Charlotte Perkins Gilman's The Yellow Wallpaper

Dr. S. Weir Mitchell, a well known Philadelphian neurologist, graduated from Jefferson Medical College. He is typically known for his rest cure developed in the late 1800s; however, his reputation was trashed when Charlotte Perkins Gilman wrote “The Yellow Wallpaper.” This story was a semi-autobiographical short story about her experience with the rest cure. Recent studies have been done on Mitchell’s relationship and the quality of his reputation and the rest cure. Dr. Mitchell’s rest cure was prominently used around the United Kingdom and United States. This “cure” lasted about six to eight weeks and kept the patients isolated from those closest to them (“Rest Cure”). It required bed rest and a fatty, milk-based diet. Some patients had to be treated like infants with nurses feeding and cleaning them. Some were even told they could not talk, read, or write. One of Dr. Weir Mitchell’s patients happened to be Charlotte Perkins Gilman. She was an outspoken independent woman. In her short story, “The Yellow Wallpaper,” she explains her experience through the eyes of the narrator. Gilman is trying to make the point that the rest cure was harmful to its patients, who were usually women. Through the strict rest cure, the narrator slowly loses her sanity. Gilman had the same experience as the narrator, but it was not as drastic. …show more content…
Outspoken author, Charlotte Perkins Gilman was one of his patients. When she was dissatisfied with the cure because it worsened her condition, she wrote a story, “The Yellow Wallpaper.” It is a semi-autobiographical story about her experience through the eyes of the narrator. A study was done by David Schuster that found Mitchell’s reputation was unjustly damaged. His rest cure was adjusted for the individual patients, and worked well on most

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Charlotte Perkins Gilman's The Yellow Wallpaper