberated herself as she rebelled against the control of her husband.
What does the narrator believe about the wallpaper?
Later, the narrator is placed in a room with a yellow wallpaper. The narrator believes that behind the wallpaper she can visualize a woman. Her obsession grows, finds clues towards what she can make out of the women and why the women is there in the first place.
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.
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.
Why does the narrator feel guilty about contradicting John?
A third reason the narrator feels guilty about contradicting John is because he's manipulative. He makes her feel as if she's being unreasonable, whether she is or not, and treats her like a child. When the narrator asks if they can change the wallpaper, John predicts that if he did this for her, she'd also want to change the furniture, window dressings, and other fixtures. Even though she's actually only asked for one thing, he makes her feel as if she's excessively demanding and selfish, condescendingly referring to her as a 'blessed little goose,'' as if she were a precocious child.
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.
Does John respect his wife's views?
Finally, John doesn't respect any of his wife's views, always believing that his own perspective is the superior one. The narrator notes that he ''has no patience with faith. . . and he scoffs openly at any talk of things not to be felt and seen and put down in figures.''.
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.
Definition
- In the yellow wallpaper, the husband of the narrator prescribes to her something which is referred to as yellow cure, even though this rest cure is not explicitly mentioned in the yellow wallpaper. His husband, John, who is a doctor, has diagnosed her with a nervous condition or a mild hysterical tendency. According to the narrator, the diagnosis i...
The History of The Rest Cure
- This cure was invented towards the end of the 19th century by Silas Weir Mitchell, who was an American neurosurgeon and became widely used in both USA and the UK in the early 20th century. This cure was developed during the civil war when the trireme of soldiers who experienced severe nerve damage from bullets and therefore developed wounds (Golden 22). Th…
Importance of This Rest Cure
- Rest cure had a lot of significance in the treatment of a psychological disorder in an individual. It is not to be associated with particular sex since it helps to cure both the female and the male genders from brain injuries and other psychological disorders. However, the condition was misused to undermine women in the society and made them remain low through isolating them …
Relationship to Text
- Based on the experience by the narrator, to contextualize this cure to the context of the Yellow Wallpaper story, Gilman viewed her husband as her physician at the beginning and placed all her faith in him. The treatment she experienced was intolerable, and it was accompanied by cruelty. She, therefore, realized that it was a form of manipulation by men who suffocated her during th…
Overview
"The Yellow Wallpaper" (original title: "The Yellow Wall-paper. A Story") is a short story by American writer Charlotte Perkins Gilman, first published in January 1892 in The New England Magazine. It is regarded as an important early work of American feminist literature for its illustration of the attitudes towards mental and physical health of women in the 19th century.
Interpretation
Gilman used her writing to explore the role of women in America around 1900. She expanded upon many issues, such as the lack of a life outside the home and the oppressive forces of the patriarchal society. Through her work, Gilman paved the way for writers such as Alice Walker and Sylvia Plath.
In "The Yellow Wallpaper," she portrays the narrator's insanity as a way to prote…
Plot summary
The story describes a young woman and her husband. He imposes a rest cure on her when she suffers "temporary nervous depression" after the birth of their baby. They spend the summer at a colonial mansion, where the narrator is largely confined to an upstairs nursery. The story makes striking use of an unreliable narrator in order to gradually reveal the degree to which her husband has imprisoned her: she describes torn wallpaper, barred windows, metal rings in the walls, a flo…
Dramatic adaptations
• Agnes Moorehead performed a version twice, in 1948 and 1957, on the radio program Suspense.
• The CBC Radio drama Vanishing Point did a radio version of Mary Vingoe's adaptation for the stage at Toronto's Nightwood Theatre in 1985.
• An audio book of "The Yellow Wallpaper" (1997) was produced by Durkin Hayes and read by Winifred Phillips. This Radio Tales version can also be heard on Sonic Theater on XM Radio.
See also
• Maria: or, The Wrongs of Woman – an unfinished novel about a woman imprisoned in an asylum
• Changeling – a film about a woman imprisoned in a mental hospital
Bibliography
• Carnley, Peter (2001). The Yellow Wallpaper and other sermons HarperCollins, Sydney ISBN 1-86371-799-4
• Ford, Karen (Autumn 1985). ""The Yellow Wallpaper" and Women's Discourse". Tulsa Studies in Women's Literature. 4 (2): 309–314. doi:10.2307/463709. JSTOR 463709.
• Gilman, Charlotte Perkins (1892). The Yellow Wallpaper (1997 ed.). Dover Publications.
Further reading
• Bak, John S. (1994). "Escaping the Jaundiced Eye: Foucauldian Panopticism in Charlotte Perkins Gilman's 'The Yellow Wallpaper'", Studies in Short Fiction 31.1 (Winter 1994), pp. 39–46.
• Barkat, Sara N. (2020). "Literary Analysis: The Yellow Wall-Paper Affects Us All", at Tweetspeak Poetry (Spring 2020)
External links
• The Yellow Wall Paper at Project Gutenberg
• The Yellow Wallpaper public domain audiobook at LibriVox
• Full Text of The Yellow Wallpaper. Retrieved January 22, 2008.
• Full text of The Yellow Wallpaper at the CUNY Library