The author life had started out on a rough path. Her dad had abandoned her when she was a little girl. Charlotte's mother tried to provide for the family but with no avail. They were raised in a poverty stricken home. Charlotte didn't have the financial means to go to school so she learned how to write on her own. Later on she got married and she started having trouble with depression. "The Yellow Wallpaper was a reflection of the trouble that she underwent when she was married. Just like the character in "The Yellow Wallpaper" she was sentenced to the "rest cure". The rest cure was when women that were depressed were made to stay in bed until they were better. They were given medicine that was supposed to help them. Later on she ends the marriage by divorcing her husband. She felt as if her husband had caused her sickness to get worse. Later on she gets remarried to George Gilman and due to his support she started to advance in her writings. She not only advanced in her writings but she started women's right crusade. With his support she lived a pretty normal life.
In the story "The Yellow Wallpaper" the main character is undergoing post-pardon depression. Her husband thinks that he is helping her by isolating her from everyone. She is only allowed to see her child up under the supervision of her sister-in-law. Her husband is a doctor and he instructs his sister not to let her out of her room. He thinks that she will harm herself or someone else if she gets out. Inside the room she talks about people that she sees in the yellow wallpaper. This person that she sees is a reflection of women being held captive. During the time that this story was written women didn't have rights. One place that reflects this is when she is referred to as John's wife. Women were referred by the man that they married once they were married they lost their own identity. Women in the wallpaper also reflect women that didn't have the right to voice their own opinions. If women showed any signs of depression or refused to do what their husband wanted them to do then they were put on rest cure. Rest cure like mentioned above is when they are isolated from everyone and given medicine. One other problem that was mentioned was when the main character decided that she would write. Her husband didn't want her to write but claimed that writing caused her to be sicker. This was a direct way that men kept women from voicing their opinions. The author went through the same thing with her first husband. He had refused her the write to write stories about her life. Just like the author and the main character the writing in their journals helped ease their mind.
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I found it very interesting the parallels between this story and the authors life. It seems as if the author learned lessons from her own life and then played the hand out a different way in this story. It is pleasing as a woman to know that the author was able to get out of her marriage and her 'rest-cure' from writing and go on to become a literary great.
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