Outline
* Story of an Hour and Yellow Wallpaper have challenges that were faced by the protagonists, setting looked to be in the same era with men being in charge of their wives lives. * Both women were emotionally and psychically trapped in their relationships * Both wanted freedom from their husbands * Both protagonists had an illness, which lead to had an opposite effect on both characters * Mrs. Millard had a heart condition and the narrator would develop a mental illness * Mrs. Millard had the news break slowly to her, in the end her death was led by joy * The narrator in Yellow Wallpaper was confined in a room with wallpaper she disliked, the husband would say nothing is wrong with her;
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Body and soul free!” (Chopin 3). In my point of view those feelings that Mrs. Mallard felt at that moment was finally being let go from her husband’s grasp and the shackles of marriage which was an imprisonment to her. In “The Yellow Wallpaper”, the narrator of the story was remained nameless is confined in a room with eccentric wallpaper, which I think seems to symbolize the complexity and confusion in her life. The narrator’s freedom in this case would be writing, which did not sit well with her husband based on this quote; “There comes John, and I must put this away – he hates to have me write a word” (Gilman 57). For those moments the narrator writes in her journal she feels to have freedom and to express herself from reality, but in secret. The way the narrator describes her room as; “it is a big, airy room, the whole floor nearly, with windows that look all ways, and air and sunshine galore…I should judge, for the windows, are barred for little children and there are rings and things in the walls” (Gilman 56). This portrayal of the room could be described as confinement for the narrator, and a sense feeling trapped.
In both short stories, the main characters, Mrs. Mallard and the narrator have or ended up developing some sort of illness while in their marriages which can create difficulties in their relationship. In “Story of an Hour”
However, the most important aspect of this room is the yellow wallpaper. The narrator despises it, loathing the colour and it’s pattern. She writes that it is “. . .dull enough to confuse the eye in following, pronounced enough to constantly irritate and provoke study, and when you follow the lame uncertain curves for a little distance they suddenly commit suicide--plunge off at outrageous angles, destroy themselves in unheard of contradictions.” (Gilman). This description of the wallpaper serves the purpose to show the reader the unjust restrictions of society that the narrator is subjected to; “. . .commentators have seen in this description of the wallpaper a general representation of “the oppressive structures of society in which [the narrator] finds herself” (Madwoman 90), . . .” (Haney-Peritz 116). The statement of “dull enough to confuse the eye” and “constantly irritating and provoking study” are alluding to the narrator’s sense of inferiority and burden while the “lame and uncertain curves” are referencing the absurd suggestions that her husband is providing. Finally the “suicide” is the unfortunate fate that is destined to occur if his counsel is followed. When describing the wallpaper the narrator writes that “The color is repellent, almost
The doubt and misconstruction placed upon the women in the stories is a huge factor in the way their characters develop. Mrs. Mallard's sickness was misdiagnosed by both her family and doctor. They believed she suffered from heart problems but no evidence of this was produced during the story. When Mrs. Mallard was up in her room, her sister, Josephine, was worried that Mrs. Mallard would make herself ill because she was alone and suffering from her husband's death. Chopin gives the reader an insight as to Mrs. Mallard's thoughts by using a third person limited omniscient narrator, and by doing so, allows the reader to understand that Mrs. Mallard's family's ideas of her health were false. Near the end of the story the doctors and Mrs. Mallard's family believe that she has had a heart attack because she was happy to see that her husband was alive, while in actuality, she died because didn't want to live if she had to live with him.
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
While the women are struggling with the oppression from, society and their husbands, they also have to face internal struggles. The woman in “The Yellow Wallpaper” struggles with writing in secret, and being trapped in the room. Overtime, she becomes more insane and spends her time trying to find ways to help the woman she sees in the wallpaper escape. The woman from “The Story of an Hour” didn’t struggle internally until the very end. She had just left the room she had locked herself in, when he husband walked through the door alive and well. When she saw him all of her hopes and dreams she had just spent the past hour on were ripped out from underneath her.
