How 'The Yellow Wallpaper' Changed Women's Medicine

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At the turn of the twentieth century, the ‘New Woman’ was shaking things up. She wore trousers! She rode bicycles! She wrote proto-feminist short stories! She angered the patriarchy and championed women’s rights.
But just as women began to seek control of their lives and bodies, there arose a medical vogue for diagnosing women with nervous disorders that helped to keep them in line. Funny that!
In response to this form of oppression, Charlotte Perkins Gilman wrote ‘The Yellow Wallpaper’, a tale of madness, medical abuse, sisterhood, and power. Come with me as we discover how Perkins Gilman, and other women writing at the turn of the twentieth century, fought back against the patriarchal establishment and brought about change that we’re still feeling the repercussions of today.
Watch more about what people thought of TB 250 years ago here: • Why people thought tub...
Written, presented, and edited by Rosie Whitcombe
@books_ncats
Directed, produced, and edited by Matty Phillips
@ma_ps_
mphotos.uk
Bibliography
Cameron, S. Brooke, ‘George Egerton’s Keynotes: Food and Feminism at the Fin-de-Siècle', Victorian Literature and Culture, vol. 46 (2018) pp. 309-30
Lee, Grand, Perkins Gilman, Showalter, & Woolson in Daughters of Decadence: Women Writers of the Fin-de-Siècle, ed. by Elaine Showalter (London: Virago Press, 1993)
Endometriosis in the UK: Time for Change www.endometriosis-uk.org/site...
‘From Nerves to Neuroses’, Science Museum: Objects and Stories [www.sciencemuseum.org.uk/obje...]
Hedges, Elaine R., ‘Afterword’, The Yellow Wallpaper (New York: The Feminist Press, 1973)
Hughes, Kathryn, ‘House of horror: the poisonous power of Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s ‘The Yellow Wallpaper’’, The Guardian www.theguardian.com/artanddes...
Ledger, Sally, and Luckhurst, Roger, ‘The New Woman’, The Fin-de-Siècle: A Reader in Cultural History c. 1880-1900 (Oxford: OUP, 2013) p. 76
Patmore, Coventry, ‘Canto IX: Sahara, The Wife's Tragedy’, The Angel in the House (London: George Bell and Son, 1885)
Showalter, Elaine, The Female Malady: Women, Madness and English Culture, 1830-1980 (London: Virago Press, 1987)

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23 авг 2022

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Комментарии : 422

@sashae2848 5 месяцев назад

Something that always stuck with me about the room in "The Yellow Wallpaper" is that the narrator's husband tells her it's a nursery, but there are these eerie little details that say otherwise. The barred windows, the wallpaper being stripped off in patches (likely from being scratched at), the rings on the wall, and the bed being nailed down all indicate that the room used to be a sanatorium. Something about the fact that John lies to his wife about the room she's in (specifically lies that she's in a nursery) has always unsettled me. The sense of imprisonment we get from the narrator isn't metaphorical by any means. This is what makes the ending so tragic to me--the narrator is almost certainly not the first person to be locked away in that room and be worse off because of it. "The Yellow Wallpaper" is essentially Charlotte Perkins Gilman's worst case scenario--what she feared would have happened to her if her friend hadn't intervened during her own "rest cure." I think the thing that really gets me is how, if someone would have just listened to the narrator, the ending could have been avoided entirely.

@hjt091 5 месяцев назад

Nurseries having bars on the windows was a Thing, to stop children from accidentally falling out. Fair point about the other stuff though.

@sashae2848 5 месяцев назад

@@hjt091 I get what you mean, I meant in addition to everything else. The bars on the windows weren't the only detail.

@20peas 5 месяцев назад

I think it being a nursery is another reference to a postnatal psychiatric disorder.

@erldagerl9826 4 месяца назад

She tears off the wallpaper herself.

@mpita5193 4 месяца назад

Nursery in a sense, because the narrator is totally infantilized by the men and society around her.

@tinkergnomad 8 месяцев назад

I'm also noticing the language used to describe the wallpaper is incredibly active while her husband is forcing passivity on to her. It's an interesting contrast.

@books_ncats 7 месяцев назад

So true! Thanks for this - Rosie

@tinkergnomad 5 месяцев назад

@@books_ncats my pleasure! Love the channel!

@moira1734 5 месяцев назад

I hadn’t noticed this, but you are absolutely right! What an interesting contrast

@Sevenpuddingsx 5 месяцев назад

As Mosley was quoted at the beginning- "as grass grows around a stone"

@moonfire41 5 месяцев назад

She is showing that even though her husband tries to restrain her physically, he can't restrain her greatest power of all...her mind.

@SauceLore 4 месяца назад

“Now why should that man have fainted but he did” absolutely took me out 💀 she ate him up there

@tracik1277 6 месяцев назад

I read somewhere that the woman’s decent into madness and possibly her death in this story was precipitated by the fact that during that period, cyanide was commonly used to create yellow (and green) colours for wallpaper.

@books_ncats 5 месяцев назад

Oh wow, I didn’t know that, I’ll have to look it up. Thanks! - Rosie

@Mike-kw5xv 5 месяцев назад

I think it's actually arsenic not cyanide. Scheele's Green is one of the specific colors that was created with it and the amount of things that they put it in is frankly terrifying.

@rabbitguts2518 5 месяцев назад

@@books_ncatsI reread a section a few minutes ago as a refresher and she makes an emphasis of the sister touching the wallpaper and complaining that it's staining their clothes. Considering all the time the protagonist spends following the patter and seemingly close enough for it to rub off onto clothing it would play quiet well with the theory that it was unintentional poisoning. A tangential add-on to this theory, but it's also mentioned several times that the wallpaper was pulled away by children. On top of that it was mentioned that the nursery where she stays was gutted when they arrived, unlike the rest of the house, and that something had happened which caused the owners family conflict. While a bit of a stretch, in view of the idea of poisoning it's possible that the children that once lived in the nursery also became ill from handling the wallpaper and could have caused familial issues and for that room to be emptied in response. Still however it's interpreted it's still a fantastic story with lots of interesting context surrounding it.

@julietfischer5056 5 месяцев назад

She already had psychological issues, probably post-partum depression. Poison wallpaper would have made it worse. Assuming Gilman even considered that angle.

@drewgoin8849 5 месяцев назад

I recently read that, more recently, the protagonist of "The Yellow Wallpaper" is believed to have been experiencing a form of Postpartum Psychosis. The author, Charlotte Perkins Gillman, had given birth not long before drafting the story.

@beth8775 5 месяцев назад

I think there are an unfortunate number of modern doctors that ought to read The Yellow Wallpaper.

