Kate Chopin 's The Yellow Wallpaper And The Story Of An Hour

Two famous women authors of the Victorian era were Kate Chopin and Charlotte Perkins Gilman. The Victorian era brought out many different themes of freedom, confinement, and inequity. The Victorian themes can be seen in Kate Chopin’s writing called, “The Story of an Hour” and Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s writing called, “The Yellow Wallpaper.” There are many similarities and differences between both Victorian women’s perspectives and writing. This paper will compare and contrast the short stories written by Kate Chopin and Charlotte Gilman.

Most women in America nowadays are lucky enough to consider themselves to be an independent individual, but females were not always guaranteed their freedoms. Throughout the early 1900’s, authors would characterize husbands to be controlling figures. In “The Yellow Wallpaper,” Charlotte Perkins demonstrates just how possessive the husband is to his wife in their marriage. This short story shows just how miserable the woman is to be in a marriage with John because John, thinks it would be best that his wife is isolated to get over her postpartum depression.“The Yellow Wallpaper” demonstrates how a male dominated society leads to the woman not being their own individual by using characterization, narrator perspective, and conflict between women and society.

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.-

Among the three works under scrutiny in the paper herein, “The Yellow Wallpaper” is arguably the one that best illustrates the theme of gender inequality. In “The Yellow wallpaper”, the author uses the imaginative story to portray how a woman is considered lesser than a man in the marriage institution by placing her in fragile and weak positions in the society. We could see she was dependent on her husband completely. In the summer, she moved into the house that she does not like she said, "a haunted house", and "something queer about it." But she still moved into the house that

Imagine you lived in the Victorian era. Know imagine you have almost no rights, are seen as the property of another, and you also have to do what you are told without question. Seems awful right? Interestingly enough that was the life of manny women in the Victorian era. The mistreating of women in the Victorian era can be seen in the similarities of three stories that prove just how hard life was for the Victorian women. The first story is Nathaniel Hawthorne's "The Birthmark". "The Birthmark" revolves around a male scientist who desires to change his wife's physical appearance. The mans efforts to change his wife eventually lead to his wife's death. The second story is Kate Chopin's "Desiree's Baby". "Desiree's Baby" revolves around Desire a woman who is thrown out by her husband, all due to their child being part African. The third story is Charlotte Perkins Gilman's "The Yellow Wallpaper". "The Yellow Wallpaper" revolves

What were the consequences for being a woman back in the 1800’s? Not to mention, for centuries women have always been placed under control of men, whereas they were more known to be housewives. In addition, women were only allowed to do domestic work, throughout history, women have fought for the equal right. Similarly, “The Storm” and “The Yellow Wallpaper” that indicates perfect examples of domestic. However, in the two short stories “Story of an Hour” Louise Mallard is the protagonist of Kate Chopin 's 1984 short story and “The Yellow Wallpaper” Jennie is the protagonist, focus on women’s plight near the 19th century. The era around the time is a modern society when women were still treated as second-class citizens. For instance, the two women with the stories, share similarities, but different considering how they dealt with the problems in their lives. In addition to this around this time women were simple with men that they did not happen with, but only stood in their marriages for the kids and it was not common to be alone without having a husband to be in charged of the house.Men were allowed to own property including the woman and all of her inheritance, they could get an education (like most women couldn 't, and they could have a lot of jobs that women couldn 't.

“The Story of an Hour” written by Katie Chopin and “The Yellow Wallpaper” by Charlotte Perkins Gilman both express the lack of rights women had during the 1800’s. During that time, men were very controlling and women were treated unfairly by society, and especially by their husbands. Within the writings, Chopin and Gilman emphasize the theme of independence and freedom, by expressing different types of undesirable positions and situations women had to face during this time. The theme is a crucial element when analyzing specific comparisons amongst both stories, because women were essentially receiving and accepting their own happiness and freedom by the

"The Yellow Wallpaper" story by Charlotte Perkins Gilman employ the use of conventional psychological horror tale as a strategy to review the position of women as displayed in the early nineteenth century especially in marriages. Seemingly, the story reflects on women subordination role in marriages and men domination over them. The power made it impossible for them to express their desires. The story describes a middle-class marriage characterized by the rigid distinction between genders where the domestic functions fall under females and active work fall under males thus outlining a society that display women as second-class citizens. Hence, the distinction between genders influences women in the sense that they remain in a state of control by their husbands. Therefore, women play the role of supporting and doing as their husbands tell them to do. For example, John the narrator husband in the story dominates the narrator and misjudges her all in the name of helping her. The narrator thus loses herself and cannot stand up since that will prove disloyal to her husband. She retreats to her writing fantasy, which is the only place she retains self and control. For this essay, Gilman's underlying theme of "The Subordination of women in marriage" will be explored as the basis under which the narrator loses self.

