Postpartum Depression

“In carrying out my general plan of treatment it is my habit to ask the patient to remain in bed from six weeks to two months. At first, and in some cases for four or five weeks, I do not permit the patient to sit up or to sew or write or read.”
-Weir Mitchell, 1877

Postpartum depression is a naturally occurring phase that some women go through after giving birth, usually within the first year. In the short story, "The Yellow Wallpaper," the narrator suffers from that very problem. Her husband, John, follows the procedures of the “rest cure” by taking her to a country house for three months. She describes some notable qualities about the room she was to rest in, “…the windows are barred for little children, and there are rings and things on the walls” (12), “…that great bedstead nailed down…” (33). These descriptions can lead the reader to believe that the room was meant for a mental patient, which was something that the narrator soon came to be. A normal room would not have barred windows or “rings and things” on the walls.

After spending weeks trying to discover the meaning of the “…hideous…unreliable and infuriating [wallpaper]” (25) she slowly falls from depression into plain madness. The narrator claims that she “[had] spent hours in trying to analyze [the wallpaper]” (29). If she had not been condemned to three months of rest, it is likely she would not have had time to become entranced by such a simple adornment. The longer and longer she spent staring at the wallpaper, the more insane she became. This is evident when she shrieks to John, “I’ve got out at last…in spite of you and Jane! And I’ve pulled off most of the wallpaper, so you can’t put me back!” (36) at the end of the book. The narrator had become so enveloped in the wallpaper that she began to believe she was actually inside of it. That is not a sign of someone improving from depression. It is an obvious indication that someone is worsening in their mental state of mind.

One symptom of postpartum depression is the tendency for a woman to harm herself or the baby. Although the narrator does not seem to be a danger, she does see bizarre images in the paper. “[The women] get through, and then the pattern strangles them off and turns them upside down, and makes their eyes white!” (30). Being exposed to the same pattern for such a long time, was possibly the cause of her hallucinations. To my knowledge, Weir Mitchell’s “rest cure” theory was unsuccessful. Had the narrator been up and about more often, she most likely would not have begun to see the images in the wallpaper. It is questionably whether her husband realized this or not. It can be assumed that he was simply following procedure to what was the best known cure in the late 1800’s.

Ironically, the very thing that was supposed to cure the narrator’s depression ended up being her downfall. Not only did her nervous tendencies increase, but she became insane. Her fixations on the wallpaper led her to hallucinate and become captive to the intrinsic designs. Clearly, the cures for postpartum depression in the 1890’s, at least in this particular case, needed some more work.