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

A Feminist Reading of The Yellow Wallpaper      Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   In the late nineteenth century, after the American social 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 steamed 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 effect of these new disorders was a slew of physicians and psychiatrists advocating one sort of cure or another, 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).      Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Charlotte Perkins Gilman, a renowned 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, Mitchell's "rest cure" nearly 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 legal and socia... ... Boston/New York:   Bedford/St. Martin's, 1998.   130-132. Gilman, Charlotte Perkins.   "The Yellow Wallpaper." The Yellow Wallpaper.   Ed. Dale M. Bauer.   Boston/New York:   Bedford/St. Martin's, 1998.   41-58. Gilman, Charlotte Perkins.   "Why I Wrote The Yellow Wallpaper?" The Yellow Wallpaper.   Ed. Dale M. Bauer.   Boston/New York:   Bedford/St. Martin's, 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. Martin's, 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. Martin's, 1998. 151- 155. Williams, William C.   "Old Doc Rivers."   The Doctor Stories.   Ed. Robert Coles.   New York:   New Directions Publishing Corporation, 1984.   13-41.