The narrator's condition at the start of "Yellow Wallpaper" reminds some people of what's now called post-partum depression. In a way, it's interesting we should even have a separate term for that. Why would women become depressed after childbirth? It happens very frequently, and to women in many different circumstances.
What has made narrator so unhappy before she's even shut up in the room, before the story proper even gets started?
Some might say she has everything she can want. Lots of people were poor; she was fed. Lots of people died of disease with little or no medical treatment; she was healthy and had doctors on call to take care of her. Lots of women were and are abandoned by husbands and significant others; her husband is still there, providing. Lots of people, particularly women, are exhausted by the demands of work and childcare; she has little worries about either.
I could go on.
How does this situation relate to these situations:
- Women with post-partum depression today
- Dooce
- The narrator's needs
- Her husband's needs
- Her child's needs
- Her servants' needs
- The needs of child laborers at the time
- The needs of poor mothers who had to work and send their young children to work
- The needs of single mothers today
- The needs of mothers who wish to have professionally satisfying careers and rich social lives, including rich family lives with their children
- The needs of young couples or singles trying to get the education society demands of them while they raise young families, and the needs of those families.
What should be done about all this? Who should do it? How?
