The Awakening And The Yellow Wallpaper Analysis

During the nineteenth century, the marginalization of women can be seen throughout society. Society was highly regulated by rules and women faced inequality in rights and in their treatment from society. The Awakening by Kate Chopin and The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Gilman focused on the control husbands had on their wives, due to the hierarchal position in society. These stories take place right around the same time period, involving female protagonists who are at the mercy of their society. In The Awakening and The Yellow Wallpaper, both female protagonists are depicted as prisoners, domestic slaves and children/parrot (fix) through the eyes of society and their husbands. The two are driven crazy by their confinement to their home, which was due to the gendered …show more content…
In the 19th century, women were expected to practice the motherly and wife role and be happy and not ask for anything more. Women had to live their lives solely based on the domestic sphere and were seen the lowest of society if she forbade (). Due to her husband’s status as a physician, she encounters many tribulations as he believes that there is no real problem with her. He gains unlimited movement, coming in and out of the house as she is not permitted the same freedom and stays in the nursery. There is all this room in the large house, yet the narrator has to stay in her little room. When she requests to locate to a bigger room, her request is denied by her husband. The simple act of the narrator asking for permission, declares that women are prisoners, in which only their husband is set to make decisions, as she cannot simply make the decision on her own. Like prisoners, she must ask her master or those of higher status, to act on her wishes. The nursery, in which the narrator spends more of her time, is her repression in which she is constantly reminded of. This confinement leads to her madness and insanity; as her mind grows chaotic and begins seeing a woman in the