Rebecca C. Serrano

7 December 2016

Essay #2

Help Received: Bibliography/ Works Cited, MAJ Knepper

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The Intricacies of “The Yellow Wallpaper” and the Rest Cure

 

“The Yellow Wallpaper” is by far one of the most interesting stories that I have ever read, and after doing research into Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s life introduced a whole new aspect of the story, making it more intense and giving it a more disturbing aspect, if that were possible.  The rest cure typically consisted of “enforced bed rest, isolation, force-feeding, and massage” (Felluga. “Anne Stiles). Gilman reached a point in her life after events where she sought the help of Dr. Weis Mitchell, who prescribed her said Cure. Connecting the life experience of Gilman and her encounter with the Rest Cure changes the way “The Yellow Wallpaper” is perceived and interpreted through the actions of the woman in the story. Not only does knowing the background of Gilman’s relationship with the Rest Cure change the interpretation of the story, the reader also questions why the story was written in such a grotesque manner, if it impacts the interpretation from a creepy story to a revolt against the Cure in social commentary.

This short story is a semi-autobiographical reflection on mental illness and a specific treatment to this illness: The Rest Cure. The rest cure was created by Dr. Weis Mitchell, who was considered to be “the greatest nerve specialist in the country” (Felluga. “Anne Stiles). Although the Rest Cure is closely associated with women, it began in Mitchell’s time in the army and his treatment for Civil War veterans (Felluga. “Anne Stiles).  Even with this knowledge of his work with men, Mitchell receives much criticism for his treatment of women. Women who were ‘nervous’ and went to Mitchell for treatment received the Rest Cure, while men who went for the same ailment received another cure: The West Cure. Mitchell would send men out to the west to go “cattle roping, rough riding, hunting, and bonding with other men in rugged frontier locations” (Felluga. “Anne Stiles). Mitchell explains in his book Fat and Blood, that “the class is well known to every physician- nervous women, who as a rule are thin, and lack blood” (9).  In Doctor Patient, Mitchell writes “the women’s desire to be on a level of competition with man and to assume his duties is, I am sure, making mischief” (13).

With all the misogynistic viewpoints that Dr. Mitchell held, one can only imagine the difficulty that Gilman, a feminist, and he had when she approached him for assistance. The development of Gilman’s so called hysteria began after the birth of her daughter, Elizabeth.  Because of this, Gilman was unable to function and be productive, for an individual who wrote and made change for a living, was unhappy when not being productive. Gilman wanted to return to work so badly that she would go to any length to get better, to be productive once again. She then went to Dr. Mitchell and underwent the Rest Cure in 1887. Gilman reflected on this process afterwards in her autobiography, The living Life of Charlotte Perkins Gilman:

I was put to bed and kept there. I was fed, bathed, rubbed, and responded with the vigorous body of twenty-six.  As far as he [Dr. Mitchell] could see, there was nothing wrong with me, so after a month of doing this agreeable treatment he sent me home with this prescription:

“Live as domestic a life as possible. Have your child with you all the time.” (Be it remarked that if I did but dress the baby it left me shaking and crying- certainly far from a healthy companionship for her, to say nothing in the effect on me.) “Lie down an hour after each meal. Have but two hours’ of intellectual life a day. And never touch a pen, brush, or pencils for as long as you live.” (96)

Gilman said that she “came so near the borderline of utter mental ruin that she could see over” (why I wrote the yellow wall paper). This caused the Rest Cure to become controversial and brought scrutiny to Dr. Mitchell.

The Yellow Wallpaper focuses on a woman, who is the narrator, that endures a process similar the Rest Cure. The character’s rest cure was implemented by her husband, who also happened to be a doctor, which consisted of taking “phosphates or phosphites- whichever it is, and other tonics, and journeys, and air, and exercise, and am absolutely forbidden to “work” until I am well again” (648). Her husband repetitively implies that the moved into this home solely into her account.

“The Yellow Wallpaper” shows the progression of insanity from isolation and depression through the relationship between the main character and the wallpaper in the room. Looking at how the paper was describing in the first entry and last entry, shows a progressive insanity that develops through obsession combined with isolation.  In the first entry of the story, the main character speaks of the wall paper as “I never saw a worse paper in my life. One of those sprawling flamboyant patterns committing every artistic sin” (648). The main character begins with a type of uneasiness, almost disgust for the wall paper in the isolated room.  Calling the color “repellant, almost revolting” (649). She continues to describe the wallpaper and its terrible color, as well as her distaste for the room, which could quite possibly be due to the wallpaper. This is a reflection that the narrator had time to truly evaluate the room, and determine the reasoning behind her distaste for the room and specifically the wall paper.

