The Troubled Wives

Angelica Nimaltseva

Professor Pallis

English 102

July 22, 2017

The Troubled Wives

“The Yellow Wallpaper” and “A Sorrowful Woman” shared many different characteristics and themes throughout their respective short stories. These stories are of feminist fiction, where both women are yearning to escape restrictions of the typical female role during these time periods. The treatment of mental illness during these general time periods is depicted in these stories by ways of seclusion both mentally and physically. Both stories touch base on the social and economic dependence of women on men. After reading “The Yellow Wallpaper” and “A Sorrowful Woman”, both main female characters are suffering deeply from mental illness, sense of entrapment to and of men and follow a path of deterioration and death.

“The Yellow Wallpaper” is about a woman suffering from depression misdiagnosed by her physician husband as some sort of hysteria. The husband believes that the cure for this is rest, isolation and inactivity (intellectually and physically). She is taken to a mansion in which she is placed in a room chosen by her husband that was presumed to be a nursery. The floor in the room is scratched and gouged, the bed bolted to the floor and bars on the window. The narrator describes it “as if it had been through the wars.” (Gilman) It was believed during this time that mental illness could be cured by limiting women’s activity. This was the beginning of the narrator’s “rest cure”. The narrator is aware of her condition and willingly accepts help from her husband, a trusted physician.  The longer she is isolated in the room with the yellow wallpaper she begins to hallucinate. According to an article in goodtherapy.org, “Social isolation, in turn, can exacerbate a person’s feelings of low self-worth, shame, loneliness, depression, and other mental health concerns. Thus, social isolation can be both a cause and symptom of other mental health issues. “In a “A Sorrowful Woman” the wife is overwhelmed with the daily tasks of maintaining a marriage and running a family. The first line of the story is “Once upon a time there was a wife and mother one too many times” (Godwin) The saying “Once upon a time” often relates to a fairy tale and the reader is lead to believe that life as a wife and mother is going to be perfect for the character. As the story progress’s the main character is overwhelmed by everyday duties of running a household and begins to place herself into voluntary seclusion. As she attempts to connect with her child who longs for attention from his mother, while playing he ends up accidentally scratching her. This emotionally dysregulates her and alerts her husband of the situation who then hires a babysitter. The wife seems to want nothing to do with her child or husband and continues to seclude herself from them both. It appears that she acknowledges the fact that she’s a burden to the family when she says “I don’t know what we’ll do. It’s all my fault. I know I’m such a burden, I know that.” (Godwin) It is unsure that the wife is aware that she is depressed because she seems unsure of why she is acting the way she is. The wife in “The Yellow Wallpaper” does long to be with her baby but she understands that she is not well enough to be with the baby when she says “It is fortunate that Mary is so good with the baby. Such a dear baby! And yet I cannot be with him, it makes me so nervous”. (Gilman). On the other hand, the wife in “A Sorrowful Woman” appears to have no interest in her child as evidenced when she says, “I don’t think I can seem him anymore” (Godwin). The wife is also portrayed as self-centered by the statement “She was a young queen, a virgin in a tower.” Pharmaceuticals were not widely used to treat mental illness as they are today but each story uses some form of them in conjunction with their treatment. The husband in “A Sorrowful Woman” story makes a medicine that is a drought along with cognac that he brings to his wife every night in attempts to make her better but seems to be making her depression worse instead of revitalizing her. In “The Yellow Wallpaper” the narrator states “So I take phosphates or phosphites—whichever it is, and tonics, and journeys and air, and exercise and I am absolutely forbidden to “work” until I am well again.” (Gilman) but her treatment is mainly focused on seclusion.

        In both stories, there is a sense of entrapment by the male characters. In “The Yellow Paper” the narrator’s husband John, is a physician so he only believes what he can see in touch. He believes that she creates her own illness and has her follow his prescription for a rest cure and expects her to be obedient. He takes full control over her life and enforces restrictions such as who she can see and speak to, how she spends her time, what room she is staying in and restricts her from writing in a journal. John places himself in a superior and paternal position, often using demeaning names towards her. He talks to the narrator like a child calling her his “little girl” and “blessed little goose” (Gilman). Even though he is gone most of the time, Johns wife still has her closely monitored by his sister who is also a nurse. Johns sister, Jennie is also entrapped by her brother because she is forced to obey his orders even when her contact with his wife made it clear to her that her brothers orders are harming his wife rather than helping her. In the beginning of the story Jennie’s views are bound by John’s concrete view of the world but towards the end of the story she shows more sympathy and willingness to try to understand and explore reasonable explanations for his wife’s behavior. I believe John’s main reasoning to cure his wife this way is so that he can make it clear to her that she has no role other than to be a charming wife and mother. He isn’t mean or aggressive towards her in the story but makes sure that his role is known and he is to not be questioned. While he is nurturing he is somewhat selfish when the narrator states this “He said I was his darling and his comfort and all he had, and that I must take care of myself for his sake and keep well.” (Gilman). While the husband in “A Sorrowful Woman” is the one who is entrapped emotionally and his wife entraps herself physically and mentally. Because of his wife’s depression and her unwillingness to leave her room, the husband is forced to take on the role of the father and mother to their young child. She entraps him into dual roles because she can’t handle being a mother and wife. He shows the true strength of a man and prepares himself to be a single parent knowing his wife is slowly dying. He shows continuous support and patience even when she had told him “The sight of them made her so sad and sick she did not ever want to see them again” (Godwin). Even when the husband had brought a babysitter to help she fired her because she couldn’t stand to see another woman doing the work that she should be able to do. So again, she places all the responsibility on her husband. He does everything he can to try to help her and she is unresponsive to his efforts. She eventually ended up locking herself in a room with food and whatever else she needed not planning to leave much. I believe this is because she can’t accept her condition and inability to care for her family and feels they’d be better off without her. While both husbands try to act in the best interest of their wives they only drive them into further isolation.