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The Yellow Wallpaper And The Story Of An Hour Analysis

Decent Essays

Throughout history, women have struggled to be seen as equals and have had to fight for their freedom from the roles society placed upon them. Kate Chopin and Charlotte Perkins Gilman both use their literary works to show the challenges women went through, and how they battled for the freedoms they desperately wanted. “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 …show more content…

In “The Yellow Wallpaper” the husband makes her use a rest cure to make her conform back to her role in society. He doesn’t allow her to do anything except sit in her room away from everyone and everything. The husband in “The Story of an Hour” doesn’t do anything specific other than creating a sense of holding his wife back, because he follows the rules of society and believes she should do the same. The husbands in each story don’t see anything wrong with the way society works and they continue to follow what they believe is the right thing to do. The husbands don’t pay attention to what their wives want or need.
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.
This loss of happiness and freedom caused Mrs. Mallard’s heart to give out and she died. The doctor said “She had died of heart disease – of joy that kills” (Chopin). Society believes she

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