Both Charlotte Perkins Gilman and Kate Chopin

some(prenominal) Charlotte Perkins Gilman and Kate Chopin give the contri saveor a essay of what spousals must have been equal and is cool off like for some. Both the cashier in Gilmans The Yellow Wallpaper and Mrs. mallard in myth of an Hour are repressed wives. The society they live in and gender roles contri plainlye to their repressed states. Both Chopin and Gilman write of womens issues in many of their works and explore the roles and lives of women but in very divers(prenominal) panaches. Both authors show us women who feel very trapped and do non have control of even the nigh obvious aspects of their lives.Freedom is achieved in very unconventional ways in both these stories, but the pleasing of exhaustdom these narrators achieve is not available to most women of the time. In Charlotte Perkins Gilmans The Yellow Wallpaper, the narrator, who significantly is never named, is significantly repressed by her economise. Her save is a doctor who is at best patronizing and at beat demeaning to her For example, John laughs at me, of course, but unitary expects that in trade union (Gilman). This quote is included to make the reader question this relationship.Were women supposed to be laughed at in marriage? An separate example of this would be so he took me in his arms and called me a blessed little cat (Gilman). Again, her hubby is patronizing her. It is not that she doesnt love her husband or even that he doesnt love her. It is simply that this is the way marriage is expected to be. She must bend to his every whim and do scarce what he tells her. She doesnt even have control of her own soundbox or her own medical treatment in this story. Her husband is a man and a doctor, both of which make him right. The reader infers that the narrator has late had a baby and is suffering from post-partum depression, which is undiagnosed at the time Gilman writes. Her husband John has taken her to a vacation home/mental wellness facility for the summer . She has no say in this decision but is moreover told to rest and recover. When she wants to go visit her cousins Henry and Julia, she is again turned down. Her husband really plays more of a parental role with her. Eventually she begins to discase the wallpaper to give her something to do, and she sees a char trapped behind the wallpaper. This cleaning lady represents her.She is trapped in this house, in this lifeonly she has no one to help her escape. She sets slightly freeing this woman only when she does, she suddenly becomes the woman. The narrator says, Ive got out at last, said I, in spite of you and Jane And Ive pulled off most of the paper, so you cant put me back (Gilman) Significantly, she has escaped although she has lost her sanity as well. Charlotte Perkins-Gilman herself tells us why she wrote this story, and that is to stop women from going crazy. Women need to free themselves from the bonds of men. In Story of an Hour, Kate Chopins narrator seems like a typica l wife.Her husband has gone on a hunting trip, and when she gets news of his death, she is at initiative very sad. Then she begins to understand the ramifications of him being gone, the idea that she can straight live for herself, and she celebrates. She said it over and over under her breath free, free, free (Chopin) The narrator realizes exactly what her husbands death means. on that point would be no one to live for during those coming years she would live for herself. There would be no powerful bequeath bending hers in that artifice persistence with which men and women believe they have a right to inspect a private will upon a fellow-creature. (Chopin) However, this celebration is brief because she then(prenominal) gets news that in fact, her husband is still alive. She dies of heart failure. Everyone believes that she has died from the joy that kills, (Chopin), but the reader knows that she has died over the unpleasant shock that her husband is still alive. Kate Chopin, of course, is implying for us that real happiness cannot exist without the necessary conditions of freedom and equality. While Mrs. Mallard has not been miserable in her marriage, nor did she spend her time thinking about whether her marriage was happy, she has now had a glimpse of what her life would be like alone.She loved the thought and was excited about facing life alone. The reader understands that while the narrator did not necessarily know it at the time, she was still repressed by her marriage and that constant bending of her will to other human being. Both of these authors provide us with a realistic pick up of what marriage could and can be like. They are repressed and trapped in their relationships, but each author shows us a different way out. In Charlotte Perkins Gilmans The Yellow Wallpaper, ironically the narrator escapes with insanity.She frees the woman in the wallpaper, thereby freeing herself of societal expectations. In Kate Chopins Story of an Hour, the na rrator first escapes through the death of her husband and then through her own death. It isnt that she doesnt love her husband. She does experience momentary grief, but through her grief and fear, she gets a glimpse of what her future could look like. She understands that she will finally be able to live for herself. So, when she finds out her husband is alive, she dies of a heart attack. How sad it is that these women can escape in no other ways.Both Gilman and Chopin were masters at allowing the reader to see the way that women were repressed in their society. We dont hate the men we just wish women did not have to be so subservient. Works Cited Chopin, Kate. The Story of an Hour, http//classiclit. about. com/library/bl- etexts/kchopin/bl-kchop-story. htm Esch, Stacy Tartar. http//brainstorm-services. com/wcu-2005/poe-story-hour. hypertext markup language 2001-2005. Accessed March 18, 2007. Gilman, Charlotte Perkins. The Yellow Wallpaper, http//classiclit. about. com/library/bl-et exts/cpgilman/bl-cpgilman-yellowwall. htm