Rest Cure

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The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman is a tale about madness and control. Our story starts with a woman who moves out into the country with her husband for a few months so she can recuperate from a nervous disorder caused by a recent child birth. Her prescribed treatment for her disorder is a rest cure, which forces the woman to stay inside all day and rest, unable to write, draw, or really do much of anything. The woman writes in her journal in secret and the story documents her slow decent into madness as she becomes obsessed with the yellow wallpaper in her room. The story ends by her freeing the woman trapped within the walls and causing her overbearing husband to faint in shock. The story is a clear criticism of rest cures as it drives women to madness instead of helping women recover from it. Rest cure also has a very demeaning and patriarchal aspect to it. What are the origins of the rest cure was developed in the late 19th century by a neurologist called Silas Weir Mitchel (Museum). The cure was aimed at helping cure various types of nervous disorders such as hysteria and neurasthenia (Museum). Both disorders were thought to mainly effect women back in the day, so the rest cure was used practically exclusively for women (Museum). The treatment lasted …show more content…
The demeaning nature of the treatment and the mind-bending isolation it caused worsened any symptoms the main character may have already had. The rest cure was a sentence for madness that the author, Charlotte Perkins Gilman spoke directly out against. The cure caused hallucinations, anxiety, depression, and a general deterioration of the mind. The cure was also deeply rooted in sexism as it was mainly used on women because of their perceived highly emotional nature. The Yellow Wallpaper had a lasting effect on modern society as it shows the horrors of sexism and faulty treatment on female

The Yellow Wallpaper: The Rest Cure

In The Yellow Wallpaper, the medical procedure used is called The Rest Cure. According to (Science Museum), Silas Weir Mitchell developed the rest cure in the late 1800s for the treatment of hysteria, neurasthenia and other nervous illnesses. This treatment kept patients in isolation, away from friends and family for 6-8 weeks. The writer does not agree with this procedure because she has experienced it firsthand. Gilman suffered from a severe and continuous nervous breakdown tending to melancholia-and…

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Charlotte Perkins Gilman's The Yellow Wallpaper

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…

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Character Analysis: The Yellow Wallpaper

because she is forced to look at it because she can not explore the rest of the home or see people other than John. The narrator never mentions her baby beyond this point, she only writes of the wallpaper and occasionally John because of his frequent distractions. John threatens to send his wife to Weir Mitchell if she doesn’t get better quickly. This refers to a real life famous neurologist credited for the creation of the rest cure. The foundations of this prescription originated during the Civil…

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Charlotte Perkins Wilman Research Paper

superficial reader may grasp, it is a message of warning towards those using the rest cure. It is only through the additional reading of works such as Gilman’s other piece “Why I Wrote ‘The Yellow Wallpaper’” and S. Weir Mitchell’s “The Evolution of the Rest Treatment,” that this theme can be best pulled from the work and used…

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How Do Jane's Struggle In The Yellow Wallpaper

woman's struggle to free herself from the oppressive forces in her life where her madness is her freedom and the attempts to cure her are the oppressors' tools. Jane becomes unstable due to PPD, an ineffective cure as well as an oppressive husband. The story tells of a woman suffering postpartum depression. Her significant other, John, rents a house for her to attempt the rest-cure in and even threatens to send her to Silas Weir Mitchell if she doesn't show signs of improvement. The protagonist is unhappy…

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Charlotte Perkins Gilman's Character Analysis: The Yellow Wallpaper

after having her daughter. She was ordered to rest by her husband and mother. “Her husband and mother were convinced that Gilman needed rest and willpower to overcome her depression; they persuaded her to go to Philadelphia for treatment by Dr. S. Weir Mitchell, the most famous American neurologist of the day,” (Gilman 1668). Mitchell was known for prescribing the rest cure for women that were suffering from depression. Dr. Mitchell had Gilman in rest for several months with limited intellectual activities…

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Feminism In The Yellow Wallpaper

issues women of the 1800’s faced, such as, feminism and mental health that were not often talked about. “The Yellow Wallpaper” takes the reader on a journey of a nameless, mentally ill woman, who writes a series of journal entries when prescribed a “rest cure” by her doctor/husband. It is hard for today’s readers to understand what the narrator is going though, but for Gilman, this was reality. “The Yellow Wallpaper” stems from Gilman’s strong belief in feminism, her understanding of what it is like to…

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The Yellow Wallpaper

Madness “The Yellow Wallpaper” by Charlotte Perkins Gilman in 1899 details the story of a young woman’s descent into madness, showing clearly the symptoms that are attributed to mental breakdowns. There are many different psychological issues present within the story, including the narrator’s condition of “nerves” and the very real issue of postpartum depression, and as a result of both of these issues not being treated in the manner that is needed in order to resolve these afflictions, the narrator…

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Mental Illness In Charlotte Perkins Gilman's The Yellow Wallpaper

Along with this torturous pattern of misdiagnosis, women were often undertreated for legitimate mental illnesses. Written in 1890, Gilman illustrates the mistreatment of women who so desperately needed proper medical attention by referencing the rest cure and including symbolic references and dynamic diction. As mentioned in “The Yellow Wallpaper,” the rose in incidence within the 1800s to treat bouts of hysteria and nervous breakdowns. With the discovery of…

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essay 1 english 102

depression and is taken to an ancestral home for the summer by her husband John, who is a doctor. Her husband and his family are all doctors, so they insist that the wife should keep away from all human/entertaining activities and should take as much rest as she can, keeping her from interacting to others, writing, and any fun activities. The story setting takes place at a time where women had a very different role and social status from society to their marriages, than women have now in the present…

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