@MySerpentine 5 месяцев назад

Not listening to your patient does indeed seem to be an epidemic LOL

@meanthemaw 3 месяца назад

@MySerpentine I agree lol especially when trying to get tested or diagnosed for endometriosis and the like

@nox6687 5 месяцев назад

I remember our final project for my freshman English class in college was on The Yellow Wallpaper. I forget what the prompt was, but I remember writing about how our narrator is extremely unreliable because of several details that go unexplained or glossed over in the text. And one interesting thing I found is that the room was described as having windows all around. Now, the house is described as a colonial house, which I argued wasn't an American Colonial style home because it doesn't really fit the definition of having a single upper level that could have windows on all sides as was described. Also, even if it did, it wouldn't make sense to give her all that room if she's supposed to be confined- American Colonial manors are largely just rectangular prisms, a single floor would probably be about 100 feet wide. Instead, I said that it was a Victorian style house, a remnant of colonists who sided with the British and still followed their trends. Romantic and old-fashioned in a country that was developing its own style. Now, if you look at the type of architecture for this style of house, the attic also likely wouldn't have the described types of windows. This is because a popular feature of Victorian houses was having a tall tower attached to the side and that would certainly block the view. But you know where it would make sense? If she were in that tower. Detached from the rest of the house, detached from the rest of the world, only able to look out and see the far reaches of the estate and know exactly how far any external escape is.

@Loki_K 23 дня назад

Oh damn. That's incredibly interesting, and some amazing analysis

@lidiacazam Год назад

(TW: suicide) It’s been some time since I read The Yellow Wallpaper, but I do remember the ending made me feel pretty sick and worried about what the protagonist (Jane?) might have done to herself and the possible reason of John’s fainting: a bit earlier she mentions having been able to hide a length of rope in her room, so I always believed what John finds when he opens the door is her… well, either hung, or in the process of doing it. I loved the story nonetheless, but I wish I had interpreted its ending like you did, it would’ve left a much more positive aftertaste.

@books_ncats Год назад

That's a really interesting interpretation, I can see why you read it in that way. I think I'm in the minority when it comes to perceiving it as oddly empowering! But surely this is one of the marks of a good short story - inviting numerous interpretations. Thank you for watching! - Rosie

@brandyjean7015 7 месяцев назад

It left me feeling uncomfortable when I read it, years ago, as well.

@julietfischer5056 5 месяцев назад

I figured he fainted because he found his wife crawling around the edge of the room talking nonsense, after doing everything he could to help her (by the standards of the day).

@Vampress09 5 месяцев назад

Unfortunately, my interpretation is dark like yours too.

@starlaclark4834 2 месяца назад

I got exactly the same feeling, and also assumed that’s what he saw.

@MaySwenon 4 месяца назад

Regarding “creeping,” I recall that being the contemporary term for the form of infant locomotion that we now refer to as crawling. I wish I remembered which author I’d been reading that consistently used it that way.

@narfeggio 3 месяца назад

Ok this is really fascinating

@tianna1116 2 месяца назад

Thanks for that info! I’ve always wondered about that

@idunno529 Месяц назад

funnily enough that's how i've always envisioned the narrator "creeping" around anyway, which just gives me the chills, so it's interesting that it might be accurate and not just me projecting my intense discomfort building throughout the story. so, cool!

@waterartdragon 5 месяцев назад

This story really creeped me out when I read it in High School. At this point, I interpret it as saying that one of the few places women can find any power in an oppressive society is in madness. I know some very intelligent women in their 60's through 80's who have mental health issues and I'm convinced that part of the reason they have these issues is from coming up constantly against oppression.

@OscarFrosty 5 месяцев назад

absolutely true.

@MyTimelord11 5 месяцев назад

Yeah I'm not entiiiirely sure how I feel about this "empowering" narrative. I remember reading this in high-school and also finding this story rather horrifying and I saw it more as a warning to never treat people like this again. Buuuut I do have to say I do get what she says about certain aspects being empowering. I can't say I didn't also find it empowering when the narrator defies her husband when he dismisses her and tells her to go to sleep and she doesn't and just watches the wallpaper. I also see how a lot of the aspects at the end are empowering. Like I always loved how when John enters the room she just looks over her should real casual like and just keeps crawling. Like she couldn't be bothered to give him any more attention than a quick glance. I loved how she talks to him like a child and gently and patiently guides him with seeming clarity. The way he faints and she just continues to walk over him is wild. Amazing all of it but I have to say I just don't really care for the idea of a woman crawling around a room endlessly in complete and utter madness brought on my her oppressors as the vision for female empowerment ykwm 🤨 I do get how it is empowering it it's own right. When you have no other options, sometimes escapism is is all you have and that can be enpowering to someone with no power. I get that one could look at this from a a completely symbolic perspective and see strong female empowerment but I still can't get the vision of a desperate mad woman whos exhausted all pf her other options out of my mind. Just wouldn't be MY choice for representing female empowerment and the kinds of things women are capable of

@2degucitas 5 месяцев назад

We had the Leave it to Beaver life in the 50's and early 60's in contrast to the feminism of the 70's. Women (many our mothers) were going back to work due to grown children and the monetary need. We had both conservative domestic life and the promise of feminism. But, life brings the struggle between traditional married life and independence. It's the struggle that bends our minds. I know this from sad experience.

@alienonion4636 5 месяцев назад

I'm 68yo and the double standard as well as the misogyny in the States is something no one should ever be forced to live with. I particularly take issue with adults of any age that call a male infant "little man" and at the same time will call women even older than myself "baby girl".

@user-us1vx3yy5j 3 месяца назад

Women are naturally neurotic. So are men, but men usually grow out of it around the time of their first fight

@meghanmcgowan7748 5 месяцев назад

As someone who's spent a lot of time isolated and experienced some emotional abuse, there is definitely something very freeing and empowering about the idea of completely losing your mind. When you're crazy, you're beyond logic and the rules, and and you always have the upper hand on people just by being impossible to predict. It's like the Joker in Batman- his chaotic nature gives him power in every interaction, even when he's at an extreme disadvantage. Finally snapping and going nuts means that the rules of society and the people who impose them on you no longer have any authority, and the psychological pain you felt can simply fall away outside your understanding. The only thing you have to listen to is the impulse of madness. I'd be lying if I said I never daydreamed about going full funny-farm. Sometimes it can feel like your only way out.

@cjboyo 5 месяцев назад

Ugh you put it into words

@abigailb9144 5 месяцев назад

This is exactly where I'm at.

