Angie Markham
Mrs. Rutan
AP Lit and Comp
18 December 2015
Mrs. Rutan
AP Lit and Comp
18 December 2015
Mental illness is something that affects a large fraction of our population, but it is misunderstood by society as a whole. Before actual treatment existed, people--especially women--with symptoms that we now recognize to be mental illness were seen as pure craziness or some kind of evil. Back in the 1600's if women showed signs of what we now know as hysteria, they were accused of being witches and punished by being burned at the stake...does a town called Salem ring a bell? In "The Yellow Wallpaper" by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, the flaws surrounding the treatment of mental illness in the past--as well as now-- are pointed out. Gilman gives reasons why mental illness must be recognized. The ignorance of mental illness needs to be cured.
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An upset stomach and a panic attack, what's the difference? One can be seen by the other can’t.
Physical and mental illness are two different things but can still be equally harmful.
Many people don't understand this. The main character of Gilman’s short story is originally suffering from what is thought to be depression in the late 1800s. Her husband is a doctor, so he addresses her illness and decides to treat it himself. Because her sickness is in her head, rather than her body, he doesn't treat her like a human. Her husband essentially locks her in an “atrocious nursery” (339) to recover.Gilman uses this nursery to represent the prison that our protagonist is in both in her head and the one she is put in by society, being seen as some animal who needs to be locked up and watched; she then is dehumanized. Her imprisonment--she is literally barred in-- is a critique of how society treats mental illness compared to physical illness.
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This mistreatment is consistent throughout the short story, mostly--if not completely--by her husband/Doctor. Mistreatment over a long period of time leads to her downward spiral. From only having depression in the beginning, she begins to hallucinate a woman in the wallpaper and indirectly thinks/mentions suicide. On top of her medical mistreatment, her husband constantly degrades her, even calling her a “little girl” (344) at one point, referring her to a child rather than his wife. Not to mention the fact that he keeps her in a nursery of all the rooms possibly in the house. The worsening of her condition can be seen as a representation of how emotionally anyone can be affected if they are treated like an outsider, or in this case anything but human.
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The overall message is that as a society, we need to begin seeing mental illness in a different way. It needs to be treated the same as physical illness, with the same sympathy and nurture. It's not something that can be locked away and put to the side--or one day it will all explode. It's true that mental illness can affect loved ones and those around the actual person suffering, but it is about the actual patient, and their recovery over anything else.
Images:
King, Kirsten. "How People Treat Mental Illness Vs. How They Treat Physical Illness." BuzzFeed. BuzzFeed, 30 Sept. 2015. Web. 18 Dec. 2015.
"“The Yellow Wallpaper”." “The Yellow Wallpaper”. Pagepulp, n.d. Web. 18 Dec. 2015.
"Barred Windows Image Gallery." Imagesbot.com. N.p., n.d. Web. 15 Dec. 2015.
King, Kirsten. "How People Treat Mental Illness Vs. How They Treat Physical Illness." BuzzFeed. BuzzFeed, 30 Sept. 2015. Web. 18 Dec. 2015.
"“The Yellow Wallpaper”." “The Yellow Wallpaper”. Pagepulp, n.d. Web. 18 Dec. 2015.
"Barred Windows Image Gallery." Imagesbot.com. N.p., n.d. Web. 15 Dec. 2015.