Who is the woman behind the yellow wallpaper? A woman who had depression, anxiety and delusions of herself. You try staying in a room with completely nothing to do for hours and hours a day at a time. Its exactly what the woman behind the yellow wallpaper did. Her husband John made her depression worsen. As a doctor back in the early 1900s, he thought he was curing her the right way.
John and his sick wife have a childish relationship. John is a doctor and tends to laugh at his wife quite often and makes her stay in the house and not talk or see anyone. He controls her to the max. He forced her to sleep in the highest, dirtiest room in the house, knowing the room looked like a prison.
The depressed, trapped woman is the narrator in the story, the yellow wallpaper. In actuality shes a writer, its her passion. Journaling gets her feelings out and makes it real for her, but her husband takes the journal away from her and tells her shes not allowed to write anymore.
The husband thought by keeping her locked away in this ugly room, she would cure quickly. Instead she went the opposite way. The wallpaper, the room, the chained windows, everything was just getting to her, driving her insane. She stared at the wallpaper for hours and pretty soon she was seeing some other woman behind the wallpaper.
As she started to go insane, the husband wouldnt even talk to her. She tried, but got shot down. Now a days we look at this story and think the husband is such a jerk for doing what hes doing to his wife. Early 1900s thought, doctors thought they were doing the right thing. Their was no medicine to cure depression then. Doctors back then did not have the glossary of drugs to work with like we do today. If you had a cough or an infection you were probably given morphine, cocaine, or aspirin. A great deal about commonly maintained diseases today were not well understood and had little treatment back then. For instance diabetes used to be a death sentence before the start of insulin. Medicine was much more of a emotional and secondary care based discipline. Chicken noodle soup and good blankets were the cure to just about everything. Surgeries were being performed, but were still in their infancy. Our anesthetics were still drugs like ether, and alcohol.
I truly believe since the husband was a doctor, he probably thought at the tine he was doing the right thing by locking her away from everything and everyone. Plus, since people knew him as the doctor, he wouldnt want people to think he cant take care of his own wife. Her sickness was fighting against his power to keep it a secret.
I tried sitting in a empty room, doing nothing for 15 minutes. Well, that didnt go over to smoothly, within 8 minutes I was biting my nails. I cant imagine sitting in a room for long hours. I would go crazy too. In the beginning of the story the woman (narrator) thought it be good for her to get out a little, just see the world and do daily activities. The husband and brother thought it be best for her to stay in bed and never come out or see anyone. So she wasnt mentally insane to begin with, living in a prison made her insane.
Already have an account? Log In Now
3274