As a possible cure, Jane’s husband, a physician, diagnoses her as having nothing wrong. It may be a temporary nervous depression – a slight hysterical tendency – and there is nothing for her to do about it. She is only forbidden to “work” until she is well again. Charlotte was prescribed something of the same manner and told by her physician that she too was just suffering from hysteria. Charlotte demonstrates her anger and frustration regarding the “rest cure” through the character of Jane, who makes it perfectly clear that Charlotte is unappreciative of the medical profession. She states, “John is a physician, and perhaps – (I would not say it to a living soul, of course, but this is dead paper and a great relief to my mind) – perhaps that is one reason I do not get well faster” (Gilman, 595). She also says, “John is practical in the extreme. He has no patience with faith, an intense horror of superstition, and he scoffs openly at any talk of things not to be felt and seen and put down in figures” (Gilman, 594). This last passage demonstrates that John is scientific and Jane does not view things in the same ways he does. Overall, Jane is seriously condemning the medical profession, basically saying that the prescriptions given are not given with reason or thought and rather than helping or curing people, they instead cause people to become even more ill.

Charlotte traveled to consult with the greatest nerve specialist in the country, Dr. S. W. Mitchell of Philadelphia. This doctor prescribed the “rest cure,” reassuring her that there was no sort of dementia and rather hysteria. She was prescribed to do nothing but spend time with her child. She was unable to write, to read, or to have more than two hours of intellectual life per day. This prescription drove Charlotte almost insane. “I went home, followed those directions rigidly for months, and came perilously near to losing my mind. The mental agony grew so unbearable that I would sit blankly moving my head from side to side – to get out from under the pain. Not physical pain, not the least ‘headache’ even, just mental torment, and so heavy in its nightmare gloom that it seemed real enough to dodge” (Gilman, 96). This cure prescribed to her caused the family to split. Charlotte and her husband filed for divorce, telling herself that it was not a choice between going and staying, but rather between going sane and staying insane. They decided it was the best decision for the child.

Along with the suffering of post-partum depression and the condemnation of the “rest cure,” Charlotte also had a strong feminist perspective which was made clear through her character of Jane. Charlotte was the victim of a father who had walked out on her as a young girl and of a failed marriage. Her perspective of men was rather bleak In “The Yellow Wallpaper,” Jane demonstrates this same ambivalence toward men that Charlotte holds. “I don’t like our room a bit. I wanted one downstairs that opened onto the piazza and had roses all over the windo

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