@zekova 5 месяцев назад

God damn that's so spot on 😔🩷

@MySerpentine 5 месяцев назад

Part of why I can't help liking the Joker despite him being the bad guy--there is no sanity clause!

@gryphonsong4082 5 месяцев назад

I need to preface this with something of a disclaimer. I’m simply stating my experiences, and by no means a doctor. I have ADHD, Autism, and CPTSD, and have no idea how much of what plays into what I’m about to share. I’ve actually slipped into a state close to it twice in my adult life. Part of me wanted to stay, as if it was a relief that my mind finally stopped with logic and reason to just… be. It was like I experienced sentience without being sapient briefly. Very hard to put into words what words cannot express. There was a… color? to the world in that state that saturated everything in this new experience, but the depression I had experienced was still there, just whispering. The first break I was loosing everything, and at that point my mind decided to loose itself too. I was laughing and crying and rolling around the floor. It was a laugh I had never heard from myself before, and I was just going to see where this new state of mind took me. It was dream-like in a lucid way, but with a touch of nightmare because reality was there. The second time it happened I was in a new location, in my own room with my cat. I was depressed again, and suicidal thoughts were getting the better of me but I was too tired to get up and act on them. So I began to laugh again in that odd way for another indeterminate period, and I knocked myself out with some Zzzquil and went to sleep hoping I wouldn’t wake up. I’ve never shared this with a psychiatrist, but I was changed by them. The funny thing is I better see bs from people as the torture of the mind that it is. I’ve recovered from those states, but wish sometimes I could willfully go into that state so I can have a real break from reality. Books help, but intermittent disassociation works in a pinch too if you can do it. They get really uncomfortable when you disconnect right in front of them and you parrot back their capitalistic vomit back at them. 😊

@ObsessedwithZelda2 5 месяцев назад

As a long time shut in, I really can't view it as empowering. When you are 'free' of societal expectations in that way, it is a lot more of just being more comfortable in the cage than outside of it. It's a very alluring trap. It feels very good to be isolated, and the longer you are, the more intolerable anything else is, and you can watch your mind crumble in live time all the while. In some sense, I can appreciate the story more now with that perspective compared to my first reading before all this, and my second reading not making the connection as clearly

@books_ncats 5 месяцев назад

Thanks for sharing this, it’s really useful to read your interpretation of the story - Rosie

@SouthCountyGal 4 месяца назад

I understand that shut-in effect as well. I have spent months at a time in bed due to a chronic progressive condition. I've described my life as an ever-shrinking box that I'm stuck inside. Lying in bed all day, with the ability to read, write, and craft taken away, with my household maintenance duties piling up on the other side of the bedroom door, one becomes intimately acquainted with every aspect of the walls and ceiling. At one point I became very involved in the life of a wolf spider that lived inside a wall socket across the room. I made her little plates of food that she wouldn't eat but guarded fiercely. She would get upset when the heat came on and blew air into her home, and would come out and wave her legs at me like I was causing the disturbance. (I never did evict her, and was really sad when she died after 18 months, although I read that actually meant she lived to be a very old wolf spider) On forced bed rest, the temptation to completely let go of being present wars with the frustration and anxiety of knowing that life's responsibilities are mounting the longer one lies around. One also loses the ability to tolerate noise and activity in the environment; at the same time, the search for something stimulating in the surrounding walls becomes more desperate. (Thank goodness for Melania, the spider in the outlet penthouse!) If the protagonist's room was an attic used at one time as a nursery, the wallpaper was likely hung with less care, and may even have been made up from leftover swatches used in other rooms. The nursery and attics were where wealthy families usually put their older, worn-out furnishings. Attics were also used as servants' quarters, and any decoration would have been scavenged from castoffs. I would go nuts in a room with badly hung wallpaper, especially if the patterns on the panels didn't match up or were reversed.

@ObsessedwithZelda2 4 месяца назад

@@SouthCountyGal Wish I could say something to help your situation, truly. But it's funny, I definitely relate to the sounds becoming unbearable. I never had issues and suddenly I started being bothered by chewing, swallowing, breathing etc kinds of noises. It's wild how quickly the brain gets to rejecting sound specifically

@Christina.N. 3 месяца назад

@@ObsessedwithZelda2 Make sure you’re getting all your nutrients especially vitamin D. If you don’t go out you have to supplement. It’s vital for many processes in the body as well as mental capacity.

@ObsessedwithZelda2 3 месяца назад

@@Christina.N. Thanks! I'm doing my best to keep up on my nutrients and improve my health in general these days

@drewgoin8849 5 месяцев назад

I recently read that, more recently, the protagonist of "The Yellow Wallpaper" is believed to possibly have been experiencing a form of Postpartum Psychosis. The author, Charlotte Perkins Gillman, had given birth not long before drafting the story.

@kikiwylde 5 месяцев назад

That was my impression when I read the story.

@anwynb03o3o5 4 месяца назад

That was what I thought when we read it in high school! My teacher and class looked at me like I was crazy ;-;

@alicenolfi2095 Месяц назад

I'll admit, the ending always made me a little sad. At the end of the story, the narrator's husband faints... *after* he opens the door. The door is open. The narrator could escape, and nobody would stop her. Instead, she continues to creep around the room, her shoulder brushing against the wall, and crawls over her husband during each round. The door is wide open, yet she does nothing. She's been so mentally broken, she doesn't want to leave her prison anymore. It's a little like that line from Stephen King's short story, '1408' (which, by the way, is way scarier than the movie): "Even if you leave this room, you can never leave this room."

@peaceloveaesthetics8261 5 месяцев назад

25:24 I imagine it’s like when you’re swimming and feel seaweed grabbing at your feet and you know it’s inanimate but it feels as though it’s alive 'the sprawling outlines run off in great slanting waves of optic horror, like a lot of wallowing seaweeds in full chase'

@justb4116 4 месяца назад

Your simple explanation at the beginning gave me literal chills and that crawly feeling down the spine, but then.. just as swiftly was saved by the complexity and unrelatability of quoted text. Thank you for putting it in that particular order, it's 1am 😅

@malcolmdarke5299 5 месяцев назад

I've read The Yellow Wallpaper and Gilman's essays on why she wrote it and how she parented her daughter, multiple times, and I still recommend it. Even without considering the pro-women's-rights perspective behind it, The Yellow Wallpaper is a *spectacular* piece of literature. I'd personally call it horror literature, but that's mostly because of having read Gilman's own reasoning behind it. "Neurasthenia" sounds a lot like burnout, plus a few other mental health issues lumped under the same category due to lack of understanding - it's associated with an overload of stress and with overwork. That the rest "cure" would help some people suffering from "neurasthenia" makes some sense in that light - a removal of responsibilities and the stresses of daily life would indeed help with that kind of burnout. That it could significantly harm people also makes sense - constant low-grade distress (as opposed to acute eustress which is resolved shortly after it begins) is the main issue behind burnout, IIRC, and lack of socialisation (which would be classed as "mental stimulation" under the rest cure regime) is itself a stressor in humans. Indeed, lack of mental stimulation is used as a torture method - "white room" torture, where the victim is kept in a completely white padded room with a constant light level, fed white rice given in white bowls with no utensils (no way to make noises that could provide a point outside the monotony or to tear the padding on the walls to make a point of visual interest) and kept ignorant of outside occurrences - so the rest cure was essentially touting a form of torture as a therapeutic effort.

