In “The Yellow Wallpaper” by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, the main character and Gilman shared extensive similarities. Their lives practically seem to run parallel to one another, from their diagnosis to their doctor and their treatment. Signs are shown throughout the story that even the mansion itself and the gardens represent the mental trap that Gilman and the main character felt in their lives. Not only were they both supposedly treated with the common treatment for women; “rest cure” but they encountered the same mental illness. Charlotte Gilman also wrote in “The Yellow Wallpaper” of a doctor that treated her with the rest cure named Dr. Mitchell.

Gilman was treated by Dr. Silas Weir Mitchell, who was a well-known supporter of the rest cure, Mitchell prescribed Gilman this treatment. Gilman admitted to writing “The Yellow Wallpaper” to show how the rest cure was ineffective in “Why I Wrote The Yellow Wallpaper” October of 1913. John, the main character’s husband in the story, threatens to send her to Dr. Mitchell, “John says if I don’t pick up faster he shall send me to Weir Mitchell in the fall.”
(Gilman 4) which is a direct reference to Gilman’s doctor. Charlotte Gilman disagreed completely on Mitchell’s ways. In the story, the rest cure is a large reason in main character’s insanity. Both the main character and Gilman were prescribed the same treatments, which in Gilman’s case made her feel like it only harmed her sanity. This is demonstrated in “The Yellow Wallpaper” and is expressed when the main character tells, “It is a very bad habit I am convinced, for you see I don’t sleep. And the cultivates deceit, for I don’t tell them I’m awake – O no!” (Gilman 6.) Gilman might have also been treated with the rest cure only to pretend to sleep, as the main character had.

The main character speaks of her diagnosis early in the story, “If a physician of high standing, and one’s own husband, assures friends and relatives that there is really nothing the matter with one but temporary nervous depression – a slight hysterical tendency – what is one to do?” (Gilman 1.) These two particular symptoms are extremely common in mothers with Postpartum Depression (PPD.) PPD is a type of depression suffered by a mother after child birth; it usually comes from hormonal changes and the mental adjustment to motherhood. In the story, the main character has an infant but does not speak of the child often. The child is almost an afterthought in her writing, as with Gilman, who also had children but is not well known as a mother. Gilman only had one child with her husband, Charles Walter Stetson, in 1885 named Katharine Beecher Stetson. The main character does not seem to have a mothering sense as she talks of her child briefly, “I never thought of it before, but it is lucky that John kept me here after all, I can stand it so much easier than a baby, you see.” (Gilman 5) indicating that the child is part of the reason for her mental instability. The statement strong example of how her motherhood affects her sanity. Perhaps Gilman, too found motherhood a strain on her mental state causing her PPD.

The setting of “The Yellow Wallpaper” itself is quite an interesting estate. Not only did Gilman write of the infamous wallpaper, but she wrote of barred windows and a bed nailed to the floor. This suggests that it was used to restrain someone, as if it were an asylum itself. The room the main character speaks of seems to mentally trap her within its very walls. She speaks of the broken and overgrown garden, “I never saw such a garden – large and shady, full of box-bordered paths, and lined with long grape-covered arbors with seats under them. There were greenhouses, too, but they are all broken now.” (Gilman 1.) When she first starts explaining the garden the narrator seems hopeful, until she reaches the broken greenhouses. The garden is similar to the main character and Gilman in the sense of both being delicate woman until they had been shattered. The greenhouses remained broken like Gilman and the protagonist’s mental state. The garden itself is described to be beautiful in the main character’s eyes, she speaks as if she is looking out upon the life she could have but the constrains of the wallpaper keeps her in. Her lines what is herself and what is the room near the end of the story, “‘I’ve got out at last,’ said I, ‘in spite of you and Jane. And I’ve pulled off most of the wallpaper, so you can’t put me back!’” (Gilman 9.) This is similar to the nervous breakdowns which Charlotte Gilman often had through-out her life. The door had a lock as well which is also like an asylum, the characteristics of the building, including the gate at the top of the stairs of her floor was similar to a dormitory style asylum from the 1800’s.

Gilman used her writing to portray her life and experiences as a woman suffering from mental illness. Her story “The Yellow Wallpaper” gives the perspective of a woman, like her who is treated with the rest cure and gained nothing from it. The similarities between the main character and Gilman herself are prominent, from sharing the same mental disorder (PPD) to sharing the same doctor. Gilman was even treated with the rest cure herself, knowing first hand its effectiveness, or for better words, its ineffectiveness. The greenhouse symbolizes her emotional state and the garden of her life as well as the main character. Not to mention the similarities between the mansion the main character resides in and an asylum. The wallpaper in her room was already pealed in some spots, suggesting that someone else may have gone insane in the same room. The bars on the windows placed possibly to keep the person residing in the room from going (or jumping) out the window, leaving no way to escape the insanity. Gilman took her life and spun it into her writing to help show just how useful the rest cure treatment was as well as some of the things that a person with a mental illness can go through. The story truly puts the reader into the mind of the main character and leaves the reader thinking of the story days after.