"The Yellow Wallpaper" takes a close look at one woman's mental deterioration. The narrator is emotionally isolated from her husband. Due to the lack of interaction with other people the woman befriends the reader by secretively communicating her story in a diary format. Her attitude towards the wallpaper is openly hostile at the beginning, but ends with an intimate and liberating connection. During the gradual change in the relationship between the narrator and the wallpaper, the yellow paper becomes a mirror, reflecting the process the woman is going through in her room.
Trapped in the upstairs of an old mansion with barred windows and disturbing yellow colored wallpaper, the main character is ordered by her husband, a physician, to stay in bed and isolate her mind from any outside wandering thoughts. “The Yellow Wallpaper”, written by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, describes the digression of the narrator’s mental state as she suffers from a form of depression. As the story progresses, the hatred she gains for the wallpaper amplifies and her thoughts begin to alter her perception of the room around her. The wallpaper serves as a symbol that mimics the narrator’s trapped and suffering mental state while she slips away from sanity reinforcing the argument that something as simple as wallpaper can completely
The narrator in "The Yellow Wallpaper" becomes haunted by the wallpaper in her room. The setting takes place in the room, she dislikes the room from the moment she sees it and fells suffocated by it. Her feeling of suffocation and being haunted by the wallpaper helps the reader become more aware of her motivation for tearing the wallpaper down.
In both stories the women?s husbands had direct control over their lives. In ?The Yellow Wallpaper? the narrator?s husband controlled her both mentally and physically. He does not allow her to have any sort of outside stimulation. She is virtually imprisoned in a bedroom, which is supposed to allow her to rest and recover from her bad health. She is forbidden to work and even write something she loves to do. In addition, visitors are not allowed. She says, ?It is so discouraging not to have any advice and companionship about my work?but he says he would as soon put fireworks in my pillow-case as to let me have those stimulating people about now?(Gilman).
"The Yellow Wallpaper" and "The Story of an Hour" are two very similar stories. Both deal with middle-aged women who long to attain their freedom. They share the same theme, but convey the message differently in terms of style and quality. The two stories are about women who are fighting for freedom, happiness, and the ability to be truly expressive in any way possible.
Initially, Mrs. Mallard reacts with great sadness over the news of her husband’s death. Knowing that Mrs. Mallard suffers from “heart trouble”, Josephine, Mrs. Mallard’s sister decides to “hint” her the news of Brently’s death in “broken sentences”. Josephine assumes that Mrs. Mallard “[loves]” her husband, and naturally
When we compare contrast the two stories "The Yellow Wallpaper" vs. "The Story of an Hour”. If we first look at the similarities that they have, they are both about women who are controlled by their husbands, and who desired freedom. But both women had different reasons for their freedom. It sounds as though both husbands had control over their lives and both women had an illness. But I don’t believe the husbands knew their wives were so miserable. So as we look at the lives of women back in the 19th century time they have the stereotypical trend of being a house wife, staying at home taking care of kids, the house, and aiding the husband in his work. Being in charge of the household makes women have many responsibilities to take care of
As the protagonist suffers from her “nervous condition”, the isolated environment causes her to only get worse. Being trapped in the bedroom with yellow wallpaper contributes her emotional distress to become overpowering. The inability to verbally express her feelings of loneliness causes her to write in a more creative way about her relationships with objects in the room, specifically the yellow wallpaper. She begins to write about the yellow wallpaper as if it is suppose to have some sort of significance, in which it does. In the beginning of the narrator’s isolation, her attention is focused on the details of the yellow wallpaper’s pattern that are “dull enough to confused the eye in following, pronounced enough constantly to irritate and provoke study” (438). The wallpaper’s characteristics become hard to
detached from their husbands. In “An Story of an Hour” Mrs. Mallard is at first devistated from her
The most common element found within both pieces of literature is that both women seem to be greatly selfish.
Narrator and Point of View in The Yellow Wallpaper and The Story of an Hour