Santibanez 1

Karina Santibanez

Professor Ward

ENG 111

24 April 2017 27 February 2017

Coping with Mental Illness: A Comparison between Lee Smiths Dimestore and Charlotte

Perkins Gilmans The Yellow Wallpaper

What is it like to live with a mental illness? That is the central question posed by both

Lee Smith and Charlotte Perkins Gilman. Some of us experience living with a mental illness first

hand, others of us live surrounded by it, and then there are those who simply learn about the

variety of types. Through both of these womens an author's writing, literature is one of the

mediums where we are sometimes given a closer insight into the realm of mental illness. In Lee

Smith's Dimestore , and Charlotte Perkins The Yellow Wallpaper, we can see how mental illness

affected these womens lives , as well asand compare and contrast the views society has had on

mental illness during the 1800s and todays modern time periodse time periods.

Charlotte Perkins Gilman has been just one of the many women living in the 1800s who

was improperly treated for mental disorders which can be . This can be seen in The Yellow

Wallpaper through her description of the wallpaper, her caretakers, and herself. In The Yellow

Wallpaper, GilmanPerkins writes that her own husband John does not believe that she is sick, yet

he and her brother are the ones that prescribe her methods of dealing with her illness (648). Also

on page 648, she acknowledges that [John] is very careful and loving, and hardly lets [her] stir

without special direction, which shows that John practically controls all aspects of

GilmansPerkins life because she is incapable of making her own choices (648). These quotes

from the reading show readers that mental illness during this time affected the ability of those
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living with a mental illness to care for themselves due to family members taking on the

responsibility of caring for them. Although John presumably thinks he knows what is best for his

wife, she writes that John does not know how much I really suffer. He knows that there is no

reason to suffer, and that satisfies him;, therefore, this shows readers that even though John has

his best interest in mind, he truly does not understand what his wifePerkins is dealing with to the

point where she even statessays that she is a burden to him (Perkins 649). Reading this quote

shows that even in the 1800s relatives sometimes hold the idea that there way of helping is best,

when in reality it may only worsen the other persons state of mind. Another caretaker mentioned

in The Yellow Wallpaper is Mary who is the babysitter. The You can truly see the toll that

GilmansPerkins illness has taken on in her life can truly be seen when her own illness prohibits

her from being able to care for her newborn child. The one who cares for the newborn is Mary,

so her she describes Mary and her care taking skills are described by saying, itit is a fortune

Mary is so good with the baby. Such a dear baby! And yet I cannot be with him, it makes me so

nervous,wenervous, can see that her own illness does not allow her to care for her newborn

child (Perkins 649). Not being able to care for her own newborn child may also indicated that

Gilman could have suffered from postpartum depression which was not a very well-known

phenomenon during this time period. Jennie is the last caretaker mentioned in The Yellow

Wallpaper. d; sheShe is introduced on page 650 by GilmanPerkins when she writessays, Jennie

sees to everything now, further showing that the way they thought Gilman Perkins would get

over her illness was to spend her time doing absoluetley nothing, but instead being tended to.

When Gilamn was being cared for by her caretakers, she was not the true Charlotte Perkins

Gilman. She spent no time writing, let others attend to her every need, and just stared at the

wallpaper long periods of time. This overall affected her ability to care for her newborn and
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herself, and drove her to the point of insanity just looking at the horrendous wall paper in her

room..

In her writing, it can also be noted that Gilman Perkins infuses herself and her mental

illness through the use of the wallpaper. When Perkins first encounters the room, she describes

the wallpaper as an artistic sin, lines that commit suicide, and so dull that they confuse the eye,

all descriptions that help paint a vivid image of how atrocious this wallpaper truly is (648).

GilmansPerkins view on the wallpaper, however, transforms as she progresses through her essay

from a truly negative standpoint to a more positive view. She states I am getting really fond of

the room in spite of the wallpaper. Perhaps because of the wallpaper, which helps form the basis

of sets the tone how she willfor how she describes the woman being trapped in the wallpaper

(Perkins 650). The woman in the wallpaper symbolizes how GilmanPerkins is trapped in this

room where she is not able to write just like the woman is not able to get out. Gilman was

essentially trapped in a world where she was not allowed to do the thing she loved the most,

writing, so she like the woman was stuck in a situation they desperately yearned to escape from.

