The Yellow Wallpaper4
Throughout history people have always seemed to follow what notions that were considered “cool”. Though I doubt that “cool” was the word used to describe these notions they were still there in some form or another. One of the greatest farces ever committed in the name of these popular perceptions was medicine. At that time, medicine that was on the cutting edge seem to have always involved some sort of noxious chemical or a typically atrocious diet. Not to mention the fact that ninety-nine percent of the doctors were men. Women’s notions were immediately discounted on the bases of the preconception that women were not meant for such enlightened thoughts. No, men really knew what was best and women were meant to stand by what their husbands’ said. This brings one particular husband to mind and how he was responsible for his wife going completely and utterly insane. His name is John and he is the husband to a woman who was diagnosed with a temporary nervous depression, meaning a slight hysterical tendency. Through John's interference he turned what was considered a minor case of a chemical imbalance into to full blown schizophrenia.
I wanted one downstairs that opened onto the piazza and had roses all over the window, and suck pretty old-fashioned chintz hangings! But John would not hear of it. ” It seems that John was being a bit stuborn on the subject, probably just out of self-centeredness. He apparently truly thought that this rest cure was sufficient and that he did not need to spend time with his wife. She may have been trying to hide her misery, but he, her spouse, should still have been able to spot it. She describes it quite well when she says, “The color is hideous enough, and unreliable enough, and infuriating enough, but the pattern is torturing. At least properly, that is, unless you consider the rest cure to be appropriate. You think you have mastered it, but just as you get well under way in following, it turns a back-somersault and there you are. The conventional course of action to take in the narrator’s case was the one of nothing. She quickly finishes one paragraph with: “There comes John, and I must put this away-- he hates to have me write a word. Though she believes “it is only nervousness,” she does feel that, “It does weigh on one so not to do no duty in any way. The main character of The Yellow Wallpaper was indeed set apart from all activity as directed by her husband. For the narrator was considered hysterical and slightly depressed and there was only one course of action for such symptoms. John dutifully followed the set path, not questioning any of the accepted methods. ” I suppose at the time nutrition was not thought of as highly important as it is today and therefore people lacked the lacked the knowledge of how meat should be properly cooked and while one glass of wine a day may be healthy, ale was certainly not a dietary need.
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