Yellow Wallpaper Oppression

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During the period that the two short stories, “The Yellow Wallpaper” and “Story of an Hour,” were written was a time period in which many females had no freedom and were confined due to male dominance and lack of feminine freedom. The two authors are Charlotte Gilman Perkins who wrote “The Yellow Wallpaper” and Kate Chopin who wrote “Story of an Hour”, they have many similarities that can be compared but also have difference throughout their writings. Within theses two short stories, they both express their growing troubles of feminine freedom and male dominance. The main female characters of both stories express a desire to want to be free from different things that include males being the dominant figure. In the short stories, “The Yellow…show more content…
In “The Yellow Wallpaper” it is a mental illness and in “Story of an Hour” it is a heart problem; therefore, both authors display their women characters as fragile because that is how they were seen in society at this time. In “Story of an Hour” Chopin states, "Knowing that Mrs. Mallard was afflicted with a heart trouble, great care was taken to break to her as gently as possible the news of her husband's death” (1). This represents the theme of the male dominance because the male characters in the two stories treat the female characters as if they are fragile and cannot handle certain information and everyday activities. In “The Yellow Wallpaper,” they never truly say that she has a mental illness but from the way that she acts and portrays herself, it is evident that she has something wrong with her. It is believed that she was suffering from postpartum depression but at the time this disease was not yet discovered. Jane, the main female character, begins to tear the wallpaper off of the wall near the end of the story, thus breaking down her prison that she is trapped in. This connects with “Story of an Hour” because Mrs. Mallard locks herself in her room to celebrate no longer having to live for her husband but now she can live for herself. Even though both female characters are treated as fragile, they both find ways to overcome their problems and deal with
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