For centuries man has created this patriarchal society in which women have been treated as the lesser entity, having no sense of self-being or worth. These feelings led women to feel repressed in their everyday life. It was in the late nineteenth century when literary writers started to expose this female repression. Guy de Maupassant and Kate Chopin clearly express definitive examples of female repression in their stories, The Necklace and The Story of an Hour. During this time period, women’s role in society was that of a submissive, powerless position. They often relied solely on their husband for direction, allowing the husband to make decisions and take lead no matter what. In the story of The Necklace, Maupassant illustrates these …show more content…
The only thing that women could take ownership of was their beauty. “She danced with intoxication, with passion, made drunk by pleasure, forgetting all, in the triumph of her beauty, in the glory of her success, in a sort of cloud of happiness composed of all this homage, of all this admiration, of all these awakened desires, and if that sense of complete victory which is so sweet to a woman’s heart” (Maupassant 63). In this passage, Mathilde was basting in her own beauty because it was of her own. During this time many women were forced into marriage, resulting in a great unhappiness. Both Kate Chopin and Guy de Maupassant state this lack of joy that was often experienced everyday by women. “It was only yesterday she had thought with a shudder that life might be long” (Chopin 68). If was as if Mrs. Mallard was sickened by the idea that her life and the way it was, would continue forever. Maupassant portrays Mathilde’s frustration in her marriage with the frequent use of the word “suffered” in relationship to her higher class wants and desires. “She suffered ceaselessly, feeling herself born for all the delicacies and all the luxuries. She suffered from the poverty of her dwelling, from the wretched look of the walls, from the worn-out chairs, from the ugliness of the curtains” (Maupassant 59). These two stories exemplify the epitome of women’s repression in the male-dominated society of the late nineteenth century by conveying the feelings of
The setting of both stories reinforces the notion of women's dependence on men. The late 1800's were a turbulent time for women's roles. The turn of the century
Kate Chopin is known for being criticized for empowering the subject of female sexuality and independence. In Chopin’s short story, “The Story of an Hour”, it is placed in a time where men were known as being the head of the household while women were only in charge of raising the children and caring for the home. In the 1890s, women didn’t have so much power to themselves compared to today’s society where female empowerment is frequently encouraged. Chopin’s story narrates a sequence of Mrs. Mallard’s emotions that goes within the motion of the story. As she overcomes the sudden death of her husband, her emotion of grief soon turns into the sudden feeling of freedom, later on emerging into a strong independent woman.
When the notorious topic of women’s role in society comes to mind writers like Kate Chopin and Mary Wilkins Freeman break the norms of how women in America were imagined to be through different cultures and regions. In both Kate Chopin’s and Mary Wilkins Freeman’s time period women are portrayed as an ample servant to their husbands. Together the texts show how the controlled understanding of the nineteenth century society, had on women. At that time of these writers, people were restrictive about the viewpoint of women’s place in society. Women could not really do much without their Husband or another male figure in their life , they really didn’t have a voice of their own. In the stories A New England Nun , Desiree’s Baby, The Story of an Hour, and The Storm, Mary and Kate have represented how this situation of the society affected women and their viewpoints about life and marriage.
In a male dominated society, women were believed to be fragile weaklings that depended on men in order to survive and find happiness. In fact, they were seen as nothing more than selfless wives and mothers. The seemingly “perfect wife” then, was characterized by her dutifulness and obedient demeanor. This notion of male supremacy was undoubtedly the predominant basis of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Rendered unable to voice their own opinions, women then turned to pen and paper as a way to communicate their thoughts. From this, arose the following pieces: Kate Chopin’s short story “The Story of an Hour,” Emily Dickinson’s poem “She rose to His Requirement - dropt,” Susan Glaspell’s play Trifles, and Zora Neale Hurston’s novel
Reading literature, at first, might seem like simple stories. However, in works like William Faulkner's “A Rose for Emily,” Katherine Mansfield's “Miss Brill,” and Kate Chopin's “The Storm,” the female protagonists are examples of how society has oppressive expectations of them simply because of their gender.
The nineteenth century was a hard time for woman as a gender. The oppression of woman was evident in the everyday life of a woman living in the 19th century. As the 19th century progressed, men increasingly committed to their place of work – the factory, shop or office. Wives, daughters and sisters were left at home all day to oversee the domestic duties that were increasingly carried out by servants. This kind of treat towards woman can be seen in the following three writings, “The story of an Hour”, “Desiree’s Baby”, and “The Storm”.
