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Comparing Women In Jane Eyre And The Yellow Wallpaper

1699 Words7 Pages

The belief that the man is superior to the woman is the oldest culturally transmitted myth that came into existence with the Biblical creation of the world through Adam and Eve. The “male” and “female nature”, or so-called the natural law, is the myth that for centuries dictated the role of woman in the society and formed the base from which antifeminists claim that “biology is women’s unfortunate and unchanging destiny”, which means the woman and man is born with different kind of anatomy, chromosomes, and hormones (Tong 3). According to the “female nature” the woman has the function of reproducing; she is emotional, curious, weak, and jealous. On the other hand, the man is strong, brave and rational. Therefore, these two sexes are not considered …show more content…

The message of the story is quite unexpected, but of an extreme importance for an age just trying to erupt from the patriarchal society. This time a female writer depicts not a “mad woman in the attic” as Charlotte Bronte in Jane Eyre or Charlotte Perkins Gilman in “The Yellow Wallpaper” did, but gives an exhibition of the cause why women were constantly going insane. If both Jane Eyre and “The Yellow Wallpaper” detect the justification of madness in the lack of communication or the absence of a male, Kate Chopin proves that the problem indeed is in the presence of a man. Emily Toth wrote a paper on Divine Love and Suicide as a theme used in Chopin’s writings, saying that a front page of the Mirror was dedicated to the subject of “Wives and Husbands” and Kate’s editor-friend William Marion Reedy wrote that “Woman’s latest discovery is that husband is a drag” and “Woman has evolved from a doll into a human being” (117). The exact belief Chopin tries to convey in “The Story of an Hour”, as Mrs. Mallard keep saying “Free, free, free”, “Free! Body and soul free”, when she realizes her husband is dead (Chopin 1). Chopin seeks to introduce her beliefs in the stories she produces and she condemns the repressive role that marriage has upon women’s psychology by showing that her character finds an immense freedom only when her husband passed

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