@basicallybet 11 дней назад

Not only is it 100% horror literature, Gilman is the originator (or at least an early adopter) of a lot of common horror elements that are still being used in media today. I used to teach American literature, and I always had my students compare a list of horror tropes with the story to help them get invested in it before discussing Gilman’s motivations for writing it in the first place.

@clivehandforth3531 5 месяцев назад

i actually used to think the word "wallflower" referred to a person trapped in the wallpaper 😂

@lrkeribergaard6110 4 месяца назад

that's terrifying

@darthplagueis13 5 месяцев назад

You know, going by the fact that the protagonist is tearing away the wallpaper and telling John that she won't go "back", I would read the ending as her becoming the woman who she earlier saw moving behind the wallpaper. The wallpaper is obviously metaphorical for the confines of both the rest cure and societal expectations for women in general, but I do think that the protagonist has at this point also convinced herself that she came from the wallpaper and had always been behind it. Possibly, that when she was observing the woman crawl behind the wallpaper and shaking the "bars", she was observing herself, imprisoned behind social barriers and trying to break through. Of course, breaking through the wallpaper and then tearing it off the walls is also representative of her descent into madness because that's rather simply her way out. Someone who is mad cannot be reasoned with, cannot be expected to respect anyone's authority or adhere to social customs. In other words: They are not subject to the kind of control that kept the protagonist in her forced state of passivity. Someone who is merely suffering from a nervous disorder can be told to stay in a room and do nothing because it is for their best. Someone who is mad on the other hand doesn't have to accept such arguments, the only way to get them to follow suit is to stick them in a straight jacket and lock them into a padded cell. Someone who is mad can also not be told that they aren't ill, forcing John to acknowledge that he completely misunderstood the condition of his wife, that he had been wrong all along and that it was his unwillingness to listen to her or change anything that really sent her over the edge. A very dramatic way of saying "told you so" but certainly an effective one.

@kristaj0 8 дней назад

This is how I read it too.

@abbysinthe1860 8 месяцев назад

This story, along with the horrifying play, "The Insanity of Mary Girard", had a profound impact on my 13 year old self a lifetime ago.

@lightbeingform 5 месяцев назад

they can trap my body, but my mind might wander

@kimroddy943 5 месяцев назад

I love the idea of female autonomy. The fact that we must get to a point of shedding our own wallpaper. I love her sense of kinship with the other women. I go through cycles of shedding societal wallpaper, finding kinship, snubbing the patriarchy/and or societal "rules", and embracing my own brand of crazy/happiness. That is where I find the most stability actually 😂😂😂❤️

@witchy.business 5 месяцев назад

Well said. It would make sense that appears to be “crazy” from the patriarchy’s perspective is where we feel our best

@actually5004 5 месяцев назад

The irony of course being that women are now more depressed and suicidal than during the black plague on Europe, just like men!

@returnoftheromans6726 4 месяца назад

Much like also shedding the lining of our uterus each month.

@Akatsuki69387 5 месяцев назад

something that lends to the idea of Jane being the protagonist is the very common use of Jane Doe for unidentified woman or woman who must remain anonymous. By using the name "Jane" it can be interpreted as a collective idea of what a woman "should be"

@kristinmarra7005 8 месяцев назад

What an interesting analysis. I’ve always read the story as a depiction of a woman’s descent into madness caused by societal expectations. I have to say, I appreciate your analysis as her reclaiming her power. Certainly that’s less depressing.

@julietfischer5056 5 месяцев назад

I read it as post-partum psychosis. She had a baby and showed signs of psychological distress. In what was considered best practice in those days, doctors prescribed complete rest for her. Nothing physically or mentally taxing should disturb her until she was better. Her husband and ‘Sister’ (her sister or his?) were to handle everything while she convalesced. What happened? Isolation and boredom, so that she became fixated on the wallpaper and also imagined things. Her psychosis worsened until she was completely divorced from sanity and reality.

@lrkeribergaard6110 4 месяца назад

@@julietfischer5056oh gods...

@singamajigy 5 месяцев назад

I had just recovered from postpartum depression when I read this book. I felt that the ending was a triumph.

@books_ncats 4 месяца назад

How so? - Rosie

@singamajigy 4 месяца назад

@@books_ncats When her husband fainted I thought “Yes! He finally gets it.”

@notoriouswhitemoth 5 месяцев назад

There was a popular bright green dye used for Victorian-era wallpaper, made from arsenic. One popular theory is that that's part of the inspiration behind this story. The woman in the wallpaper was the narrator's own repressed ego.

@Kikilang60 8 месяцев назад

I was wondering when the servant class became human in literature. No one listens to the woman, and her husband is dismissive of the woman problems. How many servants were needed to keep the woman in her attic prison? If you were a member of the lower classes, mental illness meant a trip to asylum. How many gothic novels treat the underclass like ghost. Thing needed doing, and the people who did the work were treated like furniture. You could say that was then, but has it changed? All advance to enlightenment is built upon the have nots. To have freedom, and agency, one must have an underclass who have not. What did the pandemic teach us? The people who keep civilization running kept working. Those who could be completely eliminated entirely stayed home. One defends the injustice done to them, while stepping on the up turned faces of the underclass.

@julietfischer5056 5 месяцев назад

Servants have usually been the unseen props of upper- and middle-class life. Nobody pays real attention to them until things go wrong. They make sure the house is clean, the food ready on time, the grounds kept, and all the other tedious details the rest of us handle ourselves. When they are mentioned at all in fiction, it's either a bit of humor, or because it's necessary ('Did you notice anything suspicious?' the detective asked the gardener). Fiction from the POV of the servants may be a later 20th-century innovation. The idea that their lives and stories are every bit as worthy and interesting as that of their employers seems recent.

