Charlotte Gilman's 'The Yellow Wallpaper' and Mental Illness Struggles: Critical Essay

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Charlotte Gilman’s ‘The Yellow Wallpaper’ and Mental Illness Struggles: Critical Essay

Most people dont understand what mental illness does to someones mind. Having a mental illness back in the 1960s was even worse. Know one would understand how hard it was not to think about mental illness or thought that if someone doesnt do anything they will magically get better, however, that has been proven wrong since then. The best medicine is what people understand about themselves and what they need, not what other people think they need. Mental illness can occur in many forms, and over time one might be able to hide how they feel on the outside (physically) but becomes worse on the inside (mentally).

Mental illness can occur in many forms. When thinking about treatment for an individual with one of these mental illnesses, the more common approaches are to talk about it and get help. However, this was not the case in the past. Someone had something wrong with them, like postpartum depression, which is shown in The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Gilman. This being said, the narrator is put in a room by herself to do absolutely nothing, and if she tries to do anything, people yell at her. The quote There comes John, and I must put this away, he hates to have me write a word (Gilman, para 39) shows that she is trying to write to help ease her mind with everything that is inside it from the depression, but because the doctor said she shouldnt do anything even write till she is better, she keeps it hidden at least for a little while. As time goes on the depression gets worse and worse, which can be said about all mental illnesses, not just the one in the short story. Since she was having to do nothing during the day, when she went to bed for the night, she would kick and scratch at the wall just to get some of her energy out. This was her bodys way of telling her that she needed to do something to get better. She knew what was best for her and how to make herself better, but she couldnt get that. The thought of that drove her even crazier. Which, like most mental illnesses, when you know what needs to be done but you cant make your mind stay away from the triggers, it gets more and more frustrating.

As time goes on for someone with a mental illness, they start to become physically looking better, but mentally just get worse. In The Yellow Wallpaper, you see this when she says: If that woman does get out, and tries to get away, I can tie her (Gilman, para 239). The woman she is talking about in this is a shadow or also known as a round character. The narrators mind is so far into her illness that she believes this shadow to be a real person and proceeds to creep smoothly around on the floor (Gilman, para 253). This also shows that since she wasnt allowed to do anything, her mind gave her something to think about. No matter what is going on around her, she is fixed on the yellow wallpaper and this girl who appears on it. She was so fixed on it that she cant even help her husband when he fainted, she just says, Now why should that man have fainted? But he did, and right across my path by the wall, so that I had to creep over him every time! (Gilman, para 267). The narrators mind had become fixed on this which made her feel physically better, but now she has a new antagonist or struggle that has shown up. This is just a temporary fix for mental illness.

Mental illness takes over every part of a persons being. Although someone may seem like they look better and seem better on the outside, they may be struggling with internal or mental struggles, like being fixed on a color or round character.

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