Yellow Wallpaper Literature & Language Research Paper (Research Paper Sample)

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Introduction
The Yellow Wallpaper short story was published by Charlotte Perkins Gilman in 1892. The story presents a woman who is ‘diagnosed’ with a temporary nervous depression by her husband and brother. The woman is confined to a house away from her home and family and restricted from engaging in any activity until she recuperates. However, the woman has contrary opinions on her state of health and directions requiring her not to work but instead choose to obey her husband not to offend him. In her stay at the house, the woman is disturbed by the yellow paper and the state of the house and over time, she sees a woman trapped in it and only appears at night, and this makes her strive to save her. She finally brings all the yellow paper down and starts to creep on the floor before her husband finds her and collapse. This paper discusses the aspects presented in the short story and relates them with the happenings of the Victoriansociety in the 19th century.
The Rest Cure
The 19th century in the American society saw the rise of the rest cure, a traditional treatment method of neurasthenia- a nervous disease, by a famous American neurologist and medical expert Silas Weir Mitchel. Rest cure treatment involved five components; rest, isolation, food, massage and electricity (Poirier 18).Neurasthenia was as a result of nervous exhaustion due to overwork, and the rest treatment would allow the victim’s body to build the red blood cells and gain weight and hence the energy and health. Women in marriage settings were trapped by the selfish demands of their husband and would not rest well at home in the presence of all home duties(Treichler 64).Thus, women patient were taken away from home for effective healing. The Yellow Wallpaper alluded to this popular mode of ‘hysteria’ treatment. The woman narrator is isolated from her home and taken 3 km away from her village. The woman husband, John, prohibits her from engaging in any activity not even writing or engaging with the thoughts of her condition. The man demanded that she improve her appetite and always carried her to bed and denied her permission to visit her cousins.