This leads to Gilman her tearing all the wallpaper off and in a sense releasing herself and coping

with her mental illness.

What is it like to live surround by loved ones with a mental illness? Well, Lee Smith was

fortunate enough to never be diagnosed with having a mental illness, but she was surrounded by

mental illness in her family. Her father had bipolar disorder, her mother wasmother was

depressed and suffered from anxiety, and other family members were diagnosed as having

schizophrenia (Smith 41-45). In her essay Kindly Nervous, , we see that she describes her

father more in depth by describing how he would go down to the Dimestore when he would have

a kindly nervous moment. An interesting quote Smith has in Goodbye to the Sunset Man is,
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on page 132 is, therethere is a theory that mental illness conveys certain gifts, even if this

sometimes seems to be the case...those gifts are not worth the pain and devastating losses the

illness also brings with it. (138). itIt is an interesting quote because it shows that she cherished

the moments spent with her son Josh who was diagnosed with schizophrenia, but at the same

time his having schizophrenia was difficult to manage. There is a difference in how grown

upsgrown-ups in Smith's life managed their mental illness, and how she as a parent helped her

son manage schizophrenia. In Smiths writing, there is a much larger wide span of time that

encompasses how people managed mental illnesses from her father simply pretending it was not

a big deal to him, to then being hospitalized, and then at the end how Lee Smiths own son was

cared for by her in his final years..

The time periods in which Lee Smith and Charlotte Perkins write about mental disorders

are very different. Lee Smiths work is more modern and shows the transition she has seen

throughout her life in how mental disorders are seen. When first presenting her father's mental

health issues, she puts in quotes manic depression to show the derogatory term that was used at

the time to describe a person with bipolar disorder condition (Smith 41). Now in more modern

times, you will never hear the term manic depression being used, instead you will hear bipolar

mood disorder being used to properly explain a person exhibiting the symptoms of bipolar

disorder. GilmanPerkins on the other hand grew up in a time period where some mental disorders

were only associated with females such as depression, anxiety, and mania. There was no such

thing as therapy, but it is seen on page 648 that indeed doctors did medicate their patients to deal

with mental illness symptomsthis, GilmaPerkinns in this case was given phosphates (648). One

common method of expressing themselves was through their writing. Gilman Perkins wrote all

about her adventure with the yellow wallpaper and the woman trapped behind it, while Smith
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wrote a novel after her son passed away, both were their ways of coping with mental health

issues in their lives. Gilman Perkins even got to the point where she would secretly write because

her husband John forbade her from doing so. WritingThis was their way of dealing with mental

illness, but throughout the course of time this has progressed into more professional ways of

helping those living with a mental health disorder which is seen in Lee Smith's more modern

work.

Mental health is no longer seen how these womens these women's societies previously

viewed having a mental illness as such a negative thing to live withthis topic. Although Lee

Smith's novel deals with the 2000s in part, today in 2017 mental health is much more commonly

recognized more often by our population. People are more likely to seek treatment instead of self

copingself-coping with it like Charlotte Perkins Gilman, or walking it off like Lee Smiths

father. As mentioned before Lee Smith provides a more modern intake on what it is like to deal

with mental illness. You can see that at a young age she knew what it was like to have family

members hospitalized because of their disorders, and even in the later stages of her life she had

to experience raising a child with schizophrenia. Sadly Gilman Perkins was forced to deal with

her illness differently because of societal views in the 1800s where . womanW oman were

deemed to be the ones who had certain mental illnesses. , and Dduring her time it seems that it

was expected for time to just do away with whatever the issue was. Although there is still some

stigma and stereotypes on mental illnesses, compared to before this topic is much more open for

discussion, people seek help in therapy, and can properly be medicated if need be. Times have

changed and so has the course of action when dealing with mental illness, but only it has

changed for the better.

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Works Cited

Smith, Lee. Dimestore: a Memoir. Workman Pub Co, 2016. Print.

Perkins, Charlotte. The Yellow Wallpaper. The New England Magazine, 1892. Print.