Feminist Reading of The Yellow Wallpaper -- Feminism Feminist Women Cr

A Feminist Reading of The Yellow Wallpaper In the late nineteenth century, after the American cordial and economic shift commonly referred to as the Industrial Revolution had changed the very fabric of American society, increased attention was paid to the psychological disorders that apparently had locomote up out of the new smokestacks and skyscrapers in urban populations (Bauer, 131). These disorders were presumed to have been born out of the exhaustion and wear and tear of industrial society (Bauer, 131-132). An obvious solvent of these new disorders was a slew of physicians and psychiatrists advocating one sort of repossess or a nonher, although the rest cure popularized by the physician S. Weir Mitchell was the most embraced (Bauer, 131 Saur, 151-152). However, while the rest cure for men involved physical exercise and leisure activities, the cure for women was a suffocating slice of seclusion, bed rest, and no intellectual activity (Bauer, 131). Charlotte Perkins Gilma n, a illustrious feminist and author, was one of the women affected with ...a severe and continuous nervous breakdown tending to melancholia.., which was commonly termed as neurasthenia (Gilman, 348-349). However, rather than cure her, Mitchells rest cure close drove her insane. As a result of her maddening experience away from writing and almost all intellectual thought, she wrote her short story, The Yellow Wallpaper not ...to drive people crazy, but instead to ...save people from being driven crazy (Gilman, 349). Although her purpose in writing the story is clear, one can not help but wonder if she was motivated solely by her protest to nineteenth century medical practice or by her protest to the healthy and socia... ... Boston/New York Bedford/St. Martins, 1998. 130-132. Gilman, Charlotte Perkins. The Yellow Wallpaper. The Yellow Wallpaper. Ed. Dale M. Bauer. Boston/New York Bedford/St. Martins, 1998. 41-58. Gilman, Charlotte Perkins. Why I Wrote The Yellow Wallpaper? The Yellow Wallpaper. Ed. Dale M. Bauer. Boston/New York Bedford/St. Martins, 1998. 348-349. Mitchell, S. Weir. From Wear and Tear, or Hints for the Overworked. The Yellow Wallpaper. Ed. Dale M. Bauer. Boston/New York Bedford/St. Martins, 1998. 134-141. Saur, Prudence B. From Maternity A Book for Every Wife and Mother. The Yellow Wallpaper. Ed. Dale M. Bauer. Boston/New York Bedford/St. Martins, 1998. 151- 155. Williams, William C. Old Doc Rivers. The situate Stories. Ed. Robert Coles. New York New Directions Publishing Corporation, 1984. 13-41.