Kate Chopin wrote “The Story of an Hour” in 1894; it describes a young married women named Louise confronting years of suppression that vanish with her husband’s death leaving her with unimaginable freedom. A few years later in 1899, Charlotte Perkins Gilman wrote “The Yellow Wallpaper” which portrayed a married woman’s struggle against insanity. The similarities between the two would seem unapparent, other than the fact that both women in the stories are married. When submersing oneself deeper into the stories, one can see the analogy between their wedded husbands, and the controlling grips they have on their wives. However, if a person truly descends within the two texts, accord and disparity layers itself with symbolism; the two stories show unique settings and elaborate imagery that pose multiple similarities as well as differences.
Within “The Story of an Hour”, the setting mainly focuses on her room. From vague details given, it is apparent that she lives in a quaint house within the suburbs of the city; however, she mainly spends all of her time in her bedroom. The few details given about her room are essential to her seemingly planned life, but, with what is given, in her room, there stands a comfortable armchair that sits toward the open window with assumedly a bed somewhere in the room. Even though the main character seems to dwell in such a pleasant home with her husband and her sister, she perceived that her husband controlled her every waking moment. She views the room as a prison and her only escape outside is the window possessing opportunities that are just out of her reach. Once she learns of her husband’s death however, everything becomes almost too good to be true. She secludes herself to the one pl...
... middle of paper ...
...nize the values she once held dear.
Outline- point by point
Thesis: "The Yellow Wallpaper" and "The Story of an Hour" both contain strong symbolism; between the two stories, the detailed settings and the elaborate imagery pose multiple similarities as well as contradiction.
I. Setting: the room
a. specifics in story
b. specifics in wallpaper
c. contradiction and comparison
II. Imagery 1: the chair and window
III. Imagery 2: the doors
Works Cited
Outline- point by point
Thesis: "The Yellow Wallpaper" and "The Story of an Hour" both contain strong symbolism; between the two stories, the detailed settings and the elaborate imagery pose multiple similarities as well as contradiction.
I. Setting: the room
a. specifics in story
b. specifics in wallpaper
c. contradiction and comparison
II. Imagery 1: the chair and window
III. Imagery 2: the doors
At one point the author recalls a soldier kicking a dead enemy's head and questioning “what the moral was” in doing so (O’Brien 1183). This sense of remorse towards senselessness and actions that took place in the war show the discontent with events that take place. Contrarily, the author of “The Yellow Wallpaper” questions the reasoning behind the wallpaper and begins to curiously infer why it may be in her room. The protagonist infers that the wallpaper “looks as if a boys’ school had used it” and destroyed it because it was “stripped off” (Gilman 549). The narrator begins to look for answers from a wall with none, which leaves it her tainted imagination to guess what the answers might be.
“The Story of an Hour” and “The Hand” is similar in setting. Both stories take place in a house and occur mostly in the bedroom, which is considered to be a sacred room in the house. It is not a coincidence that both stories take place in a house, since a woman’s place is believed to be in the home. Women’s major role in marriage is to serve her husband, give birth to his children, and make his home a pleasant place to return to at the end of the day. A woman is denied many freedoms and rights and is expected to submit to the dreams of men and society.
“Like a river flows so surely to the sea darling, so it goes some things are meant to be.” In literature there have been a copious amount of works that can be attributed to the theme of love and marriage. These works convey the thoughts and actions in which we as people handle every day, and are meant to depict how both love and marriage can effect one’s life. This theme is evident in both “The Storm” by Kate Chopin and “The Yellow Wallpaper” by Charlotte Gilman; both stories have the underlying theme of love and marriage, but are interpreted in different ways. Both in “The Storm” and in “The Yellow Wallpaper,” the women are the main focus of the story. In “The Storm” you have Calixta, a seemingly happy married woman who cheats on her husband with an “old-time infatuation” during a storm, and then proceeds to go about the rest of her day as if nothing has happened when her husband and son return. Then you have “The Yellow Wallpaper” where the narrator—who remains nameless—is basically kept prisoner in her own house by her husband and eventually is driven to the point of insanity.
In conclusion, these stories have similarities in terms of the victimizations and subordination of women. Black and yellow color was used to symbolize the overall surroundings of the situation. However, both of these stories had difference. As mentioned, “The Lottery” was a very violent and cruel event and “The Yellow Wallpaper” was towards self-expression. Thus the difference and similarities in both of these stories can be compared and contrasted.
Narrator and Point of View in The Yellow Wallpaper and The Story of an Hour
...Also in, "The Yellow Wallpaper", the narrator gets so loneley and so freaked out about what is happening in the wallpaper in her room that she actually goes insane. She tears everything down and she even bites it. She thinks that there are other people that have smudged the wallpaper when in reality it was her and now she is actually the trapped woman. This is how these two stories relate by the characteization of the authors by them both making their stories disturbing in different ways.
