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Jocelyn Muchna

Ms. Bradshaw

AP Lit 5th Hour

10 Feb. 2019

Woes of Women

Women have been discriminated against for centuries. They are often seen as the weaker

sex, meant only to be soft and motherly. The injustice of today has only decreased since the

1800s. During this time, women were expected to exactly fit a mold: grow up, get​ ​married, have

lots of children. Many female authors of this time decided to write about their experiences in

order to convey their feelings to the world. The anonymity of writing often kept these authors

relatively safe from the judgement of men who believed women and the entirety of their feelings

and opinions to be lesser. Two women in particular, Kate Chopin and Charlotte Perkins Gilman,

rallied against the patriarchy and wrote incredibly influential novels depicting female characters

struggling against the overbearing rules of the nineteenth century patriarchy. ​The Awakening​ by

Kate Chopin and ​The Yellow Wallpaper​ by Charlotte Perkins Gilman reveal how nineteenth

century women were forced into tremendously restrictive gender roles and that their mental

health was severely affected because of it. These works also display the faults in how male

doctors treated women who exhibited symptoms of mental illness, which ended up harming the

patients rather than helping them.

The sweeping attitude of doctors in the nineteenth century, most of who were men,

toward the mental health of women was dismissive and callous. Nearly all symptoms exhibited

by women were labeled as a psychological disorder called hysteria. The word hysteria is defined
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as “an uncontrollable outburst of emotion or fear, often characterized by irrationality, laughter,

weeping, etc.” (“Hysteria”); similarly, hysteria as a condition produced symptoms ranging

anywhere from feelings of sadness to nervous spells to seizures. George Preston, a nineteenth

century American​ ​educator and author of ​Hysteria and Certain Allied Conditions, their Nature

and Treatment, with Special Reference to the Application of the Rest Cure, Massage,

Electrotherapy, Hypnotism, etc.​ , admitted that “with disturbances of hysteria, a formidable

difficulty presents itself in the fact that the symptoms are purely subjective…”

(Smith-Rosenberg, 664). “Subjective symptoms” should be deemed suspicious, because the word

subjective is defined as “existing in the mind… pertaining to or characteristic of an individual;

personal; individual” (“Subjective”). Women could be experiencing very different sets of

symptoms and still all be diagnosed with the same disease, which does not make much medical

sense. Today, with expanded knowledge of the human mind and how it works, hysteria is no

longer regarded as a singular ailment, and is considered to consist of a vast range of disorders,

including depression, anxiety, and even schizophrenia (Smith-Rosenberg).

In this time of hysteria, all women were expected to fit a traditional and domestic gender

role. Gender roles are “the ways in which males and females behave (or are expected to behave)

in society” (“Femininity/Masculinity,” 689). In the 1960s, a study conducted by writers of the

Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology​ instructed subjects to describe the stereotypical

man and woman. They described the stereotypical woman as meek and caring while the

stereotypical man was described as assertive and dominant. The same study was then repeated

years later, and the findings were nearly identical those of the first study (“Sexism,” 1433). The

gender specific characteristics that nineteenth century women were supposed to exhibit fit with
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these findings, but the determined female roles were considerably more defined and unyielding

than they are today. The extreme rigidity of these expectations “created stress within the family”

because the “individual domestic role alternatives were few and so rigidly defined”

(Smith-Rosenberg, 655)​. ​Women of the time were all expected to “[praise] domesticity and

child-centered motherhood as the apex of womanly fulfillment” (Theriot, 17), and, once they

were mothers, they were expected to live a life “of total self-abandonment and

child-centeredness” (Theriot, 23). With the incredible amount of stress put upon women by

society, “physicians reported a high incidence of nervous disease and hysteria among women

who felt overpowered by the burdens of frequent pregnancies, the demands of children, the daily

exertions of housekeeping and family management” (Smith-Rosenberg, 657). The stress-induced

psychological disorders that were caused by these strict roles can be seen in both Kate Chopin’s

and Charlotte Gilman’s work, and the degradation of both main character’s mental state can be

seen as an adverse reaction to the treatment given at the time.

