Isolation in “The Yellow Wallpaper:” Mental Illness in Solitary Confinement
In Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s short story “The Yellow Wallpaper”, the audience follows the viewpoint of a mother suffering from postpartum depression. In the story, she is taken by her doctor husband and sister in law to a home, where she can recover from the illness that she endures. In the home, she is isolated in her room encased by a horrendous wallpaper that slowly drives her into madness. By defining what solitary confinement is, showing the effects it can result in and propose better conditions in solitary confinement can be compared to the similarities of an inmate and Gilman's main character. This grants the ending of the woman going mad from the isolation, prevent the same results to future individuals who will undertake solitary confinement.
Solitary confinement, an inmate taken into isolation where the deprivation of social interaction and mental stimulation takes place for an allotted amount of time (41). Solitary confinement was introduced in the nineteenth century where it was designed to be used as a method of punishment to those incarcerated. This punishment technique spread all across the world resulting favorable to most correctional facilities. Though solitary confinement is a form of punishment, it may be used for protective custody, special housing, or segregation of inmates (Rogers). The condition of those enduring solitary confinement often spends more than twenty hours in solitude where the inmate stays in their cell where they would eat, sleep, and use the utilities if their cell contained plumbing needs (41). During this time the inmate’s privileges of visitation from family, friends, legal counsel and doctors as well as other forms of mental stimulation like reading are taken away (41). The lesser version of this punishment could be more social interaction such as an hour of lunch with fellow confined inmates, the right to small forms of entertainment (Cohen). In “the yellow wallpaper” the women’s circumstances are different, in a way she is in her own version of solitary confinement. The woman is taken away from her home and placed into a home where she is three miles from the nearest town (249). In this home, she is often supervised by her version of warden, her husband and/or her sister in law. The only activity she can do is rest, as she has been restricted from doing any activity that requires any metal stimulation, “I did write for a while in spite of them; but it DOES exhaust me a good deal— having to be so sly about it, or else meet with heavy opposition” (249). Her windows in her room have bars on them, giving the resemblance of a prison cell. The woman also has a sentence, a time allotment until she can finally go home.
With the heavy use of solitary confinement around the world, the health effects of this punishment quickly revealed itself. A penitentiary in Denmark that solitary confinement was only used, from 1859 through the 1930s kept records of the inmate’s mental health experiences. In the inmate’s medical records “a wide range of symptoms were flourishing among the inmates in solitary confinement, including lethargy, apathy, headaches, anxiety, paranoia, hallucinations, and mental illness in general” (1050). Of those inmates that exhibited the worst symptoms were shipped off to psychiatric institutions. Some who were not at the extremities would exhibit behaviors of complete nothingness or go into havoc in the prison. Mads J. Petersen for instance was an exemplary inmate who after two years in solitary confinement, became depressed. One summer he experienced an episode of confusion and was taken to the prison hospital where he was later sent to his cell. In the following days, he started to act unlike himself, hallucinating. Actions were quickly taken, Petersen was forced outside to get away from the isolation. These actions proved worthless as he started to be dirty, aggressive, and destructive. He continued to have more hallucinations and was eventually shipped off to an asylum. In the prison hospital, many inmates referred it to a madhouse, where many of their fellow inmates were described to be experiencing hallucinations, delusions and acting deranged (1051).
In the short story, the woman after living through solitary confinement for weeks she becomes obsessive over the yellow wallpaper she so seemly hates. She memorizes the patterns, tears and differing lighting of the walls. As time passes by, she starts to hallucinate a woman in the wallpaper, unbeknownst to her, she is the woman in the wallpaper. The women also start to become paranoid with her husband and sister in law, watching her husband sleep at night, questioning her sister in law when she catches her touching her now beloved wallpaper. In the end of the story she officially loses it and tears the wallpaper of, convinced she will not end up imprisoned in the wallpaper like the women she saw.
In Reducing the use and impact of solitary confinement in corrections, the proposed plan is a series of steps to reform solitary confinement.1. To only use solitary confinement to those that require such harsh punishment like violet misconduct. By eliminating unnecessary inmates greatly reduces the number of mental illness inmates could possibly suffer from 2. Isolation period should be limited to the extend which allow inmate to understand the consequences to his actions. The longer period of time in isolation does not always result in an inmate learning from their actions 3. Not allow solitary confinement to individuals that could experience harm through the period of isolation, mentally ill, elderly juveniles. Individuals that are currently suffering from a mental illness are easily acceptable to other mental illnesses as well4. Require the individual to be highly monitored and assessed throughout the period of isolation by trained professionals. Heavily monitored individuals that are assessed quickly allow for effects to be properly handle early on. 5. Provide services in reentry into civilization and services of housings. By having a service provided allows for an inmate to assimilate back into society with the help of professions to make transitioning easier. 6. Have the individual provide knowledge to better experiences of solitary confinement to future individuals (44-45). By following this example, the effects solitary confinement to an individual’s mind can be great reduced compared to the effects prior.
Though the woman in “The Yellow Wallpaper” is not an inmate, punished for some rule breaking issue, she relates to the effects of her mental state as any inmate would from solitary confinement. By distinguishing what solitary confinement is, the reader can clearly see the similar surroundings that an inmate and the women have in common. With the assistance of medical journals from Denmark, the effects of solitary confinement, displays the symptoms the inmates have gone through from long periods of isolation to the progression of madness the women eventually go through. As a result of the effects, the proposal to reform solitary confinement conditions, allows for Gilman’s ending of the woman going mad lead to the same results to future individuals who will undertake solitary confinement.
Works Cited
Cohen, Robert L., et al. "Prisoners, Health Care Issues of." Bioethics, edited by Bruce Jennings, 4th ed., vol. 5, Macmillan Reference USA, 2014, pp. 2489-2497. Gale Virtual Reference Library,. Accessed 21 Mar. 2018.
Smith, Peter Scharff. "Degenerate Criminals: Mental Health and Psychiatric Studies of Danish Prisoners in Solitary Confinement, 1870-1920," Criminal Justice and Behavior vol. 35, no. 8 (August 2008): p. 1048-1064.
“Reducing the Use and Impact of Solitary Confinement in Corrections.” International Journal of Prisoner Health, vol. 13, no. 1, 2017, pp. 41–48.
Rogers, Robert. "Solitary confinement." Crime & Punishment in the United States, edited by Phyllis B. Gerstenfeld, vol. 3, Salem Press, 2008, pp. 847-850. Magill's Choice. Gale Virtual Reference Library,. Accessed 21 Mar. 2018.
“The Yellow Wallpaper” Text to Text Writing about Literature for Tarrant County College vol.1, no. 1, 2017, pp. 249-261.