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What Are The Similarities Between The Yellow Wallpaper And The Chrysanthemums

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There are many similarities and differences between the two husbands in the stories, The Chrysanthemums by John Steinbeck and The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman. A few of these include how the treat their wives, their views on marriage, and their intentions. Both do care for their wives, whether they express it clearly or not. What seems to hold them back in both stories, respectively, is their ignorance. The similarities between the two husbands seem to outweigh the differences. The main one is that neither wife is particularly pleased with their husband and in each story the husband is made out to be the bad guy. This is because of the husbands’ inability to understand the wants and deeper needs of their wives. Henry praises his wife as if she is a child that just accomplished something worthwhile, which in a sense belittles that she can do more with her life than …show more content…

John also treats and talks to his wife like a child by calling her a blessed little goose. Both husbands seem to believe that they have authority over their wives in the marriage. Henry believes so in a traditional and patriarchal sense by thinking men are superior to women; while John believes he is superior because he is not only the husband, but doubles as the doctor that is treating her illness. In both cases, the husbands do not treat their wives as their equals. Both husbands, whether knowingly or not, treat their wives poorly. John belittles his wife’s knowledge of the illness she has and really seems to disregard her opinion of it, even when it comes to the small, minute things that she suggests. Both husbands do care for their wives, they are just unable to understand them because of their view of them as

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