Answer:
In this story, mental illness is seen as temporary, and isn't taken seriously. This is seen at the very beginning of the story, when the narrator indicates that her husband, a doctor, does not believe that she is truly ill. When a person is experiencing mental illness in this story, they are to be cured by rest, exercise, and fresh air. Rather than today's methods of therapy and drugs, of which most are not trustworthy, the story describes purely taking a break from work and isolating until one seems to be better.
The common point of view of mental sickness in that era of time was that it wasn't legitimate. Two different themes of “The Yellow Wallpaper” could be “Never ignore a sickness” and “Don't be sexist”. I did research on this story, and apparently the author wrote this piece with the intention of speaking on sexism towards women. For example, when it comes to the stereotypical “feminine things” we “have to do”, such as taking care of children, and housework like cooking, dishes, laundry, and so on. While the wife had to stay in bed because she was going mentally insane, the husband had no choice but to take care of everything she usually would do. I'm assuming a lot of people missed that detail in the story, and instead focused on the woman's mental illness, which stood out more than the sexism problem.
Explanation:
The answer above is correct, I just modified it to add more detail :)
