Get Some Rest, But Don't Lose Your Mind
How a traumatic life experience fueled a Gothic horror story
A popular 19th-century treatment for women’s mental health issues, called the rest cure, prescribed complete isolation from intellectual and social activities. This approach supposedly helped calm the mind and restore health when women felt depressed or anxious. However, the isolation left many feeling imprisoned and vulnerable.
Charlotte Perkins Gilman, who underwent the rest cure, used her experience to reveal how the treatment intensified feelings of helplessness, restriction, and despair.
Gilman’s short psychological horror story, The Yellow Wallpaper, is a scathing critique of the forces that silenced women under the guise of medical care. She illustrates how the rest cure stripped women of personal agency and connection to the world.
Gilman explores the damaging effects of this oppressive treatment through her protagonist’s first person narration. In the story, the narrator’s husband, and doctor, insists on the rest cure. He confines his wife to h…