The Yellow Wallpaper 3

“Rest Induced Insanity”: Setting In “The Yellow Wallpaper”(1892) Charlotte Perkins Gilman uses setting to reflect the mental changes in the protagonist, a woman suffering from a nervous condition. The protagonist’s husband, John, a physician prescribes a “rest cure” for her treatment. John takes her away for the summer and places her in “[a] colonial mansion”(542). As the story unfolds, the protagonist descends from neurasthenia into insanity during the course of her enforced rest (imprisonment) …

…got out at last, said I, in spite of you and Jane. And I’ve pulled off most of the paper, so you can’t put me back!”(553). She finally feels free, at a sad price to pay... her insanity. It is clear that the setting along with the prescribed treatment by the protagonist’s husband simply enhanced her illness to the extent of losing her sanity, proving that the “rest cure” did not work.