Women’s Freedoms versus Traditions Freedom is a subject that is not always granted. Freedoms can be categorized by physical, mental, or political states. In Chopin’s “The Story of an Hour”, and Gilman’s “The Yellow Wallpaper”, freedom is being withheld in both characters’ situations. There are several roles that play a factor in why these characters cannot grasp freedoms of their own. In both “The Story of an Hour” and “The Yellow-Wallpaper”, the feminist movement is entrapped by society and is also being controlled by insecurities held by the characters at hand. Women’s roles back then are not of those we have today. It was very uncommon for women to have duties and responsibilities as women of today have. In “The Story of an Hour” Mrs. …show more content…
Traditions at the time of the story can imply that her condition is debilitated for the same exact reasons as Mrs. Mallard. Her husband, John, can be seen as “society” in the story because he holds the superior role and tells her what to do; much like that of the traditional society of the time and place of the story. His position as a doctor is parallel to the position of society. He is essentially controlling her to fix the problem, just like that of society controlling the way the female gender’s role was supposed to be at the time. John’s wife says, “There comes John, and I must put this away-he hates to have me write a word” (Gilman 1671). Writing the way she feels about the wallpaper is associated with her way to cope with her illness. The wallpaper is playing the role of society. Every small detail mentioned about the wallpaper relates to how she feels because of society weighing her down. At night while staring at the hideous wallpaper, she tries so hard to figure out exactly what the wallpaper truly means. She says, “At night in any kind of light, in twilight, candlelight, lamplight, and worst of all by moonlight, it becomes bars! The outside pattern, I mean, and the woman behind it is a plain as can be” (Gilman 1677). Furthermore, she begins to see herself trapped inside the wallpaper and cannot escape it. She mentions that the bed is bolted down, and the windows are …show more content…
Also, yellow is associated with happiness and finding new ways of doing things. The impact of society is exactly what the bars are doing to the woman behind the wallpaper. The figure is trying to overcome the barrier of the wallpaper so that she can enjoy the yellow color in a way that is not impacted by society. The character says, “Then in the very bright spots, she keeps still, and in the very shady spots she just takes hold of the bars and shakes them hard” (Gilman 1678). When the color becomes more lustrous and vivid the figure is more confident and happy. This relates to when women at the time began to have more freedoms, they became happier. When the color becomes duller, the figure begins to panic and fall deeper into society’s levels. Looking through the windows of her room and seeing a woman creeping can be portrayed as dreaming that she is walking around outside in freedom. She says, “That was clever, for really I wasn’t alone a bit! As soon as it was moonlight and that poor thing began to crawl and shake the pattern, I got up and ran to help her” (Gilman 1679). The quote is significant because it represents the beginning of the feminist movement. In all rationality, women begin to climb the ladder of society and start to become more superior. Tearing down the old wallpaper is like tearing down the traditions that have been in place for so long. Women
In their works, Charlotte Perkins Gilman and Kate Chopin show that freedom was not universal in America in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century. The three works, "The Yellow Wallpaper," "At the 'Cadian Ball," and "The Storm" expose the oppression of women by society. This works also illustrate that those women who were passive in the face of this oppression risk losing not only their identity, but their sanity as well.
In The Yellow Wallpaper, the narrator weaves a tale of a woman with deep seeded feelings of depression. Her husband, a physician, takes her to a house for a span of three months where he puts her in a room to recuperate. That “recuperation” becomes her nemesis. She is so fixated on the “yellow wallpaper” that it seems to serve as the definition of her bondage. She gradually over time begins to realize what the wallpaper seems to represents and goes about plotting ways to overcome it. In a discussion concerning the wallpaper she states, “If only that top pattern could be gotten off from the under one! I mean to try it, little by little.” “There are only two more days to get this paper off, and I believe John is beginning to notice. I don’t like the look in his eyes.”
Throughout history, women have had to continuously fight for their rights and equality in society. Women have fought to separate themselves from their controlling husbands, fought to become independently accepted and have fought to create their own destiny. Within their short stories, Charlotte Perkins Gilman and Kate Chopin address this search for freedom and independence. Chopin’s publication of “The Story of an Hour” in 1894 was not far behind Gilman’s publication of “The Yellow Wallpaper” in 1892. During this time period, women were starting to fight for more social rights and social equality. Both stories analyze the social standards of this time and the oppression of women by men.
Throughout the story, the wallpaper becomes the narrators’ imagination and appears as a female figure. The narrator’s husband, John, who has a higher position as a doctor, limits her creativity and writing.
The Victorians thought that their woman should be motherly and uninterested in sex. Women were supposed to be pure and virginal, and even after marriage, they should still be uninterested in sex. The bed is nailed to the floor, which is a metaphor for the culture of male dominance at the time. The narrator's husband, John, is a very successful physician. He tells the narrator time and time again that she is sick. He can be viewed as a very controlling man in which everything must happen his way or not at all. John was a metaphor for the type of society in the 19th century. He is the image of a male-dominated culture where every woman and child had to follow the rules without complaint. The narrator is like a child taking order for the male doctors in her life, even going on to say, “personally, I disagree with their ideas.” She does not accept their diagnosis but has no other choice but to follow it’s harsh procedures, much like the woman of the 19th century. The wallpaper, rules, and opinions of other stood between the narrator’s imagination and intellectual desires, eventually driving her to insanity. However, she is not the only woman in the story to feel this snared feeling. John’s sister, Jennie, claimed that she wouldn't mind tearing the wallpaper apart herself, proving she also felt oppressed by the strict rules of society. The narrator finds
In the 1800’s, women lived under men’s rules and ideologies and were forced to conform to the social “norms” of the time. To women, these rules seemed normal as they were used to them. In the story, Jane is put in a nursery because she is said to be sick and
Kate Chopin’s “The Story of an Hour” and Charlotte Gilman’s “The Yellow Wallpaper” are both centralized on the feministic views of women coming out to the world. Aside from the many differences within the two short stories, there is also similarities contained in Chopin’s “The Story of an Hour” and Gilman’s “The Yellow Wallpaper,” such as the same concept of the “rest treatment” was prescribed as medicine to help deal with their sickness, society’s views on the main character’s illness, and both stories parallel in the main character finding freedom in the locked rooms that they contain themselves in.
Freedom is having the right to own, act, think, and speak without any restrictions from the outside. Ever since the New World was discovered, people have been fighting for their independence till this day. People of other colors and race have been forced to do labor without their consent. Today, those same people have been blamed or accused of crimes that were not committed by them despite of being free. Freedom has different meanings and those meanings change overtime; however sometimes the significance of freedom does not change.
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.
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.
Through the narrator’s obsession with the wall, she begins to envision a woman, that is trapped behind the Yellow Wallpaper. “By daylight she is subdued, quiet. I fancy it is the pattern that keeps her so still.” (pg. 166) From this line, it is made clear to the reader that the pattern of the wall symbolizes the social constraints women face daily. While the woman behind the wallpaper is just a figment of the narrator’s imagination, she metaphorically represents the speaker and her desperation to break free of the mental and physical oppression that has been placed upon her not only by her husband but also society as well; this is seen in the line “I suppose I shall have to get backs behind the pattern when it comes night, and that is hard”
“Freedom.” It is a word with many different connotations, but symbolizes one central idea: Liberty. Freedom has always been deeply embedded in the history of our nation. Throughout time, many Americans have fought for freedom. From the Pilgrims, who set sail from England to the shores of Cape Cod to escape religious persecution, to the Founding Fathers of America who fought for freedom from England’s oppression, our fellow Americans have always fought for what they believed in. They gained certain freedoms that they thought would not only be important to them, but to future generations. However, it is evident that society today does not value those same freedoms.
The title itself, The Yellow Wallpaper, is symbolizing the role men play in a patriarchal society, where men are the more dominant sex, and how women are 'trapped'; in a life of male control. For instance, At night in any kind of light, in twilight, candlelight, lamplight, and worst of all moonlight, it becomes bars!';(Gilman 211) This shows how the narrator feels trapped by the paper. Another symbol that refers to the role women play is, 'And she is all the time trying to climb through that pattern, it strangles so; I think that is why it has so many heads.';(Gilman 213) This is meaning that if a women tried to play a role in society she was just not taken seriously, or felt like trying to play a role was getting nowhere.
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
Kate Chopin is able to illuminate her stories with clever language and meaning. As well as an immense criticism as to how society oppresses the individual in the glorified institution of marriage. Through language, she is able to introduce the thought of deeper meanings. “The Story of an Hour” being a prime example of the individual that has a need for freedom for herself. Through symbolism and straightforward comments, the freedom that Mrs. Louisa Mallard is notable just as her marriage is oppressive.