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dahud's review against another edition
dark
emotional
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Confinement and Mental illness
Minor: Self harm
nadiamasood's review against another edition
dark
emotional
mysterious
sad
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
This book is dark and it ends on a chilling note.
To better appreciate this short story, one would find it helpful to have a little background on the author herself and how women's mental health was treated in the 19th century.
Charlotte Perkins Gilman was already prone to depression and suffered from severe postpartum depression after giving birth. At the time, the predominantly male medical profession was not equipped to deal with mental health. Women were considered “hysterical” beings by their very nature, their health problems were often dismissed as mere nerves.
Dr. Silas Weir Mitchell was summoned to help, who prescribed the “rest cure,” which essentially required that she give up ALL creative pursuits, such as reading and writing, keep a nurse with her at all times, avoid any activities that required mental exertions, prohibition from meeting with friends and family, and enforced sedentary lifestyle, where one must lie in bed for most of the day. Instead of curing her, these restrictions—prescribed by Miller and enforced by her husband—only made her depression worse, and she began to have suicidal thoughts.
Charlotte divorced six years later, in 1894. Her depression began to lift, and she embarked on a steady recovery. Gilman’s experience with depression and her first marriage influenced her writing heavily.
Gilman's writing in The Yellow Wallpaper is both haunting and evocative. The narrative is presented through the eyes of an unnamed woman who is prescribed a "rest cure" by her physician husband, John. We read the story as her journal entries, noting her deteriorating mental state as her obsession with the wallpaper intensifies, culminating in a disturbing and poignant climax.
The story is rich in symbolism. For example, the mansion seemed like a mental asylum: the bed is nailed to the floor and the windows are barred. She begins seeing women jumping out of the wallpaper, which suggests she could be delusional. I wonder if John was even her husband? Could he be a doctor trying out the rest cure on a patient?
It stood out to me that despite being gaslighted by her husband and dismissed as hysterical, she maintains a sense of self and ultimately asserts her agency powerfully and unforgettably!
I highly recommend this book to everyone!
To better appreciate this short story, one would find it helpful to have a little background on the author herself and how women's mental health was treated in the 19th century.
Charlotte Perkins Gilman was already prone to depression and suffered from severe postpartum depression after giving birth. At the time, the predominantly male medical profession was not equipped to deal with mental health. Women were considered “hysterical” beings by their very nature, their health problems were often dismissed as mere nerves.
Dr. Silas Weir Mitchell was summoned to help, who prescribed the “rest cure,” which essentially required that she give up ALL creative pursuits, such as reading and writing, keep a nurse with her at all times, avoid any activities that required mental exertions, prohibition from meeting with friends and family, and enforced sedentary lifestyle, where one must lie in bed for most of the day. Instead of curing her, these restrictions—prescribed by Miller and enforced by her husband—only made her depression worse, and she began to have suicidal thoughts.
Charlotte divorced six years later, in 1894. Her depression began to lift, and she embarked on a steady recovery. Gilman’s experience with depression and her first marriage influenced her writing heavily.
Gilman's writing in The Yellow Wallpaper is both haunting and evocative. The narrative is presented through the eyes of an unnamed woman who is prescribed a "rest cure" by her physician husband, John. We read the story as her journal entries, noting her deteriorating mental state as her obsession with the wallpaper intensifies, culminating in a disturbing and poignant climax.
The story is rich in symbolism. For example, the mansion seemed like a mental asylum: the bed is nailed to the floor and the windows are barred. She begins seeing women jumping out of the wallpaper, which suggests she could be delusional. I wonder if John was even her husband? Could he be a doctor trying out the rest cure on a patient?
It stood out to me that despite being gaslighted by her husband and dismissed as hysterical, she maintains a sense of self and ultimately asserts her agency powerfully and unforgettably!
