Comparisons Between Gilman's "The Yellow Wallpaper" and New York's Blackwell's Island Asylum

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A discussion of the many ways in which Charlotte Perkins Gilman uses imagery concordant with descriptions of New York’s Blackwell’s Island Asylum in “The Yellow Wallpaper,” drawing connections between the 1892 short story and Nellie Bly’s infamous 1887 expose, Ten Days in a Madhouse. This paper explores the relationship between madness, space, and women in the late Victorian/early Modern periods, as well as the institutionalization of madness that continues to impact mad survivors today.