Page "Charlotte Perkins Gilman" Paragraph 20

After nine weeks, Gilman was sent home with Mitchell ’ s instructions, “ Live as domestic a life as possible.

Have your child with you all the time ...

Lie down an hour after each meal.

Have but two hours ’ intellectual life a day.

And never touch pen, brush or pencil as long as you live .” She tried for a few months to follow Mitchell's advice, but her depression deepened, and Gilman came perilously close to a full emotional collapse.

Her remaining sanity was on the line and she began to display suicidal behavior that involved talk of pistols and chloroform, as recorded in her husband's diaries.

By early summer the couple had decided that a divorce was necessary for her to regain sanity without affecting the lives of her husband and daughter.