Nicole Henson
Rutan
AP Literature and Composition
27 January 2017
Rutan
AP Literature and Composition
27 January 2017
Isolation Worsening Mental Health in The Yellow Wallpaper
No communication with other people, no exercise, no reading, and certainly no writing!
These instructions are in no way similar to those that would be given to a patient by a modern-day doctor for a mental illness. Today, a doctor might instruct someone to partake in light exercise, take on as much work as they feel comfortable doing, and (of course) take their medicine. These are reasonable things to ask of a someone. However, a patient should not be closed in a room for weeks straight and be "absolutely forbidden to work" until they are certainly well again (Gilman, 11). Treating the mentally ill with solitary confinement and complete social isolation has not been in practice since at least 1955, when processes of deinstitutionalization (the removal of the mentally-ill from large state institutions before closing those institutions in favor of less isolated, shorter-stay spaces) began to take place. Isolating the mentally-ill has not been legitimately proven to cure them of their illness(es). |
Forcing people with mental health issues into such isolation has the high potential to actually make matters worse. Many instances have occurred in which the mentally ill person contracted hallucinatory tendencies, paranoia, and delirium--later defined in 1993 as SHU (State security housing unit) syndrome by Stuart Grassian, M.D. when he was studying the effects of solitary confinement in prisoners (Willigan, 2014). Such examples of the effects of social isolation are even evident in prominent classic literature, such as Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s The Yellow Wallpaper.
"John is a physician, and perhaps... perhaps that is one reason I do not get well faster." (Gilman, 7)
In Gilman’s short story, an unnamed and mentally ill woman’s journal is shared with the audience as she spends her days alone in a room with old, yellow wallpaper. One might inquire as to why the woman chose to spend her days in a single room, to which the response is: she did not choose to (literally) mentally waste away in that yellow room. Her husband John, a doctor, tells her that in order to rid herself of her nonsense mental issues, isolated time with little activity would do her well. John forbids her from doing things like writing; however, the narrator secretly keeps a journal. She comments on his indifference to her illness by writing: "You see he does not believe I am sick!" (Gilman, 8).
Pictured to the right is a photo from a campaign about the stigmas surrounding mental illnesses. The narrator describes her illness as depression, and her husband dismissing her concerns about her health and calling her silly does not help her condition at all. |
Through her own eyes, the reader is able to witness the woman’s illness get progressively worse as time goes on, until she loses most of her touch with reality. Her preexisting mental condition is worsened by isolation from socializing and doing most everyday activities. The increased paranoia and hysteria of the narrator were likely effects of neurobiological changes in her brain due to the isolation of those daily social activities. Craig Haney of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) describes the importance of social interaction in life:
So much of who we are depends on our contact with other people, the social context in which we function, and when you remove people from that context, they begin to lose their very sense of self." (Willigan, 2014)
Such a situation occurs with the narrator of The Yellow Wallpaper. Without access to someone to interact with, she begins to lose her own sense of humanity. As the story progresses, the woman's mind becomes less and less connected with reality. She begins to write more about things in her memory and her imagination, and she writes less about what is going on in the real world. The narrator writes mostly about the wallpaper of the room, and she soon begins obsessing over the color, its tattered condition, and its pattern. As she spends more time in the room alone, the narrator begins to hallucinate; she writes that there is a woman hiding in the wallpaper. The woman is "stooping and creeping" behind what seem like bars in the wallpaper. This hallucination is a projection of how the narrator subconsciously sees herself. Both the narrator and the "woman in wallpaper" are trapped in a sea of yellow, lost to humanity.
The narrator also beings to obsess over the wallpaper. She becomes increasingly paranoid that anyone would find about her interest in the wallpaper and that someone would also know about the woman in the wallpaper. The narrator convinces herself that she can smell the wallpaper wherever she goes. Her paranoia increases once she thinks John might suspect something going on with the wallpaper. Increased images of the woman in the wallpaper begin to manifest. |
At this point, the narrator is displaying two major symptoms of Grassian's previously mentioned SHU Syndrome--paranoia and hallucinations. Her mental illness has become worse than when she began the "treatment" her husband ordered! By examining the narrator's diction, one can clearly see the difference in her thought process from the beginning of the story to the end. She becomes increasingly more delusional and less accustomed to social situations. The journal ends with her telling the reader in a joyous tone that, after she caused her husband to faint from seeing her tear apart the wallpaper, she just has to "creep" over his body every time.
Clearly, Gilman wanted to show the effects that poor treatment of mental-illnesses have on patients. Thankfully, the practice of isolating those who need help the most has gone out of style in medical fields. Pieces of literature such as The Yellow Wallpaper serve as reminders of the things that we as a people used to do in the past and the damaging effects they had on people who really needed care.
Clearly, Gilman wanted to show the effects that poor treatment of mental-illnesses have on patients. Thankfully, the practice of isolating those who need help the most has gone out of style in medical fields. Pieces of literature such as The Yellow Wallpaper serve as reminders of the things that we as a people used to do in the past and the damaging effects they had on people who really needed care.