The Awakening​ follows Edna, a woman who “feels as if she lives a double life: one that

conforms and one that questions” (Jones). Through the story, Edna awakens from her trancelike

state of following all of the traditional roles of women in the 1800s and begins to think of herself

as a person; not just a woman, as many females were forced to see themselves. For a while, she

attempts to maintain the facade of contentedness with her societal roles of domestic wife and

mother, but the stress of conforming to a role that her heart does not desire soon takes a toll on

her; she begins to exhibit signs of depression. This depression leads her to make many choices

that would be considered unfit and rebellious for women at the time; “Edna’s rebellion against

her rigid role is shown [through] her unexpected emotional response to [Mademoiselle] Reisz’s
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concert; her exultation on learning to swim; her desire for Robert Lebrun, a young man with

whom she is in sympathy; and her defiance of her husband’s wishes” (Jones). This untraditional

and scandalous behavior leads her husband to consult with their doctor about her unusual,

hysteric symptoms as well as the “notion[s] in her head concerning the eternal rights of women”

(Chopin 65). The doctor then advises Edna’s husband to leave her be, saying “let your wife alone

for a while. Don’t bother her, and don’t let her bother you” (Chopin, 66). However, today’s

advanced comprehension of depression and other mental illnesses gives one the knowledge that

is necessary to understand that the solitude recommended by Edna’s doctor will not help her

condition. It is now known that depression can be relieved by psychological support given by

loved ones and the continuation of normalcy​ ​(Wasserman). By telling Edna’s husband to “let her

be,” the doctor is only aggravating her budding depression and causing Edna more suffering. The

“lack of supportive networks, poorly functioning relationships, and poor social integration

[create] an increased risk of depression” (Wasserman, 81). Being isolated from even her most

intimate relationships, Edna certainly is at an extreme risk of developing depression. The

unstable, depressive mentality of Edna manifests itself in this description:

There were days when she was unhappy, she did not know why—when it did not

seem worthwhile to be glad or sorry, to be alive or dead; when life appeared to

her like a grotesque pandemonium and humanity like worms struggling blindly

toward inevitable annihilation (Chopin, 58).

One can clearly see Edna’s despondency in this quote. While depression can manifest differently

in everyone, symptoms commonly include feelings of extreme sadness and loss of interest in

activities previously enjoyed by the sufferer (Wasserman). Edna’s acts of defiance continue to
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spiral throughout the book; she has affairs with two men, and she fundamentally abandons her

role as a mother, sending her children away to live with their grandmother. This was extremely

frowned upon at the time; “one male writer went so far as to say that a woman seeking to escape

the constant care of her children was unnatural, and that such an escape would transform her into

a ‘monster.’ He added that ‘she who can wish to throw off such cares must be capable of any

wickedness’” (Theriot, 19). The process of Edna seemingly casting off her children and

motherly duties is seen as the ultimate betrayal of her family and society. However, Edna is not

purposefully betraying anyone; she is awakening and discovering herself. Edna states “‘I would

give up the unessential; I would give up my money, I would give up my life for my children; but

I wouldn't give myself. I can't make it more clear; it's only something I am beginning to

comprehend, which is revealing itself to me’” (Chopin, 47). Edna decides that she cannot let go

of her newfound independence, but she also cannot let her children go on with a mother who is a

social outcast. Her depression, her love for her children, and her extreme defiance of societal

standards lead her to commit a peaceful suicide at the conclusion of the novel. Her self-inflicted

death can be seen as the ultimate escape from the restraints put upon her by society and the

obtuse doctors who do not understand that women should be seen and treated as people, too.

Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s ​The Yellow Wallpaper​ depicts a similar scenario. Described

by Susan Lanser as a “brilliant tale of a white, middle-class wife driven mad by a patriarchy

trying to control her ‘for her own good’” (415), the story is presented as a journal by an unnamed

narrator, who is diagnosed by her husband/doctor, John, with “nervous depression” and is taken

to a secluded house by him in an attempt to cure her ailment with a mandatory resting period.

The narrator’s husband orders her “absolutely forbidden to ‘work’ until [she was] well again”
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(Gilman, 4). The narrator repeatedly describes how John makes light of her concerns and desires;

she says, “I sometimes fancy that in my condition if I had less opposition and more society and

stimulus—but John says the very worst thing I can do is think about my condition” (Gilman, 5).

She longs for connection with other humans but is kept in isolation by the command of her

husband, who she believes would never do anything to harm her. The narrator spends the days

alone in her room, and continues to journal secretly, even though John considers writing work

and unfit for a woman in her condition. This refusal of her husband's orders mirrors that of

Edna’s in ​The Awakening.​ In this confidential journal, the narrator describes her surroundings.

