increase font size University of Maine at Farmington Share “The Yellow Wallpaper,” a short story illustrating the attitudes towards the mental and physical health of women in the 19th century, is the next featured topic by the University of Maine at Farmington’s New Commons Project. SYSTEM “The Yellow Wallpaper,” a short story illustrating the attitudes towards the mental and physical health of women in the 19th century, is the next featured topic by the University of Maine at Farmington’s New Commons Project. Published in 1892, the story by Charlotte Perkins Gilman is an early work of American feminist literature that depicts the gradual mental breakdown of a woman protesting the professional and societal oppression of women. At that time, many medical professionals saw women as weak and fragile and needing to be controlled. Gilman’s own devastating experience with depression and her physician’s flawed remedy inspired her to write the story. She used her writing to explore the role of women and paved the way for writers such as Alice Walker and Sylvia Plath.