Yellow Wallpaper By Charlotte Gilman Essays - Psychiatric Diagnosis

Yellow Wallpaper By Charlotte Gilman In ?The Yellow Wallpaper? by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, the unnamed protagonist is suffering from postpartum depression, which is caused by the rapid changes in levels of hormones such as estrogen, progesterone and thyroid due to the birth of a child. This depression can be brought on by stress and isolation right after birth. In this short story the protagonist was brushed of by her husband John, who is a medical doctor as having a temporary nervous condition. In this situation, if the protagonist was effectively treated instead of being isolated, which allowed the depression to escalate to a severe form, she would have steadily gotten better. Instead the protagonist began to develop postpartum psychosis, which is the most severe postpartum reaction. During this time ?woman will experience a break with reality which may include the experience of hallucinations and/or delusions. Other symptoms may include severe insomnia, agitation, and bizarre feelings and behavior? (Depression After Delivery, Inc. 3). ?The Yellow Wallpaper? takes place in the late eighteen hundreds when psychological disorders were dismissed as temporary nervous conditions, and unless there was something physically wrong with the person, the individual had to be isolated from any stimulating activities. Isolation seemed to be the best antidote for psychological disorders in the late eighteen hundreds, although, it only made the disorder worse. John only worsens his wife's disorder by taking her away for the summer and placing her in an old house that is ?quite alone, standing well back from the road, quite three miles from the village? (Barrett 193). John once again isolates his wife from any stimulating activities and forbids her to work...?and am absolutely forbidden to ?work? until I am well again? (Barrett 192). The protagonist personally disagrees with their ideas when she states, ?that congenial work, with excitement and change would do me good? (Barrett 192). John did not allow her to write either, although, ?[she] did write for a while in spite of them? (Barrett 193), but she did not dare let John or his sister Jennie catch her writing. One of the first symptoms of postpartum psychosis is the experience of hallucinations, which are ?sensory perceptual distortions, such as seeing, hearing, smelling, feeling or tasting sensations that others would not sense and do not exist outside of ones perception? (Depression After Delivery, Inc. 3) and delusions, which are false fixed beliefs. The protagonist begins to get hallucinations/delusions when she unwillingly accepts the upstairs nursery instead of the downstairs room that opened into a piazza and had roses all over the window. She illustrates this by saying, ?But John would not hear of it. He said there was only one window and not room for two beds, and no near room for him if he took another? (Barrett 193). Once situated in the room she develops a fixation for the yellow wallpaper. The protagonist begins to follow the pattern about by the hour. She starts ?at the bottom, down in the corner over there where it has not been touched, and I determine for the thousandth time that I will follow that pointless patter to some sort of conclusion? (Barrett 197). Finally, from being in that room so long she begins the hallucinations. This is noticed when the protagonist points out that the front pattern does move-and no wonder! The woman behind shakes it! Sometimes I think there are a great many women behind, and sometimes only one, and she crawls around fast, and her crawling shakes it all over. Then in the very bright spots she keeps still, and in the very shady spots she just takes hold of the bars and shakes them hard. And she is all the time trying to climb through. But nobody could climb through that pattern-it strangles so; I think that is why it has so many heads. Then the protagonist continues by saying, I think that woman gets out in the daytime! And I'll tell you why-privately-I've seen her! (Barrett 202) As these hallucinations are going on the protagonist keeps these emotions bottled-up and doesn't allow anyone to be aware that she is having them. Another symptom that the protagonist has is severe insomnia, which is difficulty in initiating or maintaining sleep. She shows her inability to sleep when she says, ? he thought I was asleep first, but I wasn't, and lay there for hours trying to decide whether that front pattern and the back pattern really did move together or separately? (Barrett 199). The protagonist consistently stays awake at night staring at the wallpaper pattern