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Patriarchal Society Kills In The Yellow Wallpaper And Story Of An Hour

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Patriarchal Society Kills Throughout the world, in several different societies and cultures, women are not valued as highly as men, and are oppressed in different ways, leading to women’s rights movements. Specifically in the United States, the women’s rights movement of the 1920’s gave women several rights, but today’s society still values men higher than women and rights movements still continue today for women. One example of men being valued higher than women is seen in the wage gap, where men are being paid higher than women for the same job. In literature, it is common to portray women as weak, and have the men be the leader in the family. In “The Yellow Wallpaper” by Charlotte Perkins Gilman and “Story of an Hour” by Kate Chopin, two women are depicted, both as weak, and under the control of their …show more content…

Moreover, the assumption that women aren’t as smart as men due to genetics is called biological essentialism. Tyson explains biological essentialism as a theory and “belief in the inborn inferiority of women” (Tyson 1). Tying back to patriarchal society, men were believed to be superior due to this concept, as women have always been portrayed as the weaker sex, in a biological way. This gave men an excuse to be controlling over their wives, as seen in “The Yellow Wallpaper” and “The Story of An Hour”. Both Gilman and Chopin criticize patriarchal society in the sense that when men possess a “natural” sense of superiority over women, it leads them to be controlling over women; however, women seek liberation away from their oppressor, with patriarchal society ultimately winning in the battle towards their freedom. In “The Yellow Wallpaper”, the narrator is forced to reside by herself in a room because her husband thinks she is sick, but she ultimately is driven to insanity and tears down the wallpaper in the room; In “The Story of an Hour”, Mrs. Mallard was relieved to hear of her husband’s death, only to die when he comes back, as the

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