What's Really Wrong with The Woman Behind The Yellow Wall Paper.
"The Yellow Wall-Paper" by Charlotte Perkins Gilman was written in 1892 a time when Psycological disorders were looked on as a symtom of a physical illness that could be treated with excersize and fresh air. While this is a great improvement upon the middle ages practice of "beating the hell out of" someone to release the demons, the "rest cure" and tonics did little to help the aflicted people (173). The main character's husband, John, has sequestered her to colonial mansion to rest after his diagnosis of: "temorary nervous depression, and slight hysterical tendency" (169). From a modern Psychologist, however, there is evidence to support an argument that she is in fact suffering from post-partum depression and paranoid schizophrenia. .
Today psychologists use a refernce called the Diagnostic Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, currently in it's fourth edition (DSM IV), to diagnose mental conditions so that patients will be given the appropriate treatment. It is similar to the Phisician's Desk Refference or PDR. The main character in "The Yellow Wall-paper" shows many symptoms that are out of the ordinary; different than what our society deems normal behavior. Her psychologist would analyze her symptoms and match them with the type of disorder that displays those symptoms. .
The story begins with John's wife in a seemingly normal state. As the reader we have no insight into her abnormality other that her acount of John's diagnoses and course of treatment for her nervous condition. As the narration unfolds however we begin to read first hand her of her depression. These beggin with her description of the wall paper, "lame uncertain curves suddenly commit suicide destroy themselves in unheard of contradictions (170). These statements on their own would not send up warning flares, but they are followed in the next paragraph by, "these nervous troubles are dreadfully depressing.
