Okay, so one of my new favorite short stories right here! It was one of those stories that I could see a really weird and twisted movie coming from. Anyway, I really enjoyed it in all of it's creepiness.
I was very intrigued by the author Charlotte Perkins Gilman. So I did some research. (Again). Gilman explained that the idea for the story was from her own experience as a patient: and the real purpose of the story was to convince her doctor of the error of his ways. Apparently, Gilman had suffered for years from depression, and after consulting a physician who prescribed a "rest cure" which required her to "live as domestic a life as possible." She was not allowed to write or paint and was only allowed two hours of mental stimulation a day.
After three months, Gilman decided to ignore the doctor and started working again. Realizing how close she had come to a mental breakdown, she wrote "The Yellow Wallpaper" with exaggerations of her own misdiagnosed cure. She sent a copy to her doctor but never received a response.
She added that "The Yellow Wallpaper" was "not intended to drive people crazy, but to save people from being driven crazy, and it worked." Gilman later claimed that her doctor had changed his treatment methods, but historian Julie Bates Dock discredited this. However, her doctor did continue his methods, and was interested in creating entire hospitals devoted to the "rest cure."
 |
| Painting by Jonathon Sutton, entitled The Yellow Wallpaper more info on Gilman and The Yellow Wallpaper |
No comments:
Post a Comment