Comparing Women In Trifles And The Yellow Wallpaper

The two women in the play, Trifles, and the woman in The Yellow Wallpaper suffer hardship because of their sex. In both stories the women are all going through some struggle caused partly by a man. In A Yellow Wallpaper the woman is locked away by her husband. She fears that her husband will be unhappy if she tells him that she is still suffering from her condition. Likewise, in the play, Trifles, the two women are nervous about telling the men about the proof to solve the murder. This is because they do not want to be made fun of like they were previously. They also can relate to the killer and her motives. Through both of these stories evidence of the vast cultural differences between the early twentieth century and today can be observed.

Her husband instructs her to not do anything but rest. The narrator does not want to disappoint her husband. So, she does as he asks. However, secretly she writes in a journal. She writes in the journal that her husband will be upset with her if he catches her going against his will. So, she hides it away from him. She also hides the journal from the maid. She soon starts losing her sanity as her husband visits her less and less due to his work. Perhaps the husband was insensitive to her needs. The narrator continues to write in the journal and constantly talks about the yellow wallpaper as she loses her sanity. She finally breaks after seeing a woman under the wallpaper. He husband is stunned in the last paragraph when she says to him, “’I 've got out at last,’ said I, ‘in spite of you’”. In the end, the husband’s ignorance to his wife’s condition leads her into psychosis. She believes that she was the woman she saw behind the wallpaper. This is an example of a woman wanting to please her husband so much that she ends up hurting