Due to the narrator's condition she is "forbidden to 'work' until..." (Gilman 478) she is well. She is a writer but is not allowed to do what she loves due to the medical regimen her husband has imposed on her. This regimen was known as the “rest cure” (May 478) created by Silas Weir Mitchell. The “rest cure” included a regimen of “forced bed rest, isolation, and overfeeding” (Stiles 32). The creator of this cure, Mitchell, had another cure for men called the “Western cure” (Stiles 32). “Western care” involved activities such as hunting and cattle roping. Mitchell shows through these two treatments the difference between men and women. Women get the regime of staying at home and working as little as possible, while men have to leave the house and be “manly”.”