Her descriptions are predominantly positive, conveying her disbelief at how John could possibly

afford to rent this large, beautiful house, but some aspects of her conditions are described more

disturbingly, namely the bars on the windows and the atrocious yellow wallpaper in the

narrator’s bedroom that causes her unease. This extreme unease at something as mundane as

wallpaper is the first sign that the narrator is truly plagued by a disorder. As the days go by, the

narrator starts to become obsessed with the wallpaper and its apparently menacing qualities, and

her growing infatuation with the wallpaper begins to worry her husband. However, John refuses

to change the wallpaper in the room because he regards that as giving in to the narrators

obviously irrational anxieties. The narrator begins to try to figure out the seemingly random

patterns found in the wallpaper, and sees what she describes as a woman trapped behind the

wallpaper. Parallels can be drawn between this trapped woman and the narrator, who is trapped

in her own personal nightmare, detached from her loved ones and the contact with others that she

craves (Lanser). The story culminates with the narrator ripping, biting, and tearing the wallpaper

from the walls in an attempt to free the woman she has discovered within them. She is reduced to
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complete and utter insanity. The last we hear from the narrator, John breaks into the room that

she has locked herself and promptly faints upon the sight of his now deranged wife. The

narrator’s mental health has degraded from the “nervous depression” she exhibited when she

arrived at the estate to hallucinations, insomnia, and complete madness at the conclusion of the

book. She is more evidently affected by the treatment provided to her than Edna in ​The

Awakening,​ but she does not end up taking her own life as a result like Edna did. What was

considered to be hysteria in ​The Yellow Wallpaper​ may very well be a form of schizophrenia,

which can be identified by hallucinations and unhealthy fixations such as her obsession with the

wallpaper and the woman trapped within it. Schizophrenia is characterized by a loss of touch

with reality, and those suffering from it can exhibit anything from relatively minor to chronic

symptoms (Marder). While the narrator may have been mentally unwell when she first arrived at

her “summer home,” it is clear that the restrictions forced upon her by her own husband who

allowed little understanding and compassion for her woes only intensified her mental illness to

the point of complete, deranged insanity. John’s neglection and dismissal of the narrator

ultimately ruins her mental soundness.

These two stories express the frustration of nineteenth century women who were unfairly

put into societal roles and as a result suffered from mental illness. Society has made many strides

toward the improvement of the treatment of women; the modern feminist movement has helped

women as a whole become closer to being seen as true people and not just weak and emotional

women. Doctors that often commanded that women suffering from diagnosed hysteria be given a

mandatory resting period now give female patients much more of a voice in their treatment and

often call for the rallied support of friends and family. It is important to understand that, even
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through our many advancements, gender roles still permeate today’s society. We must recognize

that these prejudices exist and be conscious of how we behave towards those affected by them.
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Works Cited

Chopin, Kate. Dover Thrift Editions. Edited by Stanley Appelbaum and Philip Smith, Dover

Publications, 1993.

“Femininity/Masculinity.” ​Encyclopedia of Sociology,​ Edited by Edgar F Borgatta and Marie L

Borgatta, II, Macmillan, 1992, p. 689.

Gilman, Charlotte Perkins. ​The Yellow Wallpaper​. The Floating Press, 2009. ​EBSCOhost​,

search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=e000xna&AN=314235&site=ehost-liv

e.

“Hysteria.” ​Dictionary.com​, Dictionary.com, www.dictionary.com/browse/hysteria.

Jones, Michelle L. “Kate Chopin.” ​Dictionary of World Biography: The 19th Century,​ Jan. 2000,

pp. 1–3. ​EBSCOhost​, search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=lfh&AN=10333

1DWN10330260000130&site=ehost-live.

Lanser, Susan S. “Feminist Criticism, ‘The Yellow Wallpaper," and the Politics of Color in

America.” ​Feminist Studies​, vol. 15, no. 3, 1989, pp. 415–441. ​JSTOR,​

www.jstor.org/stable/3177938.

Marder, Stephen R., and Vandra Chopra. ​Schizophrenia​. Oxford University Press, 2014.

EBSCOhost​, search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=e000xna&AN

=817541&site=ehost-live.

“Sexism.” Magill's Encyclopedia of Social Science: Psychology, Edited by Nancy A Piotrowski,

IV, Salem, 2003, pp. 1433.

“Subjective.” ​Dictionary.com,​ Dictionary.com, www.dictionary.com/browse/subjective.

Theriot, Nancy M. ​Mothers and Daughters in Nineteenth-Century America : The Biosocial

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Construction of Femininity​. The University Press of Kentucky, 2015. ​EBSCOhost​,

search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=e000xna&AN=938326&site=ehost-liv

e.

Wasserman, Danuta. ​Depression.​ Vol. 2nd ed, OUP Oxford, 2011. ​EBSCOhost,​

search.ebscohost.

com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=e000xna&AN=467673&site=ehost-live.