@Nina-cd6uw 5 месяцев назад

Small yet big remark: If a job is digitized enough to be done in Home Office, it's quite unfair to call those workers completely eliminable. Additionally a lot of the 'underclass' lost their jobs and businesses and had to stay home too, since they often work in the service industry, which got closed down and they suffered greatly for it. I ask myself the same question regarding the working class in literature, but I think you need a lot more nuance in your opinions about the working class if you want to claim to truly care about workers in any capacity. (No offense meant, your sentiment just spits on the devastation of my poverty-struck colleagues suffering during the pandemic plus before and after).

@6Haunted-Days 5 месяцев назад

@@julietfischer5056yea I can tell you neither have read nor know ANY of the history Of 19th century novels to make all these inane wrong claims. Wow.

@julietfischer5056 5 месяцев назад

@@6Haunted-Days- I have read them. That's how I know that servants were mostly invisible unless the plot demanded it.

@Waspinmymind 5 месяцев назад

@@6Haunted-DaysQuite literally during that time period servants were expected to be invisible. This is back up by historians and you can just straight read the novels yourself. Why the sudden hostility?

@gwovielfeifer1711 5 месяцев назад

I loved the yellow wallpaper when I read it in high school. But it was the kinda love of a book that equally feels like pain and comfort. I remember most of all feeling a reflection of myself in the character and was happy in a bittersweet sense at the end. I think I felt it was a combination of the two interpretations you gave. I do feel as if she “went mad” or rather retreated into her own world but I think that I’m doing so she shakes off the expectation her husband and society have for her and her experience.

@KayGreylai 5 месяцев назад

I havent read this story, but as a mentally ill and disabled woman who has to often be bed ridden it is somewhat of a horror story in these snippets. Its quite scary... being bed ridden is a profoundly depressing experience and the descriptions of the wallpaper are torturous, i can vividly imagine being sleep deprived, in pain as I have been before and hallucinating this stuff in this horrific wallpaper and tearing it off for relief until my mind snaps because nobody around me beleives me and allows me any reprieve from the horror. It was deeply distrubing to listen to. Just my interpretation from my experiencr that I thought id share as it was very different from yours.

@books_ncats 5 месяцев назад

Thanks for sharing, it’s really good to hear your take on the story. I think the ending can be read as horrendous and/or empowering, and I agree it’s definitely a horror story - Rosie

@julecaesara482 5 месяцев назад

I read the story as both descending into madness and reclaiming power: she projects the activity and agency she wishes she had on an inanimate thing, the wallpaper, while she, a human, has less power than the wallpaper. Because she mentions a rope s couple of times over, I thought the ending was her death, but the husband faints and doesn't get up again even though she crawls over him several times. Maybe she just got rid of the person who was ruining her life.

@brandyjean7015 7 месяцев назад

Well I'm 70, and although birthing a child is in my past: I'm cool with that, having birthed 2, now grown sons... sexual sterility still hasn't found me. 😎 My eyebrows are arched, but still dont arch into space, damn! Although no longer a svelte youth, choosing to retire to a very rural existence, chores have kept me from becoming 'stately' 🤣 I'm happily enjoying this life when women do have more choices.

@abbyd2029 5 месяцев назад

brandy jean you are a treasure!!

@aliceallgrown Год назад

I read this story many years ago in a university lit class and adored it. It's been so interesting hearing more background on when it was written and more interpretations of it. Thanks!

@books_ncats Год назад

Thank you. Really pleased you found it informative. I adored the story, too - I'd be interested to hear your interpretations of it if you want to share!

@aliceallgrown Год назад

@@books_ncats Sorry for the delay. I got a bit spooked by the creator of a video asking me a legit question on a reply lol. Social anxiety, so weird, right? But I came back to it. I didn't forget... I remember reading this story and essentially mostly taking it for face value as a criticism of the practice and a woman going mad because of a practice that was meant to make one well. I remember thinking the woman looking out from the pattern of the wallpaper made me think of a cage or a cell. In the beginning, the lady looks in on the trapped, caged protagonist, like she's a spectacle or a prisoner, but eventually she gets 'in' to the wallpaper, on the other side of the pattern, and it's almost like instead of getting in, she actually got out of the original cage she was trapped in.

@books_ncats Год назад

Haha sorry for contributing to your social anxiety! Thanks for replying ☺️ yeah, it’s interesting the ending, lots of different ways to interpret it. I like the idea of her escaping - like she’s finally found a way out of a cage she didn’t know she was in, perhaps..

@jacktheflying 5 месяцев назад

i've always thought of it as empowering. like yah, she "lost her mind" in that she's crawling around like Gollum LoTR - but she's also finally free of the stifling, controlled environment she was trapped in. things aren't ending well for her, but it would have ended badly for regardless. if the treatment "worked" and she got "better" it would have only been in the ways her husband defined, not in a way that would have actually improved her mental health. i also read the reveal that the wallpaper has multiple women behind it as a way of the story telling us Jane isn't the only one imprisoned. She's her husband's prisoner, both literally in the sense that he's trapped her - but also in the way that men had full control over their wife's life. She see's herself behind the "bars" of the wallpaper first, but eventually realizes that it's full of women, desperate to be free from the peeling, ugly facade. also also, i can't revisit this story without creeping around myself. it's fun :3

@SeventhSwell 8 месяцев назад

The Yellow Wallpaper has always been one of my favorite short stories.

@alexjames7144 5 месяцев назад

5:27 he looks so fucking grumpy I'm obsessed 😭

@user-cx6lq8mt5g 5 месяцев назад

I remember reading this story back in high school and it definitely stuck with me. If they ever made a new movie adaptation on this, I’d be a neat choice if they got the same guy who made Hereditary and Midsommer to direct it, because the whole time I was re-reading it last week kept giving me the same growing sense of tension and horror in those films.

@kellysanders3367 4 месяца назад

That need for control, that sense of empowerment, Is the reason why many mental health issues develop. A person has, or feels they have, no actual power or control over their situation so they find some. That's what makes some conditions so terrifying, because they're preferable.

@Lovelandmonkey 5 месяцев назад

This feels like a really good high school English class type a read, lots of room for interpretation of different theories, as well as a meaningful discussion about the themes that it covers.

@anpe4970 4 месяца назад

I remember reading the Yellow Wallpaper in highschool English class. I still remember it now 22 years later. It is such a powerful story.

@okaysavage2564 5 месяцев назад

The rest-cure sounds a lot like what it's like to have a bad CFS/ME flare up but with someone else inflicting it instead of the body. Honestly terrifying.