I highly recommend this book to everyone!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Mental illness and Gaslighting
bookwormcat's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
Content Warnings
Moderate: Confinement, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Forced institutionalization, and Gaslighting
marayzex's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.75
Content Warnings
Graphic: Confinement, Mental illness, and Gaslighting
Minor: Stalking
hauntedantiqueshop's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
sad
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
4.75
This is ultimately one of my favorite horror stories. We get an unreliable narrator, suffering from postpartum depression and really just being punished for it. Her husband/physician doesn’t actually believe anything is wrong with her yet isn’t allowing her to do anything besides stay in this decaying room, including anything as simple express herself in writing. She immediately convinces herself that the room is a nursery but it’s more likely that it was used to house/imprison an insane person. She has no escape or outlet besides staring at this funky wallpaper. Of course it’s going to start warping and her mind will play tricks on her. It’s almost funny that he’s so shocked in the end that he faints. What did he expect?
Content Warnings
Graphic: Confinement, Mental illness, Misogyny, Forced institutionalization, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , and Gaslighting
hunterlovesneilperry's review against another edition
dark
emotional
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
4.5
very interesting story of how post-partum depression can drive you insane if you aren't treated properly.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Mental illness
eva_vva's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
reflective
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Confinement, Mental illness, Misogyny, Forced institutionalization, Medical content, Medical trauma, and Gaslighting
Moderate: Suicidal thoughts
Minor: Suicide attempt, Pregnancy, and Injury/Injury detail
carolinebl's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
Content Warnings
Graphic: Mental illness
priscillarobock's review against another edition
dark
emotional
mysterious
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Content Warnings
Minor: Confinement, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , and Gaslighting
rubyeve's review against another edition
dark
reflective
sad
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
"And she is all the time trying to climb through. But nobody could climb through that pattern - it strangles so; I think that is why it has so many heads."
Enraging, terrifying, masterful. Written about a woman pushed towards insanity after being put on the 'rest cure' following the birth of her child, this story is not only a revealing gut punch from the past but horrifyingly relevant.
Sharp yet thoughtful writing and excellent choice of register were both executed perfectly for the story's purpose. We watch a woman guilty of her lack of domestic purpose who undergoes her husband's medical gaslighting almost achieve enlightenment in insanity through growing fearful of her husband, seeing those subjecting her to the rest cure as the irrational, guilty ones and realising the extensive numbers of women subjected to the same treatment through the beautifully crafted, mirroring symbol of entrapment and patriarchy - the yellow wallpaper.
We see the wallpaper go from a passing thought, to a reflection, to all-consuming entertainment, to engulfing the narrator as an actual part of it in her mind - a thought-provoking development symbolising the inescapable nature of patriarchy even for a woman who has become a part of something so irrational and unconforming as the yellow wallpaper itself. I found it hugely interesting that the 'rest cure' created a woman so damaged a victim of medical misogyny as well as the opposite of the pacified woman intended by the treatment as our narrator becomes what was a pattern of the maddeningly illogical wallpaper design which conforms to no set of expectations or conventions.
Thought-provoking genius.
Enraging, terrifying, masterful. Written about a woman pushed towards insanity after being put on the 'rest cure' following the birth of her child, this story is not only a revealing gut punch from the past but horrifyingly relevant.
Sharp yet thoughtful writing and excellent choice of register were both executed perfectly for the story's purpose. We watch a woman guilty of her lack of domestic purpose who undergoes her husband's medical gaslighting almost achieve enlightenment in insanity through growing fearful of her husband, seeing those subjecting her to the rest cure as the irrational, guilty ones and realising the extensive numbers of women subjected to the same treatment through the beautifully crafted, mirroring symbol of entrapment and patriarchy - the yellow wallpaper.
We see the wallpaper go from a passing thought, to a reflection, to all-consuming entertainment, to engulfing the narrator as an actual part of it in her mind - a thought-provoking development symbolising the inescapable nature of patriarchy even for a woman who has become a part of something so irrational and unconforming as the yellow wallpaper itself. I found it hugely interesting that the 'rest cure' created a woman so damaged a victim of medical misogyny as well as the opposite of the pacified woman intended by the treatment as our narrator becomes what was a pattern of the maddeningly illogical wallpaper design which conforms to no set of expectations or conventions.
Thought-provoking genius.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Mental illness, Misogyny, and Gaslighting