In the short stories "The Story of an Hour" and The Yellow Wallpaper the imagery, symbolism, and the changing and tone throughout these stories explain that women deal with, and the conflict of their personal freedom and identity in a marriage. The women in these stories are viewed as strong and do whatever it takes to free themselves from their husbands. In “Story of an Hour” the irony is detected in the way that Louise reacts to the news of the death of her husband. The widow describes the world according to her perception, after the horrible news. She accepted it and goes to her room to be alone (Pike & Acosta (2014). Now in her room, Louise sinks into her chair and looks out the window. The widowed Louise is looking out of the window and sees spring and all the new life it brings. The descriptions used now are as far away from death. "The delicious breath of rain, the notes of a distant song, sparrows were singing, and patches of blue sky."(Pike & Acosta (2014). The opened window in the story symbolizes Louise’s freedom and opportunities that were waiting for her and she did not have to answer to no one. Louise’s excitement of this is shown by the explanation of her physical reaction- raised pulse, relaxation of muscles, and the look in her eyes. At one point she was referred to as Mrs. Mallard, and now she is her own person, with an independent identity. Louise’s heart trouble which afflicts her is a symbolic malady that showed her dissatisfaction in her marriage and her unhappiness due to lack of freedom. The widow whispers "Free, free, free!" She realized that although at times she had loved her husband, she has her freedom, a state of being that all creatures strive for. She grows excited and begins to fantasize about li... ... middle of paper ... ...rts to feel she is a prisoner inside this paper. The wife, narrator, proves that her husband John is oppressive when she shows how afraid she is of him. She says, “There comes John, and I must put this away-he hates to have me write a word” (Pike & Acosta (2014). The wife at the end “I’ve got out at last,” Said I, “in spite of you and Jane. And I’ve pulled off most of the paper, so you can’t put me back!” (Pike & Acosta (2014). In Chopin’s The Story of an Hour” it is made aware that the main character Louise was being down by her husband as well, even though it was never stated outright in the story. Unjust treatment plays a large part in the comprehending the theme of liberation in the stories “The Yellow Wallpaper” and “The Story of an Hour.” Works Cited Pike, David L., & Acosta, Ana M. (2014). Literature: A World of Writing (2nd ed.) Boston, MA: Pearson.
By contrast, Louise Mallard, the protagonist in Chopin's "Story of an Hour", is a moral woman and loving wife, at least by Western standards. Her life is defined by the accepted social ideal of a husband's will as final. She is so inured to this concept that only upon hearing the news of his death does her true feeling of something "too subtle and elusive to name" (199) come forth. What she acknowledges to herself is that her marriage is not happy for her and she often resents her subservient role and "a kind intention or a cruel intention made the act seem no less a crime".
Comparatively, the relationships between the two main characters in the stories portray women’s yearning for freedom with different types of confinement. Psychological and physical confinements are terms that we can see used through out both stories. While “Story of an hour” basis its character being emotionally confined, and her great awakening being the room in which she grasps the hope of freedom. The settings show the character analyzes her new life, as her barrier and weight of being a wife is lifted, bring fourth new light. We can see in “The Yellow Wallpaper” that the author chose to base the main character John’s wife, around physical confinement in which her room symbolized imprisonment, and due to her illness mental confinement as well. Soon enough we see that her sickness takes hold making her believe she has desperately found freedom, but in reality she has found nothing merely more than herself. Something she had hated throughout the story, ending in only sadness. Telling us Psychological confinement played a big role as her sickness takes hold of her identity leaving behind the
“The Story of an Hour” by Kate Chopin, “The Chrysanthemums “by John Steinbeck and “The Yellow Wallpaper” by Charlotte Gilman shows each woman trying to escape their feelings of being confined or trapped because of the gender roles of being a perfect wife and mother that are afflicted upon them by those around them.
“Story of an Hour”, written by Kate Chopin presents a woman of the nineteenth century who is held back by societal constraints. The character, Louise Mallard, is left to believe that her husband has passed away. She quickly falls into a whirlwind of emotions as she sinks into her chair. Soon a sense of freedom overwhelms her body as she looks through the window of opportunity and times to come. She watches the world around her home run free as nature runs its course. Louise watches the blue sky as a rush of “monstrous joy” shoots through her veins (Chopin). She experiences a new sense of freedom. Although she sometimes loved her husband, his “death” breaks the chain that keeps her from experiencing a truly free life. Thoughts over times to
The first theme present in the horrific and heart wrenching story is the subordinate position of women within marriage. “The Yellow Wallpaper” begins with the narrator’s wish that her house were haunted like those in which “frightened heroines suffer Gothic horrors” (DeLamotte 5). However, this wish is in essence to empower herself. The narrator is already afraid of her husband and is suffering mentally and emotionally. She desperately wishes for an escape “through fantasy, into a symbolic version of her own plight: a version in which she would have a measure of distance and control” (DeLamotte 6). Throughout the text, Gilman reveals to the reader that during the time in which the story was written, men acquired the working role while women were accustomed to working within the boundaries of their “woman sphere”. This gender division meritoriously kept women in a childlike state of obliviousness and prevented them from reaching any scholastic or professional goals. John, the narrator’s husband, establishes a treatment for his wife through the assumption of his own superior wisdom and maturity. This narrow minded thinking leads him to patronize and control his wife, all in the name of “helping her”. The narrator soon begins to feel suffocated as she is “physically and emotionally trapped by her husband” (Korb). The narrator has zero control in the smallest details of her life and is consequently forced to retreat into her fantasies...