In the 1899 novella, The Awakening, Kate Chopin illustrates the oppression imposed on women in the Victorian Era (1837-1901). The protagonist in the novella, Edna Pontellier, reflects the progressive women of the late 1800’s who began to interrogate their traditional roles in society. In contrast to customary women, such as Adele Ratignolle who is the embodiment of the ideal mother and wife in The Awakening, Edna acknowledges her sexuality and individual identity. However, Edna realizes that her position as a woman prevents her from advancing into complete independence from her husband, which results in her fate of suicide (Chopin, 652). Edna could only escape her oppression by swimming out “where no woman had swum before” (Chopin, 583).
Woman throughout the years have experienced many society established conflicts. These conflicts are appreciated in four stories “The Storm” and “The story of an hour” by Kate Chopin (1851-1904), “The Necklace” by Guy de Maupassant (1850-1893), and “A&P” by John Updike (1932-2009). In these stories the feminine role portrayed by each author provides an insight of the image placed upon woman at their time in history. This imaged forced upon woman can be interpreted as the struggles in that moment of time. Thus struggles affect indirectly the way we see woman at present time.
Kate Chopin’s “Story of an Hour,” Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s “The Yellow Wallpaper,” and Susan Glaspell’s “A Jury of Her Peers” show the desire of freedom of certain women of this time by allowing the authors to live vicariously through their characters to show the shift of women’s identity and awareness to not only themselves but also to the world around them.
In the short fictions written by Kate Chopin, John Steinbeck, and Ernest Hemingway, the stories revolve around the theme of limitations and confinement of the women in late 19th and early 20th. Where in these decades, the women do not have role in the society as the men. Although, the women in the three stories are lover THEIR men, they have no rights to express their own opinion nor go against the men to get what they desire for themselves.
During the eighteenth century all aspects of western culture was influenced to take over the role of women in society at the time. Women were lead to believe that men were supposed to be the primary householders whom can do anything leaving them dependent to men. Women at the time also had to deal with the struggles of living in social class lifestyles that dreamt of having nothing but luxuries and higher values. Guy De Maupassant’s “The Necklace” portrays this very situation through the character of Mrs. Loisel with the different use of literary devices. She is stuck between wanting to live the lifestyle and learning to live her own without certain delicacies.
The unique style of Kate Chopin’s writing has influenced and paved the way for many female authors. Although not verbally, Kate Chopin aired political and social issues affecting women and challenging the validity of such restrictions through fiction. Kate Chopin, a feminist in her time, prevailed against the notion that a woman’s purpose was to only be a housewife and nothing more. Kate Chopin fortified the importance of women empowerment, self-expression, self-assertion, and female sexuality through creativity in her literary work.
Women in the late 1800’s and early 1900’s had specific roles determined by the males who were dominant in their society. Women began to write stories which told their gender roles in that era. The authors of these stories lived in this time period and their stories reflect a lot of the traditional roles that were expected of them. The author’s purposes, were to tell about how marriage imprisoned women in this period of time. Kate Chopin and Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s stories provide examples of the gender roles. Their reasoning of writing these stories was to call on women of this era to learn how to empower themselves in this society.
Through their works, Kate Chopin and Virginia Woolf were able to portray a certain relationship between women and society. While some literary pieces are optimistic towards women, others are not. In this case, The Awakening, a novella written by Kate Chopin, focuses on the inner battle that the main character Edna faces throughout her life. On the other hand, Virginia Woolf’s A Room of One’s Own, discusses ideas related to gender inequality. Both women seem to be facing inner turmoil that correlates back to the relationship between women and society during these time periods. Ultimately, their experiences are what drives them to change how they fit into societal norms. Therefore, the texts in this essay theorize the relationship between women and society in a way that can be encouraging towards women.
The lifestyle of nineteenth century women is portrayed in both The Awakening by Kate Chopin and A Doll’s House by Henrik Ibsen. These texts portray the main female character as independent, inspiring individuals who break societal norms which confine them to their marriage and female expectations. However, they also contain characters who fit the stereotypical role of women during this era. This offers a contrast which highlights the rebellion and courage that the protagonists in the stories posses. As well as raises questions on how society has developed since.