Comparing Women In The Yellow Wallpaper And The Birthmark

In the nineteenth century, woman had no power over men in society. They were limited in their freedom, as their lives were controlled by their husbands. Some women did not mind this lifestyle, and remained obedient, while some rebelled and demanded their rights. “The Yellow Wallpaper” by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, and “The Birthmark” by Nathaniel Hawthorne, are short stories that exposes the lifestyle women lived in the nineteenth century. The protagonists from both stories, Jane and Georgiana, similarly lived a male dominated lifestyle. Although both Georgiana and Jane lived the same era, in which their husbands dominated them, their behaviors, social reputation, and tolerance differed. Georgiana from “The Birthmark” and Jane, from “The Yellow

In the text, Georgiana demonstrates her tolerance towards Alymer, as she remains obedient, and faithful, as his experiment reveals her a narrow chance of success. She is too tolerant to him, which made her easy to manipulate and control, as Hawthorn writes, “Much as he had accomplished, she could not but observe that his most splendid success were almost invariably failures, if compared with the ideal at which he aimed” (8). Although she noticed the slight chance of success, she still viewed her husband as a god, who she must not reason with further. Jane, on the other hand was intolerant to her husband. She was aware of the mistreatment by her husband, which ultimately compelled her to get revenge against him by making him faint, as Gilman writes “Now why should that man have fainted? But he did, and right across my path by the wall, so that I had to creep over him every time! (10). Jane in the end breaks, and can no longer tolerate her husbands dominance, she revolts, and manages to get him to faint. Both women had differences in tolerance towards their husbands, as Georgiana was tolerant, and Jane was