 

In the next entry, the wall paper is once again referred to in her admiration for the room, except for the wallpaper present.  She then describes the torn bits of wallpaper all around, then she notices something, whether it be a new addition or just something she has now noticed due to the ample amount of time in the room. “The floor is scratched and gouged and splintered, the plaster itself is dug out here and there, and this great heavy bed which we found in this room looks as if it had been through wars” (650).  This brief description of the room in the third entry differs from that of the first which had a more positive description of the room and a negative description of the paper. The transition from the first entry to the second, the narrator has evidently spend more time in the room, a reflection of the isolation to the room, she develops more and more intriguing details.

In the following entry, the wallpaper transitions to the one thing in the room that makes her uncomfortable, to the thing that may be the reasoning to her liking the room. She writes “I’m getting really fond of the room in spite of the wallpaper. Perhaps because of the wallpaper” (650).  She spends the rest of the entry trying do decipher the making of the wallpaper. There is no logical pattern to the wall other than the repetition of the print. This action becomes a type of obsession for the woman saying “there are things in that paper that nobody knows but me, or ever will. Behind that outside pattern the dim shapes get clearer and clearer every day” (652).  The woman becomes more and more intrigued and obsessed with deciphering the wallpaper until she decides she has figured out what was behind that first layer of design: a woman. “And it is stooping down and creeping about behind that pattern” (652). The fifth entry, the woman decides that the woman behind the pattern is trying to escape and is shaking the pattern which are bars, keeping her locked in, becoming a mission for the woman to free her. Comparing her emotions in relation to the room and the wallpaper, the narrator becomes more identifiably insane with a type of obsession that develops from the extended time that is spent in the room.

In the next entry, she once again becomes obsessed with the paper, but now protective and defensive.  The woman believes that the paper has begun to affect the other people in the house. She catches the maid in the room with her hand on the wallpaper, and when confronted, Jennie, the maid, says the paper is staining all the clothes and asks her to be careful.  This brings the question as to why is the yellow appearing on the clothes of both her and her husband. If the combination of the stained clothes and the worn strip along the floor at crawling level. If these two are seen together, the way many people have, the woman has grown in insanity and has crawled along the wall repeatedly in both her and her husband’s clothes, and never admits to it, or does not recall the action.  The defensiveness of the woman is also a piece of evidence to the increasing insanity that is expressed in the story through her comment “But I know she was studying the pattern, and I am determined that nobody shall find it out but myself!” (653). The transition from obsession to protection is another level of insanity that can be seen in the entry she has written. The isolation and willingness to sit in the room and look at the wallpaper in such intensity had changed the personality of the narrator to a point of possible hostility.

Another entry that the woman rights, again relates to the color of the paper on the walls relating it to “all the yellow things I ever saw- not beautiful ones like buttercups, but old foul, bad yellow things” (654). She continues to be obsessed with understanding the paper and it is constantly on her mind. She claims to be able to smell the yellow and that it is a smell that has infiltrated every room in the house. I see this as a symbol of her mind constantly thinking about the wallpaper in the room no matter where she goes.

The end of the story has a culmination of the increased insanity and the wallpaper. She locks herself in the room and begins to rip and tear at the wallpaper to free the woman behind. Her husband enters with a key and faints. The woman then crawls on all fours, and crawls over him. She displays intense animalistic behaviors which are common in intense insanity and solitude both of which the woman displayed.

The interpretation of the wallpaper and the progression of insane behavior are directly related through the isolation to the room. This is something that was exaggerated by Gilman to prove a point that the rest cure does not work with those who experience intense depression, rather, what her symptoms were. This story was sent to Dr. Mitchell to show him what she went through and how she felt. Although she never received a response, this story is now known to have helped the treatment of women and their mental illness.

 

 

 

Felluga. “Anne Stiles, “The Rest Cure, 1873-1925″.” BRANCH. N.p., n.d. Web. 07 Dec. 2016.

Gilman, Charlotte P, and Dale M. Bauer. The Yellow Wallpaper. Boston: Bedford Books, 1998. Print.

“Gilman, Why I Wrote The Yellow Wallpaper.” Gilman, Why I Wrote The Yellow Wallpaper. N.p., n.d. Web. 07 Dec. 2016.

“The Neurasthenia Rest Cure and Dr. Silas Weir Mitchell – Neurasthenia & The Culture of Nervous Exhaustion.” Neurasthenia & The Culture of Nervous Exhaustion. N.p., n.d. Web. 07 Dec. 2016.