The Yellow Wallpaper: Charlotte Perkins Gilman's Seminal Work on Gender and Mental Health

by Charlotte Perkins Gilman

If a physician of high standing, and one's own husband, assures friends and relatives that there is really nothing the matter with one but temporary nervous depression—a slight hysterical tendency—what is one to do?

John does not know how much I really suffer. He knows there is no REASON to suffer, and that satisfies him.

Nobody would believe what an effort it is to do what little I am able,—to dress and entertain, and order things.