The subject of feminism has evolved into various complex theories. In addition, feminism has also been a heavily debated issue that has been around for numerous years. The argument of feminism is that women are, and always have been throughout history, treated differently than men by society. Therefore, women are being stripped down of opportunities to their benefit economically, socially, politically, and culturally. Since there are multiple theories on feminism, Donald Hall’s definition of cultural feminism, from his “Feminist Analysis” of Literary and Cultural Theory, will be used to explore the cultural aspects of the texts from Kate Chopin’s novel The Awakening, Charlotte Gilman’s short story ”The Yellow Wallpaper,”

In both stories, women are portrayed as unable to live their own lives or take care of themselves. It also indicates that women are constantly oppressed in marriage. In “A Story of an Hour” Louise, who already knows that her husband was a kind and loving soul, nonetheless feels a slight amount of joy when she believes that he is dead. Despite the love between husband and wife, Louise views Brently’s death as an escape from the oppression of marriage. In “The Yellow Wallpaper” your standard nineteenth-century middle-class marriage, with its rigid distinction between the “domestic” functions of the housewife and the “active” work of the working husband, ensured that women remained second-class citizens. The story shows that this division of

In Kate Chopin’s short story, “The Story of an Hour,” Louise privately imagines the forbidden pleasure of independence. When Louise’s sister Josephine informs her of her husband Brently’s death, she reacts with violent grief. Once alone however, Louise realizes that she is now an independent woman and it excites her. As time passes, Louise begins to pray that this new independent lifestyle lasts forever. However, when Brently unexpectedly returns from a trip, this newfound freedom disappears and leads to Louise’s untimely death. A major theme in this short story is the idea of the forbidden joy of independence which Louise briefly experiences. Throughout several excerpts of this short story, the joy of independence possess Louise and gives

This paper will not be able to cover the complexity of feminism as a whole since it has become a very broad subject. In addition, feminism has also been a heavily debated issue that has been around for numerous years. The argument of feminism is that women are, and always have been throughout history, treated differently than men by society. Therefore, women are being stripped down of opportunities to their benefit economically, socially, politically, culturally, and several more ways. This essay will highlight and analyze the cultural aspects of feminism from the texts of Kate Chopin’s novel The Awakening, Donald Hall’s “Feminist Analysis” from Literary and Cultural Theory, Charlotte Gilman’s short story ”The Yellow Wallpaper”, Kate Chopin’s short story “The Story of an Hour”, and Tillie Olsen’s short story “Tell Me A Riddle.” Cultural feminism, the ideology of the roles and stereotypical characteristics of women. Therefore, women are unable to express themselves due to being oppressed by patriarchal society. Thus, preserving and nurturing “female culture” will benefit society. As a final point, this paper will point out and identify women being isolated from their culture and personal values.

Have you ever felt trapped in society, as if no matter what you do you can’t change what happens and every decision you make is made by someone else? That’s how the women felt in the late 1900s. In the stories the yellow wallpaper and the story of an hour it helps you understand how it felt. They use many elements to help support the theme.

My inspiration and creative path have been inspired by the following women. A theorist, I felt I resonated with was Simone de Beauvoir on her myths, dreams, fears, and idols leading women to be viewed as the other. The second woman that inspired me is the author Kate Chopin, a feminist author of the 20th century. Her works were written on the first feminist views and women's issues. My third inspiration comes from the author, Charlotte Perkins Gilman, who wrote the inspiring short story, Yellow Wallpaper. Each of these women I feel stepped out in time to express women's issues and explore the possibilities of change. In addition to the above authors, the artist that has given me inspiration is Jenny Morgan. Her art work explores the identity

“Free! Body and soul free”(Chopin, 16) This is what every woman dreams off every single day while trapped in a world where they are treated unfairly. The Napoleonic code was huge out break , in which women were treated unequally and treated like objects due to the fact that they were legally under the control of men. This code denied women their right to freedom, and their right to speak up for themselves. “ The code also ensured that married women in particular owed their husbands obedience and were forbidden from selling, giving, mortgaging, or buying property” (French Civil Code, 1) Mrs.Mallard was a women that was denied her freedom due to the fact that she was married but once she received the news that her husband had died she had a sudden feeling of relief and freedom. Usually it's not normal for someone to be glad that someone close has died but in her case she was forced to feel a gush of relief due to the realization that she was going to be free. Women had no say in this big situation of inequality that was being reinforced on them, and they had to keep quiet, which is why Mrs.Mallard didn’t express her feeling of happiness in front of everyone. Kate Chopin wrote “The Story of an Hour” to sympathize with women who were treated like objects and were trapped under societies expectations by including little details with a critical meaning, and having unexpected turning points throughout the story to give us a better understanding about the wife's feelings towards