Compare and Contrast Women in The Yellow Wallpaper and Story of an Hour :: Yellow Wallpaper Story of an Hour

Compare and Contrast Women Characters in The colour Wallpaper and Story of an second Women have traditionally been known as the less predominate sex. Through history women have fought for equal rights and freedom. They have been stereotyped as being housewives, and bearers and nurturers of the children. Only recently with the push of the Equal Rights Amendment have women had a unshakable hold on the workplace alongside men. Many interesting characters in literature are conceived from the tension women have faced with men. This tension is derived from men society, in general and within a woman herself. Two interesting short stories, The Yellow Wall-paper and The Story of an Hour, focus on a womans rent near the turn of the 19th century. This era is especially interesting because it is a time in modern society when women were still treated as arcsecond class citizens. The two main characters in these stories show similarities, but they are also remarkably different in the ways they deal with their problems and life in general. These two characters will be examined to note the commonalities and differences. Although the two characters are similar in some ways, it will be shown that the woman in the The Story of an Hour is a stronger character based on the two important criteria of rationality and freedom. In The Yellow Wall-paper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, the unnamed female protagonist is going by dint of a rough time in her life. (For now on, this paper will refer to this unnamed character as the the narrator in Wall-paper, short for The Yellow Wall-paper. The narrator is confined to room to a room with strange wall-paper. This odd wall-paper seems to symbolize the complexity and confusion in her life. In The Story of an Hour by Kate Chopin, the protagonist, Mrs. Mallard must also deal with conflict as she must deal with the death of her spouse. At first in that respect is grief, but then there is the recognition that she will be free. The institu te of marriage ties the two heroines of these two short stories together. Like typical young women of the late 19th century, they were married, and during the course of their lives, they were pass judgment to stay married. Unlike today where divorce is commonplace, marriage was a very holy bond and divorce was taboo. This tight bond of marriage caused tension in these two characters.