Having read "The Yellow Wallpaper" by Charlotte Perkins Gilman on at least two previous occasions here at SHU I thought that I might have covered everything that I ever thought I wanted to talk about. However, after doing some growing of my own and seeing the commercials on TV I think that I might have found something a bit more that I can talk about. What is that you might ask? Depression.
The narrator says on page 534 of our book, "I don't know why I should write this. I don't want to. I don't feel able... Half the time now I am awfully lazy, and lie down ever so much." This is just one of the many quotes in the story that make me feel that she is slipping into a depressive state that is helped along by her husband John. By deeming her disease as nothing but "temporary nervous depression" (531) he isn't giving her the help that she needs to break out of the depression.
I know that Gilman experianced similar feelings that the narrator in the story feels. She was at one point herself diagnosed with a nervous depression and also was suppressed from writing by her husband, however the difference is that she was able to break out of the cycle and the narrator was not. Today we know so much about depression that it is possible for a person to overcome it with the right amount of treatment. I don't think that doctors today would agree that the narrator needed to be left to rest and not complete anything proactive. Actually, I think that her inactiveness with her child and with her general surroundings is what helps to lead her further into a depressive state and what finally lends her to going completely insane to the point that she doesn't even recognize her husband any longer.
The other thing that bothers me about the story is that her husband is never present and when he is he doesn't seem to take an interest in anything that she has to say. It is said that you must work together with the people treating you to help you to become better and I just don't feel that her husband was working with her at all. Something to think about for sure.
Gilman, ''The Yellow Wallpaper'' -- Jerz EL312 (Literary Criticism)
Think about the time the story was written (historical approach to the reading, perhaps?). If you were depressed, you were "crazy" and "crazy" people should be given the most logical of treatments- being locked up in a room by themselves. No wonder she went from depressed woman into insane woman. The husband, although completely wrong in his "treatment" of his wife, was doing what was considered the norm at the time.
Good points, both of you. Of course, the narrator shows signs not merely of depression, but rather of psychosis -- so there is evidence in the story to suggest her husband was right in trying to protect her, even though the medical knowledge of the day wasn't terribly helpful.
Silly me, doing a close reading on the week we're supposed to be talking about authorial intent. Okay, then, what point was Gilman trying to make when she created a character who had an exaggerated version of her own symptoms?
Recall that the narrator has recently given birth... certainly women had postpartum depression long before it was diagnosed. Anyone care to investigate when postpartum depression became an officially recognized disease? (Wikipedia doesn't say.)
Oh, and here's another interesting tidbit... Gilman's real doctor, Mitchell Wier, who is mentioned in the story and a version whose bedrest cure both Gilman and her protagonist underwent, was himself an author of poetry and fiction. He wrote a book called "Autobiography of a Quack."
http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/693
I remember reading this my senior year in high school. We did an exercise where we had to draw our interpretation of the wall in the story.
I was just about to mention postpartum despression when I read Dr. Jerz's comment. I completely agree that having more interaction with her child could have helped her overcome the depressive state.
I tried to find more on the history of postpartum depression, but had no luck in the half hour or so I spent researching.
Posted by: Stormy at February 4, 2007 4:45 PMAgain, another point well made in the blogs. It seems that since depression is the focal point in the story, that it stills does not receive as much attention than it should.
Along with what Vanessa said, the norms during this time were to isolate the crazy person and allow for personal treatment and recovery. In this story, the isolation from not only her husband and the outside world, but her child allowed for her to become so focused on the physical surroundings, the wallpaper, that enabled these extreme ideas of women behind the wallpaper.
I find it odd that her writing, even though it was forbidden and scarce, did not help with her nervous depression. I find writing a way to escape from my emotions and leave them on the paper.
Posted by: Denamarie at February 5, 2007 10:25 PMI have to agree with Denamarie, writing is a way to help with depression, just because you are finding someway to express emotions, and everything isn't all bottled up inside. You would think that the husband or brother would know something about that, but I guess during those times they didn't consider that kind of stuff since Eliabeth's real husband wouldn't allow her to write when she was depressed.
Posted by: Sue at February 6, 2007 4:17 PMI think that partially in order to be a release, it has to be realized. The narrator used her writing, and as Sue and Denamarie pointed out, it didn't help.
The reason it didn't work was because she didn't necessarily except it as an escape - rather as a declaration of her sense of rebellion.
In some ways, being consciously rebellious leads to more depression because in order to rebel against something passionately, you have to want to be accepted by it.
I think that partially in order to be a release, it has to be realized. The narrator used her writing, and as Sue and Denamarie pointed out, it didn't help.
The reason it didn't work was because she didn't necessarily except it as an escape - rather as a declaration of her sense of rebellion.
In some ways, being consciously rebellious leads to more depression because in order to rebel against something passionately, you have to want to be accepted by it.
I think that partially in order to be a release, it has to be realized. The narrator used her writing, and as Sue and Denamarie pointed out, it didn't help.
The reason it didn't work was because she didn't necessarily except it as an escape - rather as a declaration of her sense of rebellion.
In some ways, being consciously rebellious leads to more depression because in order to rebel against something passionately, you have to want to be accepted by it.
I think that partially in order to be a release, it has to be realized. The narrator used her writing, and as Sue and Denamarie pointed out, it didn't help.
The reason it didn't work was because she didn't necessarily except it as an escape - rather as a declaration of her sense of rebellion.
In some ways, being consciously rebellious leads to more depression because in order to rebel against something passionately, you have to want to be accepted by it.