Mental Illness In Charlotte Gilman's The Yellow Wallpaper

Struggling with mental illness, the loss of a loved one, and addiction is by no means, a simple walk in the park, and it’s essential to find ways to dominate these obstacles. The following patients and authors struggle with lack of belonginess and love and generally their feelings are projected onto others. In Charlotte Gilman 's story The Yellow Wallpaper, published in 1892, a woman is struggling to find herself throughout the obstacles that she has to mentally overcome. In the 1845 poem “The Raven” by Edgar Allen Poe, the author elaborates on his own personal battles of losing a loved one. In Out Of Reach, the 2012 novel by Carrie Arcos, Micah has to overcome his addictions to find himself and return to his family. When struggling through …show more content…
She may be looked upon as “crazy”, but her main struggle is feeling alone , ignored, and confused. She is independent, but struggles with being alone, she is currently living in a summer home, not being allowed to leave the room in which she is staying. Given that she is confined a bedroom, 4 walls and only 1 window, a single bed which is bolted to the floor and the wall hangings are dated and not able to be removed. Many decisions were made without her consent, as she didn’t have any choice at all, “I don 't like our room a bit. I wanted one downstairs that opened on the piazza and had roses all over the window, and such pretty old-fashioned chintz hangings! but John would not hear of it,” (Gillman: 1). Being mentally ill during the time that this story was written was strongly frowned upon and not many people knew how to deal with it, in this case, the patient had a majority of her decisions made for her and could barely even think for herself. She enjoyed journaling about how she felt, but that was never allowed so she did it secretly. She is very observant of what is around her, especially because she is constantly finding new ways to keep herself occupied. One thing about this room that drives her insane is the wallpaper; she saw no beauty in it and nit picked all of the negative characteristics of each and every inch of the horrid wallpaper.The patient comments, “I suppose I shall have to get behind the pattern when it comes night and that is hard,” (Gillman; 7), come night time, she has more time alone and more time to think to herself about what she has going on in her life and more time to investigate why she’s feeling the way that she is and determining how she can resolve the problems within her mind. Something about this wallpaper triggered something in her mind specifically during the night time, “One of those