Short Story Review: The Yellow Wallpaper

Experience the well-crafted descension of Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s Protagonist as it happens

John is a physician…perhaps that is one reason I do not get well faster. The Yellow Wallpaper

Published in 1892, “The Yellow Wallpaper,” is a horror short story by feminist writer Charlotte Perkins Gilman. We follow the steady mental decline of the unnamed main character who is ignored, dismissed and given no agency regarding her medical treatment. “The Yellow Wallpaper,” is highly regarded by some as a feminist work highlighting the poor medical and psychological treatment women received in the 19th Century. Gilman wrote this short story in response to the “rest cure” that was prescribed to her following the birth of her daughter. The treatment worsened her condition and left her feeling ignored and powerless.

Gilman was treated by Dr. Silas Weir Mitchell, a big proponent of the “rest cure”. He also treated author Virginia Wolf at some point. Wolf made a satirical reference criticizing the treatment in her book, “Mrs. Dalloway.” (1925).

As Western medicine developed, there was an underlying assumption that a man’s body is “normal” and the differences found in a woman’s body are deviations from this norm (abnormal). As a consequence, diseases and disorders primarily affecting women have not received an equal amount of research, analysis or advancement in treatment.

For much of documented history, women have been excluded from medical and science knowledge production, so essentially we’ve ended up with a healthcare system, among other things in society, that has been made by men for men. Dr Kate Young, Interview in The Guardian

The “Cure” that Made Female Patients Worse

When 19th century doctors encountered a female patient with an illness they didn’t understand, or when a woman continually complained about symptoms after a treatment, it was not uncommon for the patient to be labeled as “hysterical” or considered “difficult.” These patients were often prescribed a “rest cure” to calm their nerves. This treatment required the patient to remain isolated from family, friends and emotional stimuli, which would include their children. She was to remain in bed, eat a restrictive diet and avoid both physical activity and intellectual stimulation: no exercising, reading, writing or entertainment of any kind.

This treatment, of course, would drive anyone mad.

Such harmful thinking still exist today in our overmedicated society. Some people, including medical professionals, believe that disorders which predominately affect women, such as chronic fatigue syndrome , fibromyalgia and even irritable bowel syndrome are “all in one’s head.”

The infantilization of women was a problem. It has been alleged that Dr. Mitchell never seemed interested in listening to his female patients, rendering them voiceless in their own treatment. During our recent pandemic, we’ve heard similar complaints from Black women, except the dismissive attitudes were fueled by unconscious biases or racism. Serena Williams and Dr. Susan Moore spoke out about the poor communication, dangerous assumptions and improper care from doctors and their staff while in the midst of their respective medical crises. Dr. Susan Moore lost her life not long after speaking out.

Dr. Susan Moore was a well-respected physician, and yet…

The Yellow Wallpaper

John has no idea how much I suffer. He knows there’s no reason to suffer and that satisfies him. The Yellow Wallpaper

The unnamed main character has just given birth and has been diagnosed with a nervous condition (it was most likely postpartum depression). After her doctors prescribe her a “rest cure”, her physician husband takes her to a large, seemingly haunted, secluded rental home to help her recover. The wife quickly notices the horrible wallpaper the covers every inch of the room she is to be trapped in until she is deemed well.

The wife does her best to advocate for herself. She tells her husband John that she doesn't agree with the treatment: fresh air, visiting, reading and writing in her journal would do a world of good. But with every condescending comment and demoralizing reprimand from John, the wife becomes increasingly fixated on the hideous yellow wallpaper. She gradually begins to notice eyes of an entity trapped inside of its chaotic jerky patterns.

As the weeks pass, her condition worsens and John becomes more condescending. The eyes multiply and the wife eventually is able to make out entities moving within the wallpaper’s patterns. These entities crouch, bend and crawl. She watches them in horror, and sometimes with curiosity as they slither around in hopes of finding a way out of their prison.

With great skill in pacing and visual description, Gilman creatively reflects the decline of the wife’s mental state onto the walls of the decaying, tattered paper that surrounds her.

I recommend The Yellow Wallpaper despite Gilman

I am no fan of Gilman because she was a eugenicist who believed that Blacks were a problem in the US that needed to be handled. The hypocrisy from someone who should know better is unfortunate but not surprising, to say the very least. However, The Yellow Wallpaper is a well-crafted, engaging story that delivers a much needed message about the importance of seeing the whole person and treating them as such.

References

• The Female Problem: How Male Bias in Medical Trials Ruined Women’s Health by Gabrielle Jackson, https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2019/nov/13/the-female-problem-male-bias-in-medical-trials
• Black Doctor Dies of Covid-19 After Complaining of Racist Treatment By John Eligon, https://www.nytimes.com/2020/12/23/us/susan-moore-black-doctor-indiana.html
• What Serena Williams’s scary childbirth story says about medical treatment of black women https://www.vox.com/identities/2018/1/11/16879984/serena-williams-childbirth-scare-black-women
• Dr. Silas Weir Mitchell https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silas_Weir_Mitchell_(physician