From its original publication in the New England Magazine in May 1892 and its subsequent resurrection by modern feminists in the 1970s, Charlotte Perkins Gilman's short story, "The Yellow Wallpaper" has gone through different interpretations. When it was originally written, "The Yellow Wallpaper" was considered a horror story, so horrific in fact, that one editor, Horace Scudder of the Atlantic Monthly, rejected the work because he didn't want to make others as miserable as he was. when he read it. As late as 1971, Gilman's work was anthologized under the category of horror (Kennard 75). It was not until the work was rediscovered and republished in 1973 that modern feminist critics recognized the female hero as a victim of society (Kennard 75). However, “The Yellow Wallpaper” is more than a story with a fictional character; it is the story of its creator. Gilman, as well as her heroine, suffered from postpartum depression. Not only did she have to battle the depression and isolation of being a mother, but also the social mores of the time that were unforgiving of career-oriented mothers. The main guardians of society's status quo in this case were doctors who found it necessary to treat women who were less happy with their domestic role. In his case, the treatment was administered by Dr. S. Weir Mitchell for whom Gilman stated he wrote "The Yellow Wallpaper" (The Living of CPG 121). Gilman recognized that she needed to escape domestic confinement before she could become a career woman who was also a mother. It was through "The Yellow Wallpaper" that she began the transition from homebound mother to career mother. The feelings she experienced as a new mother were not dissimilar to those of ma...... middle of paper ......Gilman: An autobiography. New York and London: D. Appleton-Century Co. (1935) Rpt. Like The Life of Charlotte Perkins Gilman. New York: Harper & Row, Colophon Books, 1975.---. "Why I wrote the yellow background". Charlotte Perkins Gilman: A Study in Short Fiction. Ed. Denise D. Cavaliere. New York, Twayne Publishers, 1997. 106-107.Hill, Mary A. Charlotte Perkins Gilman: The Making of a Radical Feminist, 1860-1896. Philadelphia: Temple UP, 1980. Kennard, Jean E. “Convention Coverage, or How to Read Your Own Life.” New Literary History 13 (Fall 1981): 69-88.Palis, James., et al. "The Hippocratic Concept of Hysteria: A Translation of the Original Texts". Integrative Psychiatry 3.3 (1985): 226-228.Smith-Rosenberg, Carroll "The Hysterical Woman: Sex Roles and Role Conflicts in Nineteenth-Century America," Social Research 39 (Winter 1972): 652-78