In this thesis I have looked at the connection between “woman”, “social situation”, and “madness” during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Especially during this period, mental derangement was seen much more frequently in women than men. The possible reasons for this are because women were kept out of the professions, tied to the rigid ideals of femininity and domesticity, and kept under male control in the family. Women’s lives were empty and they were vulnerable to loss of identity because they were always seen as someone’s daughter, someone’s mother, or someone’s wife. Women were not seen as individuals by society, and the lack of meaningful work, hope, and companionship led women to lose their identity, or even become insane.
Gilman’s works were written to show the effects of oppression upon women and to improve women’s social status (Degler 12). Gilman urged women to become independent and to find a purpose in life through her literature because she wanted to save women from becoming mentally deranged like herself in the past and the protagonist in “The Yellow Wallpaper.” Looking at the male-female, husband-wife, doctor-patient relationships in “The Yellow Wallpaper”, it can be said that the subjugation of women drove them into madness.