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The Yellow Wallpaper And Story Of An Hour Essay

1558 Words7 Pages

In the 1800’s and even the 1900’s women were not considered as equal as they are today, and misogyny was expected. Even still women are constantly fighting for equal rights, so the idea of men always having power or superiority over women hasn’t gone away. Considering that the two texts The Yellow Wallpaper and The Story of an Hour were both written in the early 1880’s, they have a very different approach to the men and women’s relationships that are present in the texts. In Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s, Yellow Wallpaper and Kate Chopin’s, The Story of an Hour both authors explore how the women in the stories have to hide their true identity, due to the influence of the men in their lives. The two writers each use similes/metaphors, a similar mood throughout the story and a great deal of imagery to outline how …show more content…

In The Story of an Hour, after Mrs. Mallard has already been told the news and goes through her stage of shock she gets up and heads downstairs. During this point she is described as being totally fine, and seemingly over the grief she had carried very shortly, specifically when the narrator says, “she carried herself unwittingly like a goddess of Victory” (Chopin, 2). This is just showing now that she believes her husband is dead, she isn’t even phased, in her mind she has become more powerful without him. Even though she doesn’t realize it, she is presenting herself like she is victorious and has conquered something, giving the reader the impression that she is pleased by the fact that her husband is dead. Now she is free to do as she pleases, and doesn’t have to worry about being controlled by anyone or having to hide her true identity. As well, in The Yellow Wallpaper, I believe that Gilman uses the wallpaper as a metaphor throughout the whole story. There isn’t just one quote or phrase out of the text that significantly describes this comparison, but from what I understand the wallpaper is a symbol for the woman’s identity being

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