In the two short stories that I decided to compare and contrast both of these stories are very similar in their depiction of the ways women were treated in the past. Women were treated like they were not good enough to do a man’s job and traditionally had fewer rights than men did. The two women from the short stories have similar experiences of being oppressed by men, but had different outcomes, primarily because the authors of the stories differ in gender. The gender difference plays a huge role in how the stories unfold. “The Story of an Hour” by Kate Chopin; and “The Chrysanthemums” by John Steinbeck are the two short stories compared and contrasted. In “The Story of An Hour” the author talks about a woman who is married and finds out that her husband has been killed in a train accident. Her first reaction is devastation and she starts crying hysterically, but then she goes into her room and thinks about her new found freedom. She looks out the window seeing all this new life and thinks about how hers is going to be. As this new, independent woman she is now free. The feeling of freedom from marriage excites her at first, but doesn’t last long. She finds out that her husband is still alive and all of this new freedom is taken away from her, which in turn gives her a fatal heart attack. In the story of “The Chrysanthemums” there is a typical married couple from “back in the day” when woman were expected to take care of the home and men were expected to work all day. Elisa Allen, Henry’s wife, loves to work in the garden on her chrysanthemums. She is a very strong and beautiful woman but wants to do more on the business side of their relationship. She knows, unfortunately, that this is not expected from a woman.
In Chopin’s sto...
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...n Hour” was about a woman who realizes that she can live for herself when she finds out that her husband has died. Then she finds out that he is not really dead and she has a heart attack, because she lost all of this newfound freedom. “The Chrysanthemums” is about a woman who wants to be treated like an equal by her husband or men in general. In the story, she is represented as a strong woman. In the end she forgets about how she wanted to be equal and resorts to doing what a male-dominated society thinks she should do. The two women have similar paths, such as being a woman when men ruled society and when being married was not equal for the woman. The endings of these stories are different because of the genders of the authors, and the time period in which they lived. Women know in today’s society are much more equal to men; in marriage and in the work place.
How sad can that be for these women to feel that they have no other option out of their marriage? In conclusion, both short stories were great at allowing the reader to see the way that women were repressed in their society in the 1900s. We don't hate the men; we just wish women did not have to be so subservient. Freedom is achieved in very unconventional ways in both of these stories, but the kind of freedom these narrators achieve is not available to most women of this time era. Works Cited Kennedy, X. J., and Dana Gioia.
The difference between men and women is a very controversial issue, while there are obviously physical differences; the problem is how the genders are treated. It is stereotypically thought that the men do the labor work and make all the money, while the women stay in the house, cooking, cleaning and taking care of the children. While this stereotype does not exist as much in the 21st century, it was very prevalent in the 1900s. By using many different literary tools such as character development, symbolism, and setting, Alice Munro’s Boys and Girls and John Steinbeck’s The Chrysanthemums challenge this controversial topic of the treatment of women versus men in the 1900s.
Writing based on their own experiences, had it not been for the works of Susan Glaspell, Kate Chopin, and similar feminist authors of their time, we may not have seen a reform movement to improve gender roles in a culture in which women had been overshadowed by men. In The Story of an Hour, the main character, Mrs. Louise Mallard, is a young woman with a heart condition who learns of her husband’s untimely death in a railroad disaster. Instinctively weeping, as any woman is expected to do upon learning of her husband’s death, she retires to her room to be left alone so she may collect her thoughts. However, the thoughts she collects are somewhat unexpected. Louise is conflicted with the feelings and emotions that are “approaching to possess her.”
Women have traditionally been known as the less dominant sex. Through history women have fought for equal rights and freedom. They have been stereotyped as being housewives, and bearers of children. Only with the push of the Equal Rights Amendment have women had a strong hold on the workplace alongside men. Many interesting characters in literature are conceived from the tension women have faced with men. This tension comes from men, society, in general, and within a woman herself. Two interesting short stories, “The Yellow Wall-paper" and “The Story of an Hour," focus on a woman’s fix near the turn of the 19th century. This era is especially interesting
Historically, women have been treated as second class citizens. The Napoleonic Code stated that women were controlled by their husbands and cannot freely do their own will without the authority of their husband. This paper shows how this is evident in the "Story of an Hour" by Kate Chopin and " A Rose for Emily" by William Faulkner. In both stories, the use of literary elements such as foreshadowing, symbolism, and significant meaning of the titles are essential in bringing the reader to an unexpected and ironic conclusion.
Kate Chopin’s “The Story of the Hour” and Charlotte Perkins Gillman’s “The Yellow Wallpaper” is viewed from a woman’s perspective of the nineteenth century. They showed the issues on how they were confined to the house. That they were 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 of the control of their husband.
Both Ernest Hemingway’s Hills Like White Elephants and John Steinbeck’s The Chrysanthemums portray oppressed female characters in the early 1900s. In Hemingway’s short, Jig is oppressed by her lover known only as “The American,” whereas, the main character in The Chrysanthemums, Elisa Allen, feels the weight of oppression from society (male dominated) as a whole. Although the driving force of the two women’s subjugation varies slightly, their emotional responses to such are what differentiate the two.
Women have traditionally been known as the less dominant sex. Through history women have fought for equal rights and freedom. They have been stereotyped as being housewives, and bearers and nurturers of the children. Only recently with the push of the Equal Rights Amendment have women had a strong hold on the workplace alongside men. Many interesting characters in literature are conceived from the tension women have faced with men. This tension is derived from men; society, in general; and within a woman herself. Two interesting short stories, “The Yellow Wall-paper and “The Story of an Hour, “ focus on a woman’s plight near the turn of the 19th century. This era is especially interesting because it is a time in modern society when women were still treated as second class citizens. The two main characters in these stories show similarities, but they are also remarkably different in the ways they deal with their problems and life in general. These two characters will be examined to note the commonalities and differences. Although the two characters are similar in some ways, it will be shown that the woman in the “The Story of an Hour” is a stronger character based on the two important criteria of rationality and freedom.
In “Hills Like White Elephants” and “The Story of an Hour”, the woman in each story imprisons in the domestic sphere. In “Hills Like White Elephants”, the woman in this story conflicts between keeping the baby or getting abortion although the relationship with her boyfriend would not improve as he said. In “The Story of an Hour”, even though Louise Mallard, an intelligent, independent woman understands that she should grieve for Brently, her husband and worry for her future, she cannot help herself from rejoice at her newfound freedom. The author of this story, Kate Chopin suggests that even with a happy marriage, the loss of freedom and the restraint are the results that cannot be avoid.
The story is ironic because Mrs. Mallard learns her husband was not dead, and instead of exulting her husband’s sudden return, she regretted abandoning her moment of freedom. An analysis of “The Story of an Hour” through the historical and feminist lenses, suggests that the story is really about women’s self-identity in the 1800s male-dominated society, and how it caused women’s lack of freedom. During the 1800s, males dominated and were the superior gender in the society. The. Women’s rights and feminism do not exist.
The narrator in “The Yellow Wallpaper” used her hatred but yet love towards the wallpaper in the room she was staying in to symbolize the domestic life that many women including herself are trapped in. “ Then I peeled off all the paper I could reach standing on the floor.” (Gilman, 778) shows the narrator’s escape from her mental confinement. Mrs. Mallard in “The Story of an Hour” felt that her husband's death was her source of freedom. “She could see in the open square before her house the tops of trees that were all aquiver with the new spring of life.” (Chopin, 784) shows how the world opened up before her eyes signifying she has gained her own definition of freedom which was being free of her husband. Elisa Allen in “The Chrysanthemums” never reached her own mental freedom due to the losing of her hope of something more and continued to live her simple farmer’s wife life. “She turned up her coat collar so he could not see that she was crying weakly--like an old woman.” (Steinbeck, 11) shows her giving up by weeping like a woman showing she is weak and still lives in the set standards of a
Throughout time women have been written as the lesser sex, weaker, secondary characters. They are portrayed as dumb, stupid, and nothing more than their fading beauty. They are written as if they need to be saved or helped because they cannot help themselves. Women, such as Daisy Buchanan who believes all a woman can be is a “beautiful little fool”, Mrs Mallard who quite died when she lost her freedom from her husband, Eliza Perkins who rights the main character a woman who is a mental health patient who happens to be a woman being locked up by her husband, and then Carlos Andres Gomez who recognizes the sexism problem and wants to change it. Women in The Great Gatsby, “The Story of an Hour,” “The Yellow Wall Paper” and the poem “When” are oppressed because the fundamental concept of equality that America is based on undermines gender equality.
This short story was written in 1892, at that time, there was only one women's suffrage law. Now, because of many determinant feminists, speakers, teachers, and writers, the women’s rights movement has grown increasingly large and is still in progress today. This quite recent movement took over more than a century to grant women the rights they deserve to allow them to be seen as equals to men. This story was a creative and moving way to really show how life may have been as a woman in the nineteenth century. Works Cited Eichelberger, Clayton.
The traditional role of women in the American society has transformed as society has trended towards sexual equality. In the past women were expected to be submissive to the man and were looked upon as homemakers rather then providers. Modern day women enjoy the freedom of individuality and are considered as capable as men in many regards. John Steinbeck’s short story, “The Chrysanthemums,” portrays a woman’s struggle with accepting her life and role as a female (459). Through the protagonist-female character, Elisa Allen, and the symbolism of chrysanthemums, Steinbeck displays the gender roles that define past generations of women’s lives in the United States.
Women rights has flourished this past decade. They have came a long way to get to where they are today. For instance, our nation is on the verge to having our very first female president. The amount of feminist accomplishments that has occurred further highlights the transition our women’s rights today compared to back then. “The Story of an Hour,” by Kate Chopin, an American writer best known for her feminist stories about the lives of daring women, portrays women’s lack of freedom in the 1800s by addressing the concerns of feminism. Those including the escape from the husband’s identity to express the woman’s own unique identity and the right of women to be their own person by experiencing her own interest. In spite of the fact that there is a controversial aspect to the story, the reaction Mrs. Mallard experiences after learning her husband’s death, the reader can still empathize and