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The Pros And Cons Of The Oppression Of Women

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Today it is said that women drive men mad, but in the past, it was quite the opposite. Historic female writers Kate Chopin, Charlotte Perkins Gilman and Susan Glaspell all focus upon a common theme in their individual short stories “The Story of an Hour,” “The Yellow Wallpaper” and “Jury of Her Peers.” The stories all focus on the protagonistic women, who were all also wives. Said wives were all prisoners within their marriages, which slowly drove them each into insanity. Each story provides inclusive examples of female suppression, leading to an inevitable feminine confinement and, ultimately, madness. Female suppression was a common issue of the era in which each of these three stories were written. At this time, men were completely in …show more content…

The restrictions put onto these women were nearly those of a criminal; they were allowed no freedom. “Free, free, free,” cries out Mrs. Mallard as she realizes her newfound freedom after the death of her husband (Chopin 2). For so long, she felt trapped within her own home, which was symbolized in the setting of the story. “The Story of an Hour” was set completely within one room, one staircase and a foyer, representing the isolation she felt within her marriage, but within the room was an open window, representing the freedom Mrs. Mallard had always searched for. “The Yellow Wallpaper” also shared the effective use of symbolism through setting. In order to create an even more dramatic aura,this story went so far as to confine the main character, the narrator, into only one room. This main character often witnessed what she thought to be a woman trapped behind bars within the walls of the room, which metaphorically represented her own feelings of confinement within the room. The isolation these women were subject to was enough to drive them to …show more content…

In “The Story of an Hour” the reader witnesses Mrs. Mallard’s craziness through her brief period of mourning over the death of her beloved husband. She is quick to go from a state of depression to one of relief and elation. “But she saw beyond that bitter moment a long procession of years to come that would belong to her absolutely” (Chopin 2). This description analyzes Mrs. Mallard’s feelings of excitement for her years to come without her husband. In “The Yellow Wallpaper” the reader sees a common case of postpartum depression turn into something much worse: madness. Due to the way she has been treated, the main lady begins to see people, act erratically and display examples of compulsive behavior such as her infatuation with the woman within the wallpaper and her obsession of releasing her. The narrator’s behavior became so out of control she, at one point, could not even be reached by the words of her husband as she created an indention within the walls as she began crawling in circles, rubbing her shoulder along a straight line. Another example which denotes the madness of women is found in the plot of “Jury of Her Peers.” The abuse Mrs. Wright endured within her marriage caused her to lose her mind, murdering her own husband. She killed her husband in an act of revenge, committing the act in the exact same way as he killed her beloved bird. “Look at it! Its neck--look at its neck!

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1275 Words | 6 Pages

At the end of the story Mallard dies, that is considered a situational irony, because the reader doesn't expect the death of Mrs. Mallard. Another irony from the story is the fact that the reader doesn't expect the feeling of excitement and joy from Mrs. Mallard's part of knowing from the death of her husband. An example of situational irony in the story is that Mrs. Mallard is “alive” “Brently Mallard is dead and Mrs. Mallard has fully become alive”. The message of Kate Chopin's "The Story of an Hour" is about a woman's desire for freedom from marriage and thematically argues that oppression can ultimately be a killer. This message and situational irony emphazise that the rold of women in the 1800 during the time period of this story was that women had to stay at home, be housewives, do the laundry, and cook while men went out and worked to obtain money for their family.

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588 Words | 3 Pages

She proceeds to explain the contributing factors of the narrator succumbing to her “disease” of hysteria which was isolation from social interaction and the restriction of her own thoughts. She points out that the narrator is confined to a simple square room with nothing to offer in terms of mental health therapy. The narrator’s lack of the ability to interact with anything or anyone leads to infatuation with the wallpaper, which turns out to be “the

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1006 Words | 5 Pages

The men of the group, much like John in “The Yellow Wallpaper,” consider themselves more capable than the women and refuse to consider Mrs. Wright as anything other than irrational. The men leave the women to their “trifles” on the first floor, where they discover a broken bird cage, and the bird’s body, broken, carefully wrapped in a small, decorative box. They realize that Mr. Wright had wrung the neck of his wife’s beloved bird and broken its cage. Mrs. Wright, once known for her cheerfulness and beautiful singing, she stopped singing when she encountered Mr. Wright. Just like he did with the bird, Mr. Wright choked the life out of his wife until, finally, Mrs. Wright literally choked the life out of her husband.

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1009 Words | 5 Pages

The Narrator’s disdain for the situation she is in is clearly shown through how she tells her story. As her insanity grows deeper, the wallpaper is described as a prison, something that has a sub-pattern whose “dim shapes get clearer every day. […] And it is like a woman stooping down and creeping about behind that pattern” (Gilman). This life that The Narrator has been born into is not one that she fits into, so she identifies with this hypothetical woman trapped behind a metaphorical wall of femininity.

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878 Words | 4 Pages

Oppression in Gilman’s “The Yellow Wallpaper” and Chopin’s “The Story of an Hour” Charlotte Perkins Gilman and Kate Chopin both present intriguing short stories with the common theme of oppression that strongly mirrors their personal experiences. The narrator in Gilman’s “The Yellow Wallpaper” is portrayed as being trapped by her husband and suffering from mental illness. This is represented by the woman behind the wallpaper. Chopin shows oppression in “The Story of an Hour” by Mrs. Mallard’s joy after the “death” of her husband and her reaction when he returns. It is evident that the narrator in “The Yellow Wallpaper” and Mrs. Mallard in “The Story of an Hour” represent the authors’ personal lives and oppression in women.

