Similarities and differences in Story of an Hour and Yellow Wallpaper
Introduction
The Story of an Hour is written by Kate Chopin and the Yellow Wallpaper is written Charlotte Gilman. The theme of freedom is seen to be dominant in the works of these two authors. In many ways these two stories are similar they only have a slight difference. The stories narrate of how the women are imprisoned by the men in their life thus lacking the freedom they desire so much. Both of these two stories are written in the first person. Freedom is something that has been deprived these two women by their husbands while the character in Chopin’s story lacks freedom in her marriage the character in Gilman’s story is in a room that her husband chooses and it denies her freedom. These two women carry a mental and an emotional burden that comes with their marriage which is the reason they lack the freedom they desire so much. Chopin and Gilman use similar protagonists and settings to convey a shared outcome: both women experience a tragic end one finds freedom only in death, the other in total insanity
Chopin and Gilman place their protagonists in a situation which they have no control over. The protagonist in Chopin’s story Mrs. Mallard is in a marriage that had trapped her and deprives her of her freedom, but with the death of her husband she can now taste freedom (Gale, n.p). The protagonist in Gilman’s story is unnamed, she is trapped in the attic in a room her husband choose for her so she can recover after she had experienced temporally nervous breakdown, however, she has no liking for this room and despises the yellow wallpaper in the room, she devotes her journal entries in describing the wallpaper, she believes that the woman behind the wallpaper must be freed therefore she starts tearing down the wallpaper. Her confinement in this room is reflected by how she tries to tear down the wallpaper she was calling to be freed and this is reflected in how she viewed the wallpaper (Gilman, n.p). These two women are confined by something that deprives them the freedom of their minds.
These two authors portray their protagonists as characters concerned with individual freedom. They are struggling for their own freedom from their husbands and families. When Mrs. Mallard the protagonist in Chopin’s story receives the news concerning the death of her husband’s she retreats to her bedroom to seek the freedom of enjoying the fact that she is free, here she gets the freedom to express what she is really feeling about her husband’s death, however, this emotional freedom of hers is short-lived when her sister comes knocking at her bedroom door (Gale, n.p). She is trying to gain her freedom but her family is depriving her that right. The protagonist in Gilman’s story is deprived of freedom by her husband and her sister-in-law who completely deny her the freedom to free the woman in the wallpaper (Gilman, n.p). Her family is standing between her and the actions she has to take to gain her mental and emotional freedom. These two protagonists are concerned with their freedom and their families without the knowledge of their internal struggles are standing in their ways.
The protagonist in both stories are highly imaginative, in Chopin’s story Mrs. Mallard, is seen to spread her arms out to welcome freedom to her, this clearly ascertain that she is an imaginative woman, she also imagines how she would live the years to come, how she would live for herself without a power bending her will, Mrs. Mallard is portrayed as an imaginative character (Gale, n.p). Gilman also portrays her protagonist as an imaginative character, the fact that the narrator thinks the wallpaper is mutating and how she imagines that the woman needs to be freed is proof enough that she has been portrayed as a highly imaginative character (Gilman, n.p). Her imagination reflects the freedom she had just gained.
Despite the many similarities between these two protagonists, they still have their differences. Mrs. Mallard in Chopin’s Story does not celebrate her freedom openly she only celebrates it behind the closed doors of her bedroom (Gale, n.p). In the case of the protagonist in Gilman’s story she celebrates her freedom openly when her husband unlocks the door and finds that she has torn the whole wallpaper down, she happily claims that despite the attempts of her sister-in-law to stop her, she finally tore the wallpaper down (Gilman, n.p). The other difference in these two protagonists is the fact that Mrs. Mallard is not imprisoned in a room she that denies her freedom like the protagonist in Gilman’s story she is deprived freedom by her marriage. Lastly, the main difference in these two stories is the fact that Mrs. Mallard collapse and dies after realizing her husband is not dead therefore, she was not free (Gale, n.p). The narrator in Gilman’s story does not die the cost of her freedom is insanity.
Conclusion
Both Chopin and Gilman set their stories in a male dominated world where the main protagonists are women who have been deprived of their freedom. These two protagonists have a lot in common and a few differences. These two protagonists are placed in a situation they have no control over, they are also battling for individual freedom and their families are constantly standing between them and their freedom. Lastly these two protagonists have been described as imaginative characters. The main difference in these two protagonists is that Mrs. Mallard is not imprisoned in a room like the narrator in Gilman’s story instead she lacks freedom from her husband. Lastly, these two characters have different tragic ending. Mrs. Mallard dies due to her sense of losing the freedom she had just acquired and the narrator is forced to live with insanity. These two protagonists paid a high cost for their freedom.
Work cited
Gale, Cengage L. Study Guide for Kate Chopin's "story of an Hour.". Detroit: Gale, Cengage Learning, n.d. Print.
Gilman, Charlotte P. The Yellow Wallpaper. Tustin: Xist Publishing, 2015. Internet resource.