“The Yellow Wallpaper, by Charlotte Perkins Stetson (Gilman)” embodies the idea that imprisonment in the “yellow wallpaper” room was the cause of the narrator’s absolute madness, as seen how her character changes and at the end and she no longer addresses her husband as John but “that man”. When reading the story we can see the narrator is being oppressed by her husband, “John is a physician, and perhaps – (I would not say it to a living soul, of course, but this is dead paper and a great relief to my mind) – perhaps that is one reason I do not get well faster” (p.g.1). This quote shows us how the narrator is trapped and can’t express her feelings fearing her husband. The helpless sensation of oppression and being trapped leads the narrator to madness and we can witness the whole scene unfold. From her change in attitude to obsession with the wallpaper and the illusion of herself as the woman behind the wallpaper.
It is written in a formal style, while using feign words. Although, the climax of the story happens when she peels the wallpaper from the wall, therefore releasing her from imprisonment; the problem isn’t resolved because she is insane now and didn’t get better. The external conflict is man versus society, the internal conflict is man versus himself, and the central conflict is man versus man. The external conflict is man versus society because of how society viewed women at that time as they were seen to be beneath man, and it showed in how they were treated. The internal conflict is man versus himself because the narrator ad to deal with depression and the treatment, which made it worse for her. The central conflict is man versus man because the narrator has to deal with the way her husband is treating her as a human and as a patient. The themes of the story are inferiority of women in marriage, expressing yourself, and effects of treatment and they are universal. The main theme is the importance of expressing yourself because if you don’t express yourself, you will lose yourself and then you won’t be who you truly are. An important symbol is the yellow wallpaper, which is in the room the narrator spends all her time in and is forced to stay in. She has nothing to do but stare at the intriguing wallpaper that has a woman trapped behind a pattern like she in trapped in her room. She also refers to the wallpaper as paper; therefore she was reading the wallpaper like a text decoding the images like
In “The Story of an Hour,” after Louise is informed of her husband’s death she goes to her room. From her room Louise describes what she sees out the window as a new spring life representing her new found freedom. Then she sits down and during that time discovers her freedom.
Charlotte Perkins Gilman wrote, “The Yellow Wallpaper” in the first person as a journal in the 19th century not with the intent to drive people crazy, but as social criticism, against the haunting psychological horrors of a doctor’s error in treatment of women using the “rest cure,” during this time. Gilman was a women’s right activist, wife, mother, and author who illustrates how women where submissive to male authority and did not have rights during this male dominated era in society. She believed women’s lives were not only controlled, but also limited preventing them from experiencing anything outside the home hindering their creative and intellectual development. Writing was one of the only forms of survival for women during this period.
The Story of an Hour, by Kate Chopin, and The Yellow Wallpaper, by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, both have very similar themes, imagery, and a plot with very little differences. In both stories the theme of the two short stories is the ideals of feminism. Some similar imagery is the idea of freedom and living on one 's own. The plots are very similar, both woman coming into conflict with their husband, feminism, and a tragic ending. Also, both deal with the everyday problems women faced during the periods surrounding the time the stories were written. Mrs. Mallard, from Story of an Hour, and Jane, from The Yellow Wallpaper, both are trying to write their own destinies but their husbands prevent them from doing so. Mrs. Mallard and Jane both
The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman can be perceived in a few different ways. Greg Johnson wrote an article describing his own perception of what he believed the short story meant. In doing so, it can be noticed that his writing aligns well with what can be perceived from Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s story. The narrator Jane, experiences many things throughout Gilman’s story, which Johnson describes thoroughly. It is because of these descriptive points that allow Johnsons article to be a convincing argument. The main ideas that Johnson depicts that are supported and I agree with from the story include Janes developing imaginative insight, her husband and sister-in-law’s belief on domestic control, and her gained power through unconsciousness.
Kate Chopin’s “The Story of the Hour” and Charlotte Perkins Gillman’s “The Yellow Wallpaper” are viewed from a woman’s perspective in the nineteenth century. They show the issues on how they are confined to the house. That they are to be stay at home wives and let the husband earn the household income. These stories are both written by American women and how their marriage was brought about. Their husbands were very controlling and treated them more like children instead of their wives. In the nineteenth century their behavior was considered normal at the time. In “The Story of the Hour” and “The Yellow Wallpaper,” both women explore their issues on wanting to be free from the control of their husband’s.
Advocating social, political, legal, and economic rights for women equal to those of men, Charlotte Perkins Gilman speaks to the “female condition” in her 1892 short story “The Yellow Wallpaper”, by writing about the life of a woman and what caused her to lose her sanity. The narrator goes crazy due partially to her prescribed role as a woman in 1892 being severely limited. One example is her being forbidden by her husband to “work” which includes working and writing. This restricts her from begin able to express how she truly feels. While she is forbidden to work her husband on the other hand is still able to do his job as a physician. This makes the narrator inferior to her husband and males in general. The narrator is unable to be who she wants, do what she wants, and say what she wants without her husband’s permission. This causes the narrator to feel trapped and have no way out, except through the yellow wallpaper in the bedroom.
Kate Chopin's story, "The Story of an Hour", focuses on an 1890's young woman, Louise Mallard. She experienced a profound emotional change after she hears her husband's "death" and her life ends with her tragic discovery that he is actually alive. In this story, the author uses various techniques-settings, symbolism and irony- to demonstrate and develop the theme: Freedom is more important than love.
Kate Chopin’s “The Story of An Hour” focuses on a woman named Louise Mallard and her reaction to finding out about her husband’s death. The descriptions that the author uses in the story have significance in the plot because they foreshadow the ending.