Revise the Essay 3

Jones 2

Sucely Jones

Prof. XXX

ENGL-1302-Composition II

03 Mar 2021

The Yellow Wallpaper

“The Yellow Wallpaper”, written by Charlotte Perkins Stetson, was first published in 1892. In this story, Charlotte helps the reader understand gender inequality, mental health, treatment of women, and how they are regarded by society. This story effectively uses the pathos appeal; however, the logos and ethos appeals are less convincing. Pathos appeals are those appeals that deal with the emotion of the reader. In this story, we mostly read about the emotions such as sadness, happiness, anger, etc., of the narrator of the story. The central character, who is also the narrator, of this story tells what she feels, and how she is treated by her husband. The other appeals logos and ethos are less appealing in this story. A reader can assume but does not guarantee and rely on the narrator’s word completely. The narrator’s husband is a doctor and the reader can rely on his words based on his education and knowledge. His words reflect the treatment done by doctors at that period. The weakest among all appeals is the logos appeal. There is not any interconnection of facts and figures to persuade the readers.

“The Yellow Wallpaper” is written in the first person and the narrator, wife of a physician, has postpartum depression after giving birth to a child. She with her husband and a newborn baby moves to a big mansion with a garden. They also have two maids to take care of their household work. The narrator has to take complete bed rest as a medication for postpartum depression. Her husband, a doctor, says the medication is perfect for her. However, this medication becomes worse for her. She has nothing to do but rest, she starts to see people moving in the yellow wallpaper of her room. She overthinks that some women are trapped into that and most of the time she gets offended by a woman who constantly trying to make her release from the yellow wallpaper. She also starts to feel the smell of the wallpaper and that smell follows her everywhere. When she explains her situation to her husband, her husband takes her lightly and commands her to follow the medication. She cannot get away from the visuals and the smell of the yellow wallpaper and one day, she locks her room and tears the wallpaper to make sure the trapped woman is released completely. When her husband enters her room and sees the torn wallpaper, he faints. Hence, the author presents mental health, gender inequality, treatment of women, and how they are regarded by society in this story.

The author chooses the mental health problem as a health issue in this story. I agree that mental health is very important for a person. A physical health issue is easily seen, and other people also can see the progress during medication. But mental problems are not the same. Only the person with an issue can feel the progress. This story reflects the time around the 1890s and women in the 1890s or before were given the rest cure as a treatment because the narrator is told to take complete bed rest in this story too. When I did some research on the medication for mental health during that time, I find that men were given west care and women were given rest care for a mental patient. West care, the terminology used in common for the medication at that period, means men had to travel west as much they could and return to home. So, a man with a mental health problem at that time rode his horse to the west as a treatment. Since the path to the west was considered very hard, that man had to deal with many ups and downs and survive from the bad weather. When he returns, he gets cured because his all-time was used in dealing with difficulties. But women had to take a rest as a medication. They had nothing to do and did not cure easily. In this story, the narrator has nothing to do and overthinks the yellow wallpaper, sees women trapped inside, smells the paint, and so on. This reflects that rest cure was a very ineffective way to deal with the mental patient and how medical practitioners were discriminating treatment based on gender.

The other thing that author presents in the story is about gender discrimination. Women at that time were treated badly. Men controlled all decisions, and choices of the women. Women expressing anything were disregarded by the men. Women had to do all household work, cook food, do the laundry, clean, etc. Men ordered women to do things and women should follow the command without telling their feelings. In this story, the husband of the narrator completely disregards the wife’s feelings about the yellow wallpaper. He constantly orders her to follow the medication and never tries to listen to his wife. I certainly feel women at that time had not freedom. They were living life but like in a prison. They could not object to anything at all. Every human being has the right to speak, the right to justice, and the right to freedom and opinion. Women are no less than men in any field. Biologically men and women are different, but they are not different in terms of ability. Women can achieve the goal that men cannot.

In conclusion, the yellow wallpaper is a masterpiece of Charlotte that presents different social activities around the 1890s. She presents the emotion of the narrator very perfectly. The story can present gender inequality, mental health treatment to the women, and how they are regarded by society. I feel the pathos appeal of this story is well connected. I can easily connect myself to the narrator, but I cannot completely rely on her words about the men’s behavior toward the women because there is not any designation or symbols that represent her as a representative woman of that time. However, I was a woman who completely understands the feeling of the narrator and condemns the medication and treatment done to her. I also find this story is equally applicable today to compare the behavior towards the women at that time and present. Women are achieving their goals. Some women are at a higher level of the organization. Women at this period would never know how women were treated a century ago if the story like “The Yellow Wallpaper” were not written. Also, a story like this helps to spread awareness among the people and help in changing society into a better place for women.

Work Cited

Charlotte Perkins Stetson. “The Yellow Wallpaper”, 1892