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1048 Words | 5 Pages

Men treated women as second class citizens in society during the early 1900s. Even with the oppression of women in society in this time, many women have struggled to expand their roles, and acquire additional rights. From my perspective, the authors of these stories are indirectly trying to tell us how much oppression the women have been through during the time. “The Thing on the Doorstep” is a short story about a woman, Asenath, who is not in control of herself because her father, Ephraim, possesses her body after he is deceased. “The Yellow Wallpaper” is a short story about a woman who suffers from mental illness.

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1307 Words | 6 Pages

This differs greatly from Jane, who begins to sympathize with the plight of all domestic women through her experience with the woman behind the yellow wallpaper. Although she initially frowned upon the woman’s efforts to escape, the more her mental health deteriorated, the more she began to relate her plight to that of the trapped woman, both prisoners desperate for escape. With her newfound revelation, she sought to save the trapped woman from her prison, subconsciously freeing herself in the process. “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…I wonder if they all came out of that wallpaper as I did?… “I’ve got out at last,” said I, “in spite of you and Jane!

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1480 Words | 6 Pages

She begins to see strangles heads in the wallpaper, which can be a symbolic representation of the patriarchal order that stifled women. The bars on the wallpaper that cage the imaginary women are a reflection of her own situation where she is confined in the old mansion. Even the smell of the wallpaper, which she describes as being ‘yellow’ and present throughout the house, is a reflection of the mental repression that is always present in her life. She is so consumed by the smell that she thinks about burning the old mansion just to cover it

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1020 Words | 5 Pages

While reading the story, it was clear that Mrs. Mallard was happy for the beginning of her new life and the start of freedom. Chopin uses descriptive diction throughout the story, such as irony, symbol,

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1291 Words | 6 Pages

Psychoanalytic reading of The Yellow Wallpaper In Charlotte Gilman's short story The Yellow Wallpaper, the speaker seems to be suffering from postpartum depression or "temporary nervous depression." (648). Accordingly, her husband makes the decision for her and takes her to a country house because he believes that it would be good for her. The narrator is not allowed to take care of her own child as she was imprisoned in her room where she should do nothing but "rest."

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648 Words | 3 Pages

She begins to slip away from reality and into her dreamlike world. The woman seen in the wallpaper mirrors the narrator 's plight for freedom. While she is free from the restraints of marriage and motherhood, she has been consumed by madness. John dominates the relationship, both as doctor and husband.

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940 Words | 4 Pages

In Kate Chopin’s “The Story of an Hour” demonstrates the personal growth of the dynamic protagonist Louise Mallard, after hearing news of her husband’s death. The third-person narrator telling the story uses deep insight into Mrs. Mallard’s thoughts and emotions as she sorts through her feelings after her sister informs her of her husband’s death. During a Character analysis of Louise Mallard, a reader will understand that the delicate Mrs. Mallard transforms her grief into excitement over her newly discovered freedom that leads to her death. As Mrs. Mallard sorts through her grief she realizes the importance of this freedom and the strength that she will be able to do it alone.

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1155 Words | 5 Pages

Enclosed to the four wall of this “big” room, the narrator says “the paint and paper look as if a boy’s school had used it” because “it is stripped off” indicating that males have attempted to distort women’s truth but somehow did not accomplish distorting the entire truth (Perkins Gilman, 43). When the narrator finally looked at the wall and the paint and paper on it, she was disgusted at the sight. The yellow wallpaper, she penned, secretly against the will of men, committed artistic sin and had lame uncertain curves that suddenly committed suicide when you followed them for a little distance. The narrator is forced to express her discomfort with the image to her husband, he sees it as an “excited fancy” that is provoked by the “imaginative power and habit of story making” by “a nervous weakness” like hers (Perkins Gilman, 46). Essentially, he believes that her sickness is worsening and the depth of her disease is the cause of the unexpected paranoia.

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1200 Words | 5 Pages

In “The Story of an Hour” by Kate Chopin, after hearing the news of her husband’s death, Mrs. Mallard’s emotions did not portray sadness or despair instead she was relieved and rejoiced. Even though Mrs. Mallard admits that her husband was kind and loving, she feels joy after hearing the news of her husband’s death that she will no longer be known as Mrs. Mallard. Although it was acknowledged in the story that Louise Mallard loved Bentley Mallard, we can tell by the statement “had never looked save with love upon her,” (Chopin, 1894), the favor was not returned. The main theme we see in this story is the oppression of marriage. Death of her husband shows that Mrs. Mallard finally has freedom.

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913 Words | 4 Pages

Literary Analysis “The Story of an Hour” by Kate Chopin introduces us to Mrs. Mallard as she reacts to the sudden death of her husband. Chopin describes Mrs. Mallard’s emotions as sad, yet happy that her husband has been killed. Kate Chopin’s “ The Story of an Hour” argues that when a person is controlled and made to live under another person their mental state of mind is affected. The story also argues that when that person is freed from the controlling person their true self can finally be achieved. Kate Chopin portrays these themes by the use of character development; plot control, and irony throughout the story.

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