The short story “The Yellow Wallpaper” by Charlotte Perkins Gilman has a very negative tone towards the treatment of mental patients in the late 19th century. One of the first ways Gilman helps provide the theme of the treatment of mental patients is through irony. “So we took the nursery at the top of the house.” This at first seems very glib when re-read, however once the reader READS it, the irony becomes very apparent. Like this adult woman, who recently became a mother, she has to stay in kindergarten, without her child because she is mentally ill. The negative tone comes into play when we realize that she is kept in nursery because John, her husband and doctor, treats her like a child and forces her to stay in the room designated for children. Gilman also has a negative tone regarding how mentally ill people are treated when he has the woman say "No wonder children... I would hate it too if I had to live in this room long... he hates that I write a word." This only amplifies his point of view on how patients are treated because th...