...he wall, he thinks about his rejected opportunities and his unbearable regret. As he sobers with terror, the final blow will come from the realization that his life is ending in his catacombs dying with his finest wine. The catacombs, in which he dies, set the theme, and relate well with the story. Without the yellow wallpaper in the short story, the significance of the wallpaper would not mater, nor would it set the theme or plot. At night the wallpaper becomes bars, and the wallpaper lets her see herself as a women and her desire to free herself. She needs to free herself from the difficulties of her husband, and from her sickness. The settings in both, set up the elements of the stories and ads to the effect in both of the short stories.
In “The Yellow Wallpaper”, the author, Charlotte Perkins Gilman, through expressive word choice and descriptions, allows the reader to grasp the concepts she portrays and understand the way her unnamed narrator feels as the character draws herself nearer and nearer to insanity. “The Yellow Wallpaper” begins with the narrator writing in a journal about the summer home she and her husband have rented while their home is being remodeled. In the second entry, she mentions their bedroom which contains the horrendous yellow wallpaper. After this, not one day goes by when she doesn’t write about the wallpaper. She talks about the twisting, never-ending pattern; the heads she can see hanging upside-down as if strangled by it; and most importantly the
The short story titled, “The Yellow Wallpaper” is given its name for no other reason than the disturbing yellow wallpaper that the narrator comes to hate so much; it also plays as a significant symbol in the story. The wallpaper itself can represent many various ideas and circumstances, and among them, the sense of feeling trapped, the impulse of creativity gone awry, and what was supposed to be a simple distraction transfigures into an unhealthy obsession. By examining the continuous references to the yellow wallpaper itself, one can begin to notice how their frequency develops the plot throughout the course of the story. As well as giving the reader an understanding as to why the wallpaper is a more adequate and appropriate symbol to represent the lady’s confinement and the deterioration of her mental and emotional health. In Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s “The Yellow Wallpaper”, the color of the wallpaper symbolizes the internal and external conflicts of the narrator that reflect the expectations and treatment of the narrator, as well as represent the sense of being controlled in addition to the feeling of being trapped.
In “The Yellow Wall-paper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, the unnamed female protagonist is going through a rough time in her life. (For now on, this paper will refer to this unnamed character as the “the narrator in ‘Wall-paper,’” short for “The Yellow Wall-paper. The narrator is confined to room to a room with strange wall-paper. This odd wall-paper seems to symbolize the complexity and confusion in her life. In “The Story of an Hour” by Kate Chopin, the protagonist, Mrs. Mallard must also deal with conflict as she must deal with the death of her spouse. At first there is grief, but then there is the recognition that she will be free. The institute of marriage ties the two heroines of these two short stories together. Like typical young women of the late 19th century, they were married, and during the course of their lives, they were expected to stay married. Unlike today where divorce is commonplace, marriage was a very holy bond and divorce was taboo. This tight bond of marriage caused tension in these two characters.
“The Yellow Wallpaper” tells the story of a woman who is trapped in a room covered in yellow wallpaper. The story is one that is perplexing in that the narrator is arguably both the protagonist as well as the antagonist. In the story, the woman, who is the main character, struggles with herself indirectly which results in her descent into madness. The main conflicts transpires between the narrator and her husband John who uses his power as a highly recognize male physician to control his wife by placing limitations on her, forcing her to behave as a sick woman. Hence he forced himself as the superior in their marriage and relationship being the sole decision make. Therefore it can be said what occurred externally resulted in the central conflict of” “The Yellow Wallpaper being internal. The narrator uses the wallpaper as a symbol of authenticy. Hence she internalizes her frustrations rather then openly discussing them.
An Analysis of Kate Chopin’s The Story of an Hour and Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s The Yellow Wallpaper
“The Yellow Wall Paper” is the story about a journey of a woman who is suffering from a nervous breakdown, descending into madness through her “rest cure” treatment. Basically, the woman is not allowed to read, write or to see her new-born baby. Charlotte Perkins Gilman captures the essence of this journey into madness by using the first person narration. The story plot’s is by taking the reader through the horrors of one woman’s neurosis to make strong statements about the oppression faced by women in their marriage roles. The narrator’s mental condition is characterized by her meeting with the wallpaper in her room. In addition to the story’s plot, the use of symbolism and irony throughout her story also show how males dominate during her time.
In conclusion, this story, “The Yellow Wall-Paper”, provided a great social and psychological criticism. It shows the reader how women have progressed so far in the recent years. This woman was the start of many, which finally led to making men and woman more equal, and this is the society that this woman wanted.
In the short story, “The Story of an Hour,” author Kate Chopin presents the character of Mrs. Louis Mallard. She is an unhappy woman trapped in her discontented marriage. Unable to assert herself or extricate herself from the relationship, she endures it. The news of the presumed death of her husband comes as a great relief to her, and for a brief moment she experiences the joys of a liberated life from the repressed relationship with her husband. The relief, however, is short lived. The shock of seeing him alive is too much for her bear and she dies. The meaning of life and death take on opposite meaning for Mrs. Mallard in her marriage because she lacked the courage to stand up for herself.