Analysis Of The Story Of An Hour And Charlotte Perkins Gilman 's The Yellow Wallpaper

The stories of the Yellow Wallpaper and Story of an Hour are both stories that have deep meaning, and many hidden symbols. In both stories there is a woman who in some way is oppressed by some outside force and must find a way to overcome this oppression. While in both stories the main charcter goes through a different ordeal, The main theme behind these events are the same and the two experiences can compare to eachother. the events match in both women we oppressed by men and portrayed

The Story of an Hour by Kate Chopin and The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman written in the 1890s both reflect gender roles of this time, specifically women’s roles. In these stories both of the women are oppressed by their marriages, and by the end of the stories both wish to be rid of their husbands. Also, in both of these stories these women experience mental illnesses, mainly depression. These illnesses were looked at as something minor during this time, was it because psychologists were uneducated, or because as women their mental stability did not really matter? These stories connect so well because of their work to bring to the surface the reality of gender roles in the 1800s. Even though these stories were fictional their ideas were very real. By comparing how men and women were treated during this time, and how they are treated more equally now, it shows that with time American has come a long way.

Kate Chopin's “The Story of an Hour” and Gail Godwin’s “A Sorrowful Woman” are similar pieces of literary work. Both stories offer a revealing glimpse of extremely unhappy marriages due to being forced into stereotypical roles. Both stories portray women, who are trapped in their marriages and trapped in their socially expected matriarchal characters. They are identified by their role as a wife and mother.

Women in history stood best known for a less ascendant sex in the mid-nineteen centuries. Since times have gone by women had fought for their equal rights and freedom. There had been many stereotypes, where the women were considered as a slave to the men’s because the women’s position was to be the homemakers and a mother to their children, while the men’s are out socializing with others. If they were not happy with the marriage, they cannot just walk out or complain because a women role is to endure all these pains without a word coming out of their mouths. Two out of the ordinary short stories, “The Yellow Wallpaper” and “The Story of An Hour,” mostly focused on a women’s dilemma that they faced near the 19th century. The two main characters in the short stories show some resemblances in some ways, but both characters portrayed them in different ways of how they dealt their sorrows in their marriages.

Despite differing story lines, Charlotte Gilman’s The Yellow Wallpaper, John Steinbeck’s The Chrysanthemums and Kate Chopin’s The Awakening, depict the same suffering; the isolation that women have been forced to endure throughout history. In the time period that all three characters were placed, it was culturally acceptable for wives to be dominated by their husbands; their responsibility revolving around the needs of their children and those of their spouse. Most women simply did not have a means or an idea of how to rebel against their husbands. The women in all three stories are protagonists who have poor relationships of emotional attachment with their spouses. While the main character of Gilman’s story endures multiple psychotic

Throughout the madness displayed in “The Yellow wallpaper” and the disappearance of Nora at the end of “A doll’s house”, we could see both women are confined and controlled by their marriages, Nora from Henrik Ibsen's play “A Doll's House” and the narrator from Charlotte Perkins Gilman's short story "The Yellow Wallpaper" portray the negative treatment of women throughout society during the 19th century. These women long for the activity and stimulation, which they have been deprived of as the product of a society that puts women in the lowest division, and they resolve to triumph over their husbands and free their souls. Therefore, seeing these vast similarities’ in these stories when it comes to the husbands John from “The Yellow

The short stories, “The Story of An Hour”, by Kate Chopin and “The Jury of Her Peers”, by Susan Glaspell compare two married women who live under the shadow of their husbands. Both of these stories were written in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries during the time when women were treated unequally. Women had limited rights. For example, they could not vote, voice their opinion or work outside the home. Glaspell and Chopin were considered feminist writers who focus their writing on the struggle of women during the time when the Women’s Suffrage Movement was beginning; these short stories reflect women’s struggles under the control of men. Married women were responsible for taking care of the household, children and wifely duties while the husbands were responsible for consistently managing the title of “the breadwinner.” Married women were expected to be discreet and obedient to their husbands, which meant that the wives could not express their opinions because of society’s expectations of women. In the short stories, “The Story of An Hour”, by Kate Chopin and “The Jury of Her Peers”, by Susan Glaspell, Mrs. Mallard and Mrs. Wright share a prominent similarity concerning the loss of their individual identity during marriage and realize that the death of their husbands allow them to regain their self-identity.-

In “The Story of an Hour”, “The Yellow Wallpaper”, and “Trifles”, the authors all question the institution of marriage through the emerging theme of the oppression of women. In each of these works, women are shown trapped in confining marriages. While marriage is supposed to be seen as one of the most beautiful and perfect sanctities life has to offer, these authors portray it as more of a bittersweet agony that women are forced to endure. Chopin, Gilman, and Glaspell use a combination of symbolism and perspective in their literature to bring about this theme of female oppression. With this theme, the authors cause the readers to take a more feminist perspective and question the institution of marriage through the eye of the average housewife of the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

In “The Story of an Hour”, the main character Mrs. Mallard, gets news that her husband has been killed in an accident. Her sister delays telling her the news because she has a bad heart, but when she finally tells the news, Mrs. Mallard wants to be left alone. They think that she is very upset by her husband’s death, but

In the short stories Hell-Heaven by Jhumpa Lahiri and The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman both stories convey similar theme. Gilman’s short story, The Yellow Wallpaper, tells a story of a mentally unstable wife, while Lahiri’s short story, Hell-Heaven, informs us about a mother and daughters story from the perspective of her daughter. The characters from both stories come from different cultures but one thing they both have in common is their roles. They marry with the purpose of serving for household duties such as cooking, cleaning, laundry, and taking care of children if they have any. Also lets not forget another job they have is keeping the husband satisfied and happy! In both stories the marriages are in a way similar to

"The Story of an Hour" involves one married couple and when the wife, Mrs. Mallard, hears her husband has died in a railroad disaster she breaks down into tears. Moments after sitting in her chair weeping she begins to feel free to do as she wants now that he has passed on. As she approaches the stairs in her home the door opens and her husband stands alive and well. When the doctors arrive they say Mrs. Mallard ."..had died of a heart disease-of joy that kills." In both of these short stories the wives seem to share the foul qualities of selfishness, unfaithfulness and confusion.

Story of an hour conveys the feelings of many married women who may not be entirely unhappy in their marriage yet feel restricted in some way. They feel that they could have done so much more had they not married, if they had been without all these restrictions. They could spread their wings and fly to their favorite destinations if they had stayed unmarried. Marriage despite all its so-called bliss is still a very restrictive union that clips a woman's wings sometimes because of the children, sometimes because she is constantly reminded of her wifely and motherly duties and sometimes simply because her husband wouldn't approve.

On the other hand, Mrs. Mallard’s thoughts betray her true feelings and lead the reader to believe that she did not die from joy. Throughout “The Story of an Hour,” Mrs. Mallard’s thoughts on independence, autonomy, and marriage betray that she did not die from joy, but from having a new life taken from her with her husband’s surprising arrival. First, Mrs. Mallard’s immediate reaction after learning her husband died is obvious grief, but it is soon followed by a newfound sense of independence and it reveals that she could not have died from joy after being so hopeful for a future as a widow. Once she is alone, she delves into her own thoughts and begins to form these feelings that she knows are not appropriate at a time like this. She begins to determine that she is now an independent woman.

The Character of Mrs. Mallard Mrs. Mallard is a very self-centered character, we can easily see this through her thought process in “The Story of an Hour.” She pitied herself and the fact that she was tied down in her marriage. While she loved her husband, and he was nothing but loving in return, her own selfish need to be “free, free, free” overcame any love she had for her husband. She had become so completely self-absorbed that her wants and needs took over her grieving period. She understood right away that she had lost her husband sorrow overtook her, as would be the natural response to the loss of a loved one.

The marriages in “The Story of an Hour” by Kate Chopin and “A Jury of Her Peers” by Susan Glaspell are similar as both portrayed the traditional gender roles for the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. In this time, the wives felt oppressed by the more male dominated society. In “The Story of an Hour”, Minnie was forced to be with her husband who stole all her freedom. In “A Jury of Her Peers,” Louise becomes much happier after hearing the news of her husband’s death. This displays how women were restricted after marriage and did not get the freedom that they desired. In both the stories, the women are looked down upon and are not respected. “It outlines the rich and colorful history of women struggling to publish and define themselves and the complex and tangled tradition of women’s writing in this country” (Roiphe). Both stories undeniably show the battles that women had to face during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.