Sunday, March 7, 2010

"The Yellow Wallpaper"

"The Yellow Wallpaper" By: C.P. Gilman. This story is a good look into the inner workings of postpartum depression, before is was ever classified as depression. It was considered a nervous disorder, or in extreme cases it was viewed as if the women was going mental. At the time in early nineteen hundreds, the prescription for depression was to get plenty of rest and refrain from intellectual activity. When in all actuality resting and avoiding intellectual stimulation is the worst thing for a depressed person. And "The Yellow Wallpaper" took you through the life of a women who suffered from postpartum depression. Her husband being a Doctor of course went with the widely popular view of peace and quiet. This disturbed our main character, she pleaded with her husband to get out of the house and go visit with friends, but he implored her to stay in their room and rest. She loved to write and often did when she was alone. She didn't like the room they'd taken when renting the house in the country. It had bars on the windows and the wallpaper was yellow and fading, even tearing in some places. There were bars on the windows, because at on time the room had been a nursery. She often imagined someone being trapped behind the bars on the wallpaper. Being alone all the time let her imagination get the best of her.
Towards the end of the story her mental stability is on a tight rope, and her husbands insistence of solitude was pushing her to the brink. So, she started riping the wallpaper down and imagining the person trapped there being able to escape, and in releasing the trapped person in the wallpaper she was releasing herself from the depression.

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