@stillmagic714 5 месяцев назад

No story has stayed with me more or longer that The Yellow Wallpaper. We read it junior year of high school and it has haunted me since, through the births of my three kids, I've thought about the protagonist of that story more than any other literary character.

@TheKoistar 4 месяца назад

I'm adding this to my headcanons about The King In Yellow. It's about a contagious form of madness typically spread to other minds in the form of a play, but it had to start somewhere, no? What better a place than in a room with no stimulation save for the horrendous yellow wallpaper, in which strange other women discordantly but freely creep and caper about?

@theplagueboybunny6794 Месяц назад

The disgusting description of the wallpaper reminds me so much of the original 4-Chan post about the backrooms. The "madness of mono-yellow" mentioned to describe the liminal space where you can accidentally "noclip" out of reality is so eerily similar to the haunting yellow wallpaper where the unnamed protagonist seemingly falls out of the reality that has been imposed upon her by Victorian society. I never noticed this parallel before watching your video but now I'm interested to see if anyone else ever noticed this similarity! What is it about odd shades of yellow that seem to illicit an uncomfortable sense of madness? Also, Mouse is a baby angel

@Badficwriter 8 дней назад

I'm currently reading a strange book called 2120 by George Wylesol. Its about a repairman who gets trapped in a strange building that resembles the Backrooms a bit. He complains specifically about the obnoxious yellow lighting. Its choose your own path style, and my only complaint is that I thought the ebook would be easier because of commands to go to exact page numbers. Unfortunately, the ebook counts the empty pages at the beginning as well, so all page numbers don't match what the book says the page is. I have to do math every time I go to a new page and its slows me down as I get tired.

@lachouette_et_le_phoque 5 месяцев назад

I wonder if the women that the rest cure did work for were women with some form of chronic fatigue syndrome. As someone who has both experienced depression and is currently ill with CFS, the rest cure sounds absolutely awful for treating depression, and surprisingly helpful for CFS given there's no actual treatment for it yet. I could imagine some people recovering fully if they were relieved from daily duties for a while and forced into rest. Nowadays, the prevailing idea is that exercise is good for almost everyone and while there's some truth to it, it's tragic how many people with chronic fatigue have been forced or bullied into overspending energy, against their own intuitions. It's a women's illness too, with I think 2/3 women vs men affected (perhaps it's an autoimmune issue and that's why, but we don't really know). I hear all the time that I need to move more, no matter how carefully I explain that exercise is unilaterally worsening my condition. It's caused me to give up all reliance on medical professionals and feel responsible for all my health decisions, because the only person who has to (painfully) live with the consequences is me, so the buck has to stop with me. I'm grateful to live in a society now that allows me the independence to make those decisions and not have someone else take away my autonomy.

@catsmom129 20 дней назад

I could also see it make sense for someone genuinely overworked; like a mother of several small children might benefit from saying, “gotta rest, doctor’s orders.” Often women have felt pressured to care for everyone but themselves, and rest might feel like a relief. But that would only help if she had control over her situation, and wasn’t forced into isolation or passivity.

@Pallasathena-hv4kp 3 месяца назад

Get this: TWENTY-FIVE plus years to get a diagnosis of endometriosis via laparoscopic surgery! I had multiple doctors, male AND female dismiss my pleas. They droned the same tired recommendations: exercise, Tylenol, heating pads. Believe me, I had a feeling of vindication at my diagnosis and a LOT of anger to work through. Hysterectomy changed my life. ❤ Edited to add: Stage 3 endometriosis. My doctor said, “You’ve had this since you were a teenager.” I seriously considered sending letters with my diagnosis to prior doctors. I would include a sound scolding in it, of course. Time heals…….

@books_ncats 3 месяца назад

Ooft that's completely insane! Sorry you had to wait so long, it's ridiculous - Rosie

@Pallasathena-hv4kp 3 месяца назад

@@books_ncats well, it’s been just about a decade since my surgery and my mental health is calming down. I have a daughter and told her if she ever has issues with a doctor dismissing her…. The lioness will come out!

@pebblesandwoowoo 5 месяцев назад

Having been through the same visual disturbances during psychosis I can clearly see her descent into madness. I have seen wallpaper patterns move, faces in wooden boards, patterns become other things, "seen ghosts" - this story scares me. It's heartbreaking to hear she went through that, but amazing her story changed her Drs treatment back then. Sadly I don't think I could ever read this story, I would love as I can feel so many things with your descriptions of her journey but I don't think I could ever mentally look back like that, but it hits so close to home, it is haunting.

@books_ncats 4 месяца назад

That makes total sense, it's a hard-hitting story and definitely potentially triggering if you've been in a similar situation. Thanks for sharing - Rosie

@availanila 5 месяцев назад

And the random bouts of almost violence from Jphn is definitely that condescending "my stern presence controls her."

@normalgamergal Год назад

Read this story a long time ago, but now I want to reread. Your videos are great, by the way. I'll go ahead and subscribe because I suppose I'll never get tired of media analysis videos.

@books_ncats Год назад

Thank you! It’s a great story, well worth a re-read. Glad you enjoy our videos, and thanks for subscribing.

@YourCapyBruv_do_u_rmbr_3Dpipes 5 месяцев назад

I remember reading this short story in high school. I thought you analyzed it very well! So I came for the awesome cats and stayed for the urbane commentary. I call that a win 😂

@ProcrastinationsandInterruptio 19 дней назад

I know this video is a year old now, but it feels so fresh, like it was produced yesterday! Thank you for making this channel & its content. I've been aching to join another book club, but there are none anywhere near the area I reside. Your channel is exactly that.💚 I've seen, 'The Yellow Wallpaper', on the stacks in book stores before & it was recommended to me, but no one could explain to me why I'd enjoy it; they would just say that I would. Now I know why. I am buying this title & recommending it to others! There is so much I could say about human psychology in general & how that relates to this book, but I don't want to say anything on that untill I've read this.

@quinn3301 5 месяцев назад

While I was reading this, I was reminded of my own experiences and thought that it would make sense if she saw herself in the wallpaper. What I mean is, since she was confined, maybe she started processing her thoughts and emotions through her interpretation of the wallpaper. Since she stayed awake at night while her husband was asleep, and thus he was unable to stop her, it would make sense that the woman behind the wallpaper would move around more too. And when they both started tearing the wallpaper together, it kind of felt to me like a joining of the two somewhat. I personally have experience of being confined and left without any friends (+ emotional abuse) and I tend to imagine other people being with me or being in another world altogether. I also am struggling with my sleep schedule because my family is awake during the day and I can avoid them at night. I guess I can kind of relate to this story a little bit.

