Females can be Powerful

For many years, women have been viewed as less powerful in comparison to men. They cannot be stronger than men, or work as hard as men; sometimes people believe that women cannot be dependent of themselves without a man. In Donald Hall’s Literary and Cultural Theory, Hall demonstrates the different ways feminist analysis has developed in society. The main point stated across his theory is that society has developed with the idea that patriarchs take power away from the women in the society. “Key to all feminist analysis is a recognition of the different degrees of social power that are granted to and exercise by women and men,” (Hall 199). In many cases, men are viewed as the stronger power in human society because women may not be as smart as men. Hall’s theory is proved correct in the novel The Awakening, Kate Chopin, followed by “The Story of an Hour,” also by Chopin and “The Yellow Wallpaper” by Charlotte Gilman. The women in these stories create an idea of women in the nineteenth century who are treated with less respect than men treat each other. One of the women could not take any more drama in her life and she decides to disappear for the rest of her life. Another woman dies of joy when she finds out she will finally be free with the death of her husband, and the last women is judged as a psycho after discovering the small details of a wallpaper in a room she is kept in for several months. The treatment and behavior of women could have been avoided if both men and women were viewed in the same perspective.

Hall’s theory states that women are being denied social power simply because it follows the stereotypes in society which is that men have more social power in comparison to women. In many cases, married women ...

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... they live based on the stereotypes which are that men have more power than women, which leads to women living under their husband's commands and women becoming emotional over simple things. The women in the stories did not come to an ending with peace. Edna ends up committing suicide because she cannot continue to live with the same emotional cycle in her life that seems to never have an ending. Mrs. Mallard dies of a rare disease of joy because she is overwhelmed with the news that her husband will no longer treat her in an unfair way. The narrator in "The Yellow Wallpaper" becomes an actual psycho after being imprisoned in that room for several months. The behavior of the women that lead to the ending of their lives could have been avoided if both men and women were viewed as an equal power in human society, instead of living based on the common stereotypes.