The Yellow Wallpaper
How does Gilman convey the belief prevalent in her time that women were emotionally unstable and prone to illness?
If a woman sought medical treatment for a disorder such as depression or anxiety in 1892, her ills were often diagnosed as trivial “nervous conditions,” curable through isolation and prolonged rest. Today it is believed that some of these disorders were caused in part by the stress of living within the rigid social roles to which women were confined. Doctors of the time, however, typically felt that their patients’ gender lay at the root of the problem. Many saw women as weak and emotionally unstable, and thus predisposed to illness.
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You see he does not believe I am sick! And what can one do?