@alib6615 5 месяцев назад

Mouse is so adorable - I can't stand it!!! Oh, and your analysis of 'The Yellow Wallpaper' was amazing too. 😉 Seriously though, I love this short story and really enjoyed you discussing it. I think the story is both. That she found her power by going a bit mad. I would love to see you do a video or videos on the 'New Woman'.

@abbysweat9202 25 дней назад

This is one of my favorite channels and one of my favorite stories so I had to come back and rewatch this on my lazy sunday afternoon. I don't know if people think this channel is "too smart" for them or what but everyone, every woman, every cat lady should be watching it regularly...you always find a new angle of looking at literary things that I haven't heard of or thought of before.

@bl4639 8 месяцев назад

I love your videos and you have inspired me to buy even more books (so, so many books).Love your insights and commentary! That being said, even if I didn't like your videos, I would still tune in to watch the expressions on your cat's face. There's a lot going on behind those green-gold eyes.😸

@books_ncats 7 месяцев назад

Thank you! ☺️ Mouse and I are very glad you enjoy our content - Rosie

@VenusianLissette 5 месяцев назад

10/10 cat❣️ & I’ve always found the yellow wallpaper story fascinating, a story of isolation, worsened by post partum & Scheele’s green arsenic wallpaper. I remain disturbed by the confusion within the story, losing someone’s mind (seemingly), as well as the passivity to her distress-from her husband (closest confidante.) it feels akin to Metamorphosis (the classic Kafka story) as in, stories of a similar vein-with very different perspectives/experiences. anyway thanks!

@books_ncats 5 месяцев назад

Hmm yeah that would make an interesting comparison! Thanks for commenting ❤️🐱

@Evilnor7 5 месяцев назад

Judging from your description, perhaps the only way for her to be free is the insanity? I wonder about her appearance to make him faint, too. What did she use to tear down the wallpaper? One would assume it wasn't peeling on its own . . . I also imagine a modern film adaptation might go a more supernatural route and have her merge with the wall, somehow.

@merrimcarthur7198 3 месяца назад

(in my opinion) she's not reclaiming power. She's imagining power, where she has none. Also, that rope is intensely significant. It's her "escape". Her husband fainting? Well, she WAS jumping on the bed to reach the rafters. Where was the rope? AND, considering the extremes a person will go to when dealing with crushing despair, was she even dressed? She might have been naked and crawling on all fours....with that rope just waiting. And yes, arsenic in the wallpaper may have contributed to her madness.

@teresaellis7062 5 месяцев назад

Sadly fitting that the magazine "Punch" named after an abusive puppet that clubbed his wife Judy for the amusement of others would disparage the "New Woman".

@gemh89 4 месяца назад

I'm a middle of the pack millennial, and its so ingrained from childhood, that all I could think was "sausages!" Rather than the disturbing stuff

@Badficwriter 8 дней назад

Whenever I hear of Punch and Judy, I always think of George Herriman's early 1900's comic strip Krazy Kat. The submissive cat loves an abusive mouse, considering the hurts signs of devotion. Its an odd comic. A recent twist is that the cartoonist was part black, but went to extremes to pass for white, refusing to remove his hat even while indoors, etc.

@kittimcconnell2633 5 месяцев назад

I read the Yellow Wallpaper in college some 35 years ago. I was horrified and distanced myself from it, but I myself suffered auditory hallucinations and severe depression due to stress during that time. The story seemed to be a revenge fantasy - Here's what you get, you deserve this madness. Jane had already been sacrificed to femininity; she then gathered herself in and sacrificed herself a second time, not by her own hand but instead by her own mind.

@CatMom-uw9jl 4 месяца назад

I’m amazed/relieved to learn that this story caused CPG’s doctor to change his treatment approach away from the rest cure. It’s so important for doctors to listen to their patients and truly take their feedback into account, and it’s still an issue today, especially in the treatment of women and minorities. Also, I love Mouse’s disapproving expression during the discussion of Victorian middle-class ideals!

@randalalansmith9883 5 месяцев назад

Vital Energy is the Victorian word for Spoons

@thedude6058 4 месяца назад

recently my mom pointed out that the root word “hysteria” and “hysterectomy” is the same, i never realized that “female hysteria,” the term invented by doctors to describe sexually unsatisfied women before female sexuality was culturally recognized, was actually the origin of the word. so yes, women are indeed hysterical, because the word refers specifically to women’s sexuality

@julietfischer5056 5 месяцев назад

I had thought Gilman was English for a long time. Her use of the word ‘Sister’ made me think of English nursing sisters, and the story could be just as easily about an English as an American woman.

@molar-td4vg 5 месяцев назад

this is something super small, but i noticed that the way the protagonist goes from being unsettled by the woman to slowly being more comfortable with her to be similar to "the coming of lilith" by judith plaskow. it doesnt do much but reinforce the idea of sisterhood, but i found it interesting!

@cara_cakes Месяц назад

Iiii may have finally found my corner of RU-vid. I've been watching your videos all afternoon and this is amazing!

@miketacos9034 5 месяцев назад

“Pelvic power” is not a term I thought I’d ever hear in my lifetime. 😂

@eleniaristeidou502 3 месяца назад

I love how well researched, well cited, well crossreferenced, and overall well organised, and thought through your piece is, and how you string so many interconnecting perspectives together to provide the best possible gestalt!

@books_ncats 2 месяца назад

Thanks very much, glad you enjoyed! - Rosie

@megandohm6843 5 месяцев назад

The context you shared is super helpful! This channel has become a new favorite - I’ve subscribed and already shared with two friends! 🎉

@books_ncats 5 месяцев назад

Thank you! ☺️ - Rosie

@BelleResells 5 месяцев назад

where has your channel been all of my life? instant subbed

@teschchr122 5 месяцев назад

The Yellow Wallpaper was one of my favorite short stories when I was a child! Thanks for bringing it back to mind!

@efoxkitsune9493 5 месяцев назад

I feel like the form of empowerment she finds by the end is rather tragic, though. She can only find agency and empowerment through complete withdrawal from reality, essentially in a world of her own.

@carlamarlene2927 5 месяцев назад

OMG! I remember reading the yellow wallpaper in college. I think that helped me recognize my boundaries and gave me strength to not take that shit!

@Terracotta_Me 5 месяцев назад

This is my first video of yours - Mouse is iconic! I’ve just been made aware of The Yellow Wallpaper, I find it fascinating

@books_ncats 5 месяцев назад

She IS iconic 🐱🐱🐱

@MaidOfPasta 5 месяцев назад

I remember writing about this when I was 16 and getting a really high score with a really strict teacher. Still my proudest moment! I remember the story being so engaging and I couldn’t put it down

@LaconicMuse378 4 месяца назад

Why aren’t we reading THIS in high school AP English class? The Yellow Wallpaper sounds great!

@teresaellis7062 3 месяца назад

I think all doctors, but especially male doctors should be given the experience of a "Period Pain Simulator" every few years. So when women say they are suffering from especially bad menstrual pain, the doctors will understand what that actually feels like. Though, telling my doctor that I almost fainted in a grocery store from pain helped get across the seriousness of it for my doctor. And I didn't have endometriosis, just really, really bad periods. I am doing well now.

@books_ncats 2 месяца назад

Glad you're doing well. I hadn't actually heard of period pain simulators - are they a real thing?? - Rosie

@makiraodonnell375 3 месяца назад

I've always loved the yellow wallpaper. The historical context and your analysis are now a beautiful addition to my appreciation of it.

@books_ncats 3 месяца назад

Aww thank you, that's kind of you to say - Rosie

@CT-gl2zj Месяц назад

I think its been about 20 years since I read this story. My memory had her scootching along the wall like an inchworm. My takeaway was that she lost her mind and that itself was a victory.

@MrThedrachen 24 дня назад

From your description, I definitely take it as both a descent into madness and a triumph.

@shingshongshamalama 4 месяца назад

Nobody has ever worried as much about any thing as old men do about the ability of young girls to have babies.

@Slogmyre 4 месяца назад

A theme in this seems to be the freedom of the mind, even when her physicality is constrained to a room, or just to living in a misogynistic world, the fact that she is analyzing the wallpaper at all shows her taking control of her life in the only way she can, whether it's for better or worse, by the end she finds she no longer needs anything in the physical world at all to define her identity, that no matter what she has the ability to construct an identity from within her own mind. Detachment from physical reality IS a form of insanity, but it also provides a sort of freedom to become the master of your own universe. Maybe a question posed by The Yellow Wallpaper is whether it's better to be insane or imprisoned, can you really blame somebody for detaching from a reality that is hurting them?

@Pallasathena-hv4kp 3 месяца назад

Great analysis. I predict much success for you 😊👍

@pixywings 5 месяцев назад

I remember reading The Yellow Wallpaper in my Literature 2 college class. Of course, I had to read and analyze quite a few short stories in that class, but this one *really* stuck with me.

@matthewwalker3131 2 месяца назад

I remember listening to the yellow wallpaper as an audiobook on the way home from working the night shift at my old job, it was like 6 months into the experience and I'd only met nocturnal hotel guests - my entire social life was squashed. It was very much an immersive listening experience XD.

@heidiwolf1793 5 месяцев назад

This is fantastic. Thank you 🙏🏻

@Jenjeyfur997 3 месяца назад

I remember being infatuated with this story when I was 10 years old when my aunt listened to it in the car. I don’t know why it stuck with me but I was fascinated by it. To this day I challenge people emotionally with my unpredictable and unabashedly authentic nature. 🙃

@Petrichor987 2 месяца назад

I have debilitating fibromyalgia, so bad it keeps me from working and keeps me at home and sometimes in bed some days. One of the first doctors I went to (who was world-renowned) didn't give me a diagnosis, instead he suggested that if I just got a boyfriend I would feel better. I asked if he could write a prescription for that.

@mystupidlife123 3 месяца назад

This showing up in my home fees feels prophetic since I just read that (poem? Novella? Short story?) for class.

@hadnoideahow 4 месяца назад

Wonderful vid! Thank you. :)

@Biiku_ 5 месяцев назад

I always thought "Jane" at the end of the yellow wall paper was either the baby or her no longer giving a damn about keeping her husbands relations in order. So much of marriage has been me failing to remember anything about second aunt so-and-so, who she is related to, and whether or not she gets a holiday card or is, in fact, quite dead.

@lilyevolson5532 5 месяцев назад

Just settled down to do some knitting this is perfect!

@Arthurian_Rabbit 3 месяца назад

Awesome review and summary! Definitely ordering this book from Amazon next paycheck :D

@lexyshannon9428 4 месяца назад

YESS I'VE BEEN WAITING FOR SOMEONE TO MAKE AN ANALYSIS ON THIS WORK

@AshKetchum442 Месяц назад

Husband: Youre going to sit here and do nothing until youre better Protagonist: Frick U *disassociates into the walls*

@bearisbig3848 4 месяца назад

I've enjoyed your insights, thank you for this video ^^

@chrisogrady28 Год назад

Those bloopers at the end 😂 Think I'll pick up some vegan Revolutionnaise next time I'm at the shop

@FloridasYesteryear 5 месяцев назад

In my college English class. I am American, in case that makes a difference, that she is a great example of an unreliable narrator. That we don't know if her "cure" is what drove her insane or was she already descending into madness and her husband moved them there in order to not have to send her to an insane asylum. That all his talk was him trying to protect her from her own instability. And that his surprise at the end was that he thought she was actually getting better because she was able to hide it so well.

@julietfischer5056 5 месяцев назад

For all the advances made during the 19th century, there were still gaps in knowledge. The idea of sending a psychologically fragile person into ‘restful’ isolation probably seemed reasonable: a good night’s sleep or a vacation can relieve short-term distress, so a long period of enforced leisure should help with greater problems. We now know that there’s much more to treating psychological problems than a change of scene. Hubby goes off to work, comes home, and his wife isn’t chewing the furnishings. She eventually stops talking about the tacky wallpaper, or otherwise ‘bothering’ about things. So neither he nor any of the household know that she’s getting worse rather than better. Until he finds her after her psychotic break.

@ewmeneither 5 месяцев назад

excellent. Thank you

@amazinggrapes3045 3 месяца назад

Oh they had us read the Yellow Wallpaper in school I have no words for it It was presented as the story of a woman with postpartum depression who subjected to the treatment of the time went completely insane. I think it was supposed to be a "look how much we've improved since the past!" kind of thing, which was the general narrative always at school, that all the problems of the past are completely cured and don't exist anymore, and all changes over time have been for the better... although I don't think psychological treatment has really improved so much I also remember they weren't sure what she meant at the end by "in spite of you and Jane" because none of the characters were named Jane

@TheArtOfBeingANerd 4 месяца назад

I wrote an analysis on this last year!

@Candyliz2003 19 дней назад

The descriptions of the wallpaper reminds me of the wallpaper depicted in the 1960 film, "The Haunting" - based on Shirley Jackson's, "The Haunting of Hill House".