Comparing Marriage In Story Of An Hour And The Yellow Wallpaper

In the late eighteen hundreds, women’s roles revolved around marriage and child bearing. Divorce was not an option and was not looked well upon. In “The Story of an Hour” by Kate Chopin and “The Yellow Wallpaper” by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, both authors reveal the repressive nature of marriage. Chopin portrays how marriage was more like a role of servitude for women rather than a loving partnership. She reveals to us how marriage in the late eighteen hundreds was rather loveless. Correspondingly, Gilman reveals how being in a marriage may drive one mad by how limiting it was. Both stories reveal how marriage was rather confining, included expectations, and that society suppressed the dreams and aspirations of women. Marriage in that time period was confining. Women were not free to do as they wished. They were not allowed to pursue their dreams. Both “The Story of an Hour” and “The Yellow Wallpaper” display how a woman’s aspirations were denied. The protagonists in both stories, journey to find freedom. In “The Story of an Hour” Mrs. Mallard felt as if she was trapped. When Mrs. Mallard is told of her husband’s death, she is grief-stricken, “She wept at once, with sudden, wild abandonment”

Women's lack of freedom during the 1800s made men the superior sex. Kate Chopin’s short story efficiently depicts that women are commonly mistreated and unhappy in marriages. Whereas Gilman expresses even though she was suffering mentally she was still told to "live as domestic a life as far as possible," to "have but two hours' intellectual life a day," and "never to touch pen, brush, or pencil again" as long as I lived” ( Gilman 1913). Marriage can symbolize slavery to women due to expected roles created by society and man’s domination. Women have been restricted by marriage in the past and in some places around the world until this very day and