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Examples Of Realism In The Story Of An Hour

Decent Essays

Charlotte Perkins Gilman and Kate Chopin both use realism to focus on everyday people in an accurate portrayal of life. The Yellow Wallpaper is a short story about a woman that goes to a summer home to rest and get well under the supervision of her husband who is also a physician. Her husband decided it would be best if she sat in a room alone and did nothing. In the end, she becomes insane and finally finds her freedom. The Story of An Hour is about, Mrs. Mallard, a woman who has just found out her husband has died. Mrs. Mallard locks herself in a room so she can experience joy and freedom away from society. After an hour of doing this, her husband arrives back home. His reappearance causes Mrs. Mallard to lose her freedom and she …show more content…

After the women face their hardships, they finally get to claim their freedom.
The woman in The Yellow Wallpaper has spent the whole summer trapped in a room trying to figure out the pattern of the wallpaper. She sees a woman in the yellow wallpaper, and tries to figure out how to set her free. The woman finally gets her freedom when she says, “I’ve got out at last in spite of you and Jane. And I’ve pulled off most of the paper, so you can’t put me back!” (Gilman, 478). She sees herself as the woman that was trapped in the wallpaper and when she ripped it off, she set herself free. Mrs. Mallard in The Story of An Hour has just locked herself in a room after hearing of her husband’s death. When she enters the room, she sees an armchair facing an open window. As she is sitting in the chair, “She could see in the open square before her house the tops of trees that were all aquiver with the new spring life” (Chopin, 547). Spring is seen as a rebirth of Mrs. Mallards freedom and is also a symbol of hope for her happiness.
At the end of both stories the reader begins to realize that both women have gained their freedom, but not without a cost. The woman from The Yellow Wallpaper ultimately lost her sanity after she ripped the wallpaper